Brown, Halle D.Kosslyn, Stephen M.Delamater, BethFama, JeanneBarsky, Arthur2019-03-291999Brown, Halle D., Stephen M. Kosslyn, Beth Delamater, Jeanne Fama, and Arthur J. Barsky. 1999. “Perceptual and Memory Biases for Health-Related Information in Hypochondriacal Individuals.” Journal of Psychosomatic Research 47 (1): 67–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0022-3999(99)00011-2.0022-39991879-1360http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:38846181Problematic health concerns characteristic of hypochondriasis may be better understood with the aid of cognitive, information processing theories. We investigated whether hypochondriacal individuals show perceptual: and explicit memory biases favoring health-related information. A clinical sample of hypochondriacs (n=18) and healthy controls (n=22), and a sample of hypochondriacal (n=22) and nonhypochondriacal (n=67) patients referred for Holter monitoring. completed a computerized test of perceiving difficult-to-read words and then an encoding task followed by recall of those words. Contrary to our prediction:, hypochondriacal individuals in the clinical sample did not perceive more health-related words than words not related to health. Hypochondriacal individuals in the Holter-monitoring sample showed: an unexpected bias against reporting health-related words;. Social class may account for some of the group differences in this sample. Hypochondriacal individuals in both samples showed better memory for health-related than nonhealth words. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Inc.en-USJournal Article2019-03-2910.1016/S0022-3999(99)00011-2