Subclinical checking is associated with a bias towards goal-directed (high-level) action identification

• Subclinical checkers are biased to high-level action identification.
• Subclinical checkers may habitually attend to why actions are performed.
• Anxiety is associated with a bias to a low-level of action identification.
• A bias to high-level (goal) identification is independent from the cognitive bias of overestimating threat.

Consistent with proposed impairments in the flexible control of action in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), previous research has identified a bias towards low-level (action-focussed) rather than high-level (goal-focussed) descriptions of behaviour in individuals with subclinical checking (Belayachi & Van der Linden, 2009).The current study investigated whether this bias could be replicated, or was confounded with the influence of anxiety, and its relationship to another cognitive bias implicated in OCD, namely overestimation of threat. The comparison of high and low checking groups (stratified on anxiety) showed that anxiety was related to a tendency to focus on the mechanics of an action whilst, surprisingly, checking symptoms were associated with a tendency to focus on the goals of an action. These findings suggest that compulsive checkers may habitually attend to “why” actions are performed and their consequences. Additionally, high-level action identification and threat overestimation may provide separable causal influences on OCD.