Attentional Bias Among Adolescents Who Stutter: Evidence for a Vigilance–Avoidance Effect

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine group and individual differences in attentional bias toward and away from socially threatening facial stimuli among adolescents who stutter and age- and sex-matched typically fluent controls. Method Participants included 86 adolescents (43 stuttering, 43 controls) ranging in age from 13 to 19 years. They completed a computerized dot-probe task, which was modified to allow for separate measurement of attentional engagement with and attentional disengagement from facial stimuli (angry, fearful, neutral expressions). Their response time on this task was the dependent variable. Participants also completed the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SAS-A) and provided a speech sample for analysis of stuttering-like behaviors. Results The adolescents who stutter were more likely to engage quickly with threatening faces than to maintain attention on neutral faces, and they were also more likely to disengage quickly from threatening faces than to maintain attention on those faces. The typically fluent controls did not show any attentional preference for the threatening faces over the neutral faces in either the engagement or disengagement conditions. The two groups demonstrated equivalent levels of social anxiety that were both, on average, very close to the clinical cutoff score for high social anxiety, although degree of social anxiety did not influence performance in either condition. Stuttering severity did not influence performance among the adolescents who stutter. Conclusion This study provides preliminary evidence for a vigilance–avoidance pattern of attentional allocation to threatening social stimuli among adolescents who stutter.

Attentional Biases in Adults Who Stutter before and following Social Threat Induction

“…The objective of this current study is to investigate attentional bias in adults who stutter before and after SET induction and determine whether this relationship is associated with selfreports of anxiety and SCL. Based on previous literature assessing attentional biases in adults who stutter [65][66][67], it was hypothesized that the adults who stutter compared to the adults who do not stutter would show an attentional bias towards emotional faces during no stress and away from emotional faces following social threat induction. It was also hypothesized that this relationship between attentional bias and social threat induction would remain when co-varying for self-reports of anxiety and SCL.…”

“…For instance, in a study assessing patients with social phobia, Mogg et al [93] found an attentional bias to negative faces when facial pairs were presented for 500 ms and a slight shift to an avoidance of negative faces when these facial pairs were presented for an extended time of 1,250 ms. In adolescents who stutter, this attentional shift was captured within the same 500-ms exposure time as used in the current study [67]; however, it is possible that if the adults who stutter were given longer to process the facial stimuli, they would have shifted their attention to neutral faces. Future research assessing attentional biases in adults who stutter should include varied exposure times in order to capture initial recognition and processing of emotional faces as well as the attentional behaviors associated with long-term fixation.…”

“…For instance, the speaker is not benefiting from the listener’s reaction or they may be perceived by the speaker as uninterested in the conversation. Rodgers et al [67] reported an attentional bias to negative faces in adolescents who stutter when presented with negative-neutral facial pairs. However, they also reported that the attention to threatening faces was not maintained and within a brief 500 ms exposure time, the adolescents who stutter showed a shift to neutral faces.…”

“…However, they also reported that the attention to threatening faces was not maintained and within a brief 500 ms exposure time, the adolescents who stutter showed a shift to neutral faces. Taken together, results assessing attentional bias in adults who stutter have shown an initial attentional bias towards negative/threatening faces followed by a shift away from negative/threatening faces when in conditions with and without social evaluation [65-67].…”

“…It is argued that including only facial expressions prevents the participant from shifting to a non-facial expression and is therefore more ecologically valid to social situations. In Rodgers et al’s [67] study, positive facial expressions were not included for comparisons. People high in social anxiety are found to take longer to recognize positive facial expressions and as a result, may not take advantage of signals of acceptance and/or reward [68, 69].…”