Countless studies have reported that adults detect a variety of threatening stimuli more quickly than positive or neutral stimuli. Despite speculation about what factors drive this bias in detection, very few studies have examined the exact search strategies adults use to detect threatening stimuli in visual search. The current research uses an eye-tracker in a classic visual search paradigm in attempt to elucidate the factors that lead to rapid threat detection. Our results replicate previous work, demonstrating that adults detect threatening targets (snakes and spiders) more quickly and accurately than nonthreatening targets (flowers and mushrooms). Results from the eye-tracker extend these findings, suggesting that the bias for threat in detection tasks is driven by both an advantage in perception, or bottom up processing (faster fixations to threats vs. nonthreats), and an advantage in behavioral responding, or top down processing (faster behavioral responding to threats once a target is first fixated). Together, the results present a more complete picture of the mechanisms that drive rapid threat detection, suggesting that multiple factors can lead to an advantage for threat in visual search.

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Evolutionary developmental theories propose that early environments shape human risk preferences. Developmental risk sensitivity theory (D-RST) focuses on the plasticity of risk preferences during childhood and makes predictions about the effect of reward size based on a child's social environment. By contrast, prospect theory predicts risk aversion for gains and risk seeking for losses regardless of environment or status. We presented 4 to 10-year-olds ( n = 194) with a set of trials in which they chose between a certain amount and a chance to receive more or nothing. Two trials were equal expected value choices that differed by stake size and two were unequal expected value choices. Children either received gain trials or loss trials. Social environment was assessed using socio-economic status (SES) and subjective social status. Results confirmed the predictions of D-RST for gains based on SES. Children from lower-SES families differentiated between the high- and low-value trials and made more risky decisions for the high-value reward compared with higher-SES children. Children from higher-SES families were more risk averse for both trial types. Decisions for loss trials did not conform completely to either theory. We discuss the results in relation to evolutionary developmental theories.

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In the current research, we sought to examine the role of spatial frequency on the detection of threat using a speeded visual search paradigm. Participants searched for threat-relevant (snakes or spiders) or non-threat-relevant (frogs or cockroaches) targets in an array of neutral (flowers or mushrooms) distracters, and we measured search performance with images filtered to contain different levels (high and low) of spatial frequency information. The results replicate previous work demonstrating more rapid detection of threatening versus non-threatening stimuli [e.g. LoBue, V. & DeLoache, J. S. (2008). Detecting the snake in the grass: Attention to fear-relevant stimuli by adults and young children. Psychological Science, 19, 284-289. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02081.x]. Most importantly, the results suggest that low spatial frequency or relatively coarse levels of visual information is sufficient for the rapid and accurate detection of threatening stimuli. Furthermore, the results also suggest that visual similarity between the stimuli used in the search tasks plays a significant role in speeded detection. The results are discussed in terms of the theoretical implications for the rapid detection of threat and methodological implications for properly accounting for similarity between the stimuli in visual search studies.