Attentional capture and trait anxiety: Evidence from inhibition of return

Pérez-Dueñas, Carolina; Acosta, Alberto; Lupiáñez, Juan

doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2009.03.002

Cited by 29 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…It has also been shown that they have larger late positive potentials (LPP)—an index of emotional processing—to distractive unpleasant pictures compared to low anxiety subjects (Mocaiber et al, 2009). Pérez-Dueñas et al (2009) showed that individuals with high trait anxiety did not present the expected inhibition of return effect when threatening stimuli was the target in a standard spatial cueing procedure. This result supports the hypothesis of increased attentional capture by negative stimuli, in high trait anxiety individuals.…”

Section: Individual Differences: the Effects Of Personality Traitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emotion and attention interaction: a trade-off between stimuli relevance, motivation and individual differences

Oliveira¹,

Mocaiber²,

David³

et al. 2013

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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Mounting evidence suggests that the neural processing of emotional stimuli is prioritized. However, whether the processing of emotional stimuli is dependent on attention remains debatable. Several studies have investigated this issue by testing the capacity of emotional distracters to divert processing resources from an attentional main task. The attentional load theory postulates that the perceptual load of the main task determines the selective processing of the distracter. Although we agree with this theory, we also suggest that other factors could be important in determining the association between the load of the main task and distracter processing, namely, (1) the relevance of the to-be ignored stimuli and (2) the engagement in the main task due to motivation. We postulate that these factors function as opposite forces to influence distracter processing. In addition, we propose that this trade-off is modulated by individual differences. In summary, we suggest that the relationship between emotion and attention is flexible rather than rigid and depends on several factors. Considering this perspective may help us to understand the divergence in the results described by several studies in this field.

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Section: Individual Differences: the Effects Of Personality Traitsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Emotion and attention interaction: a trade-off between stimuli relevance, motivation and individual differences

Oliveira¹,

Mocaiber²,

David³

et al. 2013

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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show abstract

“…In a recent study, for instance, Pérez-Dueñas et al (39) observed the expected modulation or IOR in an emotion categorization task in which the target was a neutral or emotional face and participants were asked to categorize the faces as either neutral or emotional. In another study in which emotional words instead of faces were used as targets, the authors reported similar results only in participants who scored high in trait anxiety (64). It should be noted that in both studies participants were required to perform an emotional categorization task rather than simply detect the target as in our procedure.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Beyond the Inhibition of Return of Attention: Reduced Habituation to Threatening Faces in Schizophrenia

Fan

et al. 2014

Front. Psychiatry

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Attention deficits are prominent among the core symptoms of schizophrenia. A recent meta-analysis has suggested that patients with schizophrenia have a deficit in endogenous disengagement of attention. In this research, we used a standard spatial cueing paradigm to examine whether the attention deficit of such patients is due to impaired attentional disengagement or defective novelty detection/habituation processes. In a spatial cueing procedure with peripheral non-predictive cues and a detection task, we manipulated the valence of either the cue or the target (i.e., a threatening vs. scrambled face) in two separate experiments. The control group exhibited a smaller inhibition of return (IOR) effect only when the target had an emotional load, not when the cue had an emotional load. In the patient group, a larger emotional effect appeared when the threatening face was the target; by contrast, no effect of valence was observed when the threatening face was the cue: IOR was delayed or completely absent independently of valence. The present findings are in conflict with the hypothesis that IOR is due to the disengagement of attention and the subsequent inhibition to return. Instead, they seem to suggest a cost in detecting new information at a previously cued location. From this perspective, it seems that patients with schizophrenia might have a deficit in detecting new information and considering it as new in the current context.

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“…In a study which employed a simple detection task, we were also unable to find a reduced IOR effect for spider cues and targets, in comparison to butterflies in a high spider fearful group [14]. On the other side, some studies seem to suggest that IOR is not completely immune and can be interrupted in some anxiety-related emotional states such as obsessive compulsive disorder [15], trait anxiety [16–18], and worry [19]. …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Inhibition of Return in Fear of Spiders: Discrepant Eye Movement and Reaction Time Data

Berdica

Gerdes

Pittig

et al. 2014

Journal of Ophthalmology

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Inhibition of return (IOR) refers to a bias against returning the attention to a previously attended location. As a foraging facilitator it is thought to facilitate systematic visual search. With respect to neutral stimuli, this is generally thought to be adaptive, but when threatening stimuli appear in our environment, such a bias may be maladaptive. This experiment investigated the influence of phobia-related stimuli on the IOR effect using a discrimination task. A sample of 50 students (25 high, 25 low in spider fear) completed an IOR task including schematic representations of spiders or butterflies as targets. Eye movements were recorded and to assess discrimination among targets, participants indicated with button presses if targets were spiders or butterflies. Reaction time data did not reveal a significant IOR effect but a significant interaction of group and target; spider fearful participants were faster to respond to spider targets than to butterflies. Furthermore, eye-tracking data showed a robust IOR effect independent of stimulus category. These results offer a more comprehensive assessment of the motor and oculomotor factors involved in the IOR effect.

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Attentional capture and trait anxiety: Evidence from inhibition of return

Cited by 29 publications

References 35 publications

Emotion and attention interaction: a trade-off between stimuli relevance, motivation and individual differences

Emotion and attention interaction: a trade-off between stimuli relevance, motivation and individual differences

Beyond the Inhibition of Return of Attention: Reduced Habituation to Threatening Faces in Schizophrenia

Inhibition of Return in Fear of Spiders: Discrepant Eye Movement and Reaction Time Data

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