However, probably due to the reduced statistical power of the analyses, this correlation was only qualified by a marginally significant interaction between Stimulus type and the state anxiety score, F(1, 43) = 3.21, p = 0.08, or between Condition and the state anxiety score, F(3, 129) = 2.38, p = .07.
Interestingly, this expected tendency of high-anxious subjects (but not of those with high depressive symptoms) to present slower RTs to targets in the presence of emotional distracters was confirmed (although it did not reach statistical significance) in the EM- n -back task.
Regarding the self-report assessment of individual differences in executive functioning measured with the BRIEF-A, there were some marginal relations with deception outcomes which failed to reach significance.
Since the interaction between stimulus type and condition became non-significant when anxiety was introduced as a covariate, and considering the abovementioned association between faster responses to probes and anxiety, one can speculate that the selective “speeding up” of responses to critical items in the negative condition might be mediated by anxiety-related effects (although the anxiety X condition interaction failed to reach statistical significance).