A Visual Dot-Probe Task as a Measurement of Attentional Bias and its Relationship with the Symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder among Women with Breast Cancer

Abstract

Self-reported measurements of attentional bias are possibly influenced by social desirability, conscious awareness, or introspection. This study developed a visual dot-probe task to study the relationship between attentional bias and posttraumatic stress disorder among women with breast cancer. Fifty six women with breast cancer were presented with a series of face pairs, which were equally divided into positive-neutral and negative-neutral pairs. One face pair was shown for each trial, which consisted of the neutral and emotional versions of the same face displaying side-toside. Participants' goal was to detect a small dot displayed on the screen after disappearance of the faces as quickly as possible in 80 trials. Negative/positive attentional bias was the mean latency to detect probes appearing on the side of neutral faces minus that of negative/positive faces. We investigated the relationships between the dot-probe task and the Chinese Impact of Event Scale (CIES-R) and demographic variables. Negative attentional bias as measured by the dot-probe task was positively correlated with the CIES-R total score (r = 0.30, p< 0.05), the hyperarousal subscale (r = 0.32, p< 0.05), and the intrusions subscale (r = 0.30, p< 0.05) but not the avoidance subscale (r = 0.32, p = 0.14). This study has demonstrated that measuring attentional bias with a dot-probe task is possible. The dot-probe task may provide an alternative measurement to self-reported measurements and important information for psychotherapies. Future studies may examine the predictive values of the dot-probe task on treatment outcomes and the risk for developing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

The role of cognitive bias in relation to persistent distress among women diagnosed with breast cancer

“…Two studies tested if attentional bias was associated with poor psychological adjustment to breast cancer. Using a dot‐probe task, negative attentional bias toward sad faces was associated with greater symptoms of post‐traumatic stress disorder in Chinese women with breast cancer . Another dot probe–based study assessed attentional bias toward cancer‐related words and reported that women with breast cancer showed attentional bias toward cancer‐related words, but not social threat–related words .…”

“…14 To date,4 studies have adopted experimental paradigms to study attentional bias in cancer adjustment with mixed results. Two studies 15,16 tested if attentional bias was associated with poor psychological adjustment to breast cancer. Using a dot-probe task, negative attentional bias toward sad faces was associated with greater symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder in Chinese women with breast cancer.…”

“…Using a dot-probe task, negative attentional bias toward sad faces was associated with greater symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder in Chinese women with breast cancer. 15 Another dot probe-based study assessed attentional bias toward cancer-related words and reported that women with breast cancer showed attentional bias toward cancer-related words, but not social threat-related words. 16 Two other studies, using dot probe 17 This study examined if attention bias differentiated women diagnosed with breast cancer and reporting persistent high distress from those reporting stable low distress.…”

The interaction effect of attentional bias and attentional control on dispositional anxiety among adolescents

“…The visual dot-probe paradigm (MacLeod, Mathews, & Tata, 1986) adopted in the present study was based on studies by Brosan, Hoppitt, Shelfer, Sillence, and Mackintosh (2011) and Chan, Ho, Law, and Pau (2013). The visual dot-probe task was conducted in a well-lit, quiet laboratory room with no external distractions.…”

“…Each trial was run in the following sequence. First, a black fixation cross (4 pixels wide, subtending 0.62 9 0.62 degree) was displayed in the centre of the screen for 1,000 ms. Second, a picture pair consisting of a neutral picture and an emotional (positive or negative) picture located approximately 13 cm apart (measured from their centres) was displayed in the top and bottom halves of the screen, respectively, for 500 ms based on the study of Bradley, Mogg, and Lee (1997) and a previous study conducted among Chinese breast cancer patients (Chan et al, 2013). Each picture was unframed and subtended 14.8 (W) 9 11.1 (H) degrees.…”