Selective attention and emotional vulnerability: Assessing the causal basis of their association through the experimental manipulation of attentional bias.

MacLeod, Colin; Rutherford, E.E.; Campbell, Lyn; Ebsworthy, Greg; Holker, Lin

doi:10.1037//0021-843x.111.1.107

Cited by 49 publications

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“…First, threat‐related attentional bias is automatic in SA individuals, relying more on bottom‐up attentional processes. Given that involuntary attention to threatening stimuli increases anxiety (MacLeod et al, 2002 ), SA individuals can be trained to develop a positive interpretation bias, which would help to reduce anxiety. Second, the results of the present study suggest that HSA individuals may allocate fewer attentional resources to error monitoring and that the ability to monitor errors plays a key role in the execution of inhibitory attentional control (Senderecka, 2018 ; Xiao et al, 2015 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of working memory load on selective attention to emotional faces for social anxiety individuals

Liu,

Cheng,

et al. 2024

PsyCh Journal

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Research has confirmed that individuals with social anxiety (SA) show an attentional bias towards threat‐related stimuli. However, the extent to which this attentional bias depends on top‐down cognitive control processes remains controversial. The present study investigated the effect of working memory (WM) load on selective attention to emotional faces in both high social anxiety (HSA) and low social anxiety (LSA) groups by manipulating WM load through the inclusion of forward counting in multiples of two (low load) or backward counting in multiples of seven (high load) within a modified flanker task. In the flanker task, emotional faces (angry, happy, or neutral faces) were used as targets and distractors. A total of 70 participants (34 HSA participants; 36 LSA participants) completed the flanker task in the laboratory. The results showed that the HSA individuals performed worse when responding to angry targets. Relative to LSA individuals, HSA individuals showed interference from angry distractors in the flanker task, resulting in significantly lower accuracy in identifying angry targets compared to happy targets. These results were unaffected by the manipulation of WM load. The findings imply HSA individuals have impaired attentional control, and that their threat‐related attentional bias relies more on the bottom‐up automatic attentional process.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of working memory load on selective attention to emotional faces for social anxiety individuals

Liu,

Cheng,

et al. 2024

PsyCh Journal

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“…To investigate attention to emotional information, researchers have developed tasks that measure selective attentional allocation to emotional stimuli. The most common of these tasks is the “attentional-probe” or “dot-probe” paradigm (MacLeod et al, 1986 , 2002 ). The paradigm repeatedly presents participants with pairs of visual stimuli on a screen.…”

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confidence: 99%

Attentional biases to signals of negative information: Reliable measurement across three anxiety domains

Basanovic

2024

Behav Res

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Cognitive models propose that individuals with elevated vulnerability to experiencing negative emotion are characterised by biased attentional responding to negative information. Typically, methods of examining these biases have measured attention to pictures of emotional scenes, emotional faces, or rewarding or feared objects. Though these approaches have repeatedly yielded evidence of anxiety-linked biases, their measurement reliability is suggested to be poor. Recent research has shown that attentional responding to cues signalling negative information can be measured with greater reliability. However, whether such biases are associated with emotion vulnerability remains to be demonstrated. The present study conducted three experiments that recruited participants who varied in trait and state anxiety (N = 134), social anxiety (N = 122), or spider fear (N = 131) to complete an assessment of selective attention to cues signalling emotionally congruent negative information. Analyses demonstrated that anxiety and fear were associated with biased attentional responding to cues signalling negative information, and that such biases could be measured with acceptable reliability (rsplit-half = .69–.81). Implications for research on the relation between emotion and attention are discussed.

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“…Traditionally, methods used to investigate anxiety-linked attention to threat valenced information has been restricted to the examination of attentional responding to visual stimuli that represent threats. For example, early research examined selective attention in the face of emotionally discrepant word pairs (e.g., "cancer", "table"), using a paradigm now known as the "attentional-probe paradigm" (MacLeod et al, 1986(MacLeod et al, , 2002. In this paradigm participants are briefly presented with pairs of visual stimuli on a screen.…”

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confidence: 99%

Anxiety-linked biases in attention to cues signalling threat: Reliable individual differences across three anxiety domains.

Basanovic

2023

Preprint

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Cognitive models of anxiety vulnerability and psychopathology have proposed that individual differences in anxiety are characterised by biases in attentional responding to threat valenced information. Traditional approaches used to examine these biases have measured selective attention to stimuli that represent threats, such as pictures of negative scenes, angry faces, or feared animals. Though these approaches have repeatedly yielded evidence of these effects the measurement reliability of these approaches has been poor, limiting the confidence with which hypotheses can be tested. Recent research has demonstrated that biased attention to cues signalling imminent threat can be measured with acceptable reliability, suggesting a credible avenue for investigating anxiety-linked differences in attentional processing of threat valenced information. However, the relation between this process and anxiety vulnerability has not been tested. The present study conducted three experiments that recruited participants who varied in trait and state anxiety (N = 134), social anxiety (N = 122), or spider fear (N = 131) to complete an assessment of selective attention to cues indicating the location of threat valenced stimuli. Analyses revealed each anxiety domain to be associated with attentional vigilance, or avoidance, of threat cues and the reliability of selective attention indices to be acceptable (r-split-half = .69 - .81). The findings demonstrate multiple anxiety domains are characterised by biased attentional responding to cues signalling threat and that such biases can be measured reliably. Implications for theories of anxiety-linked attention processing and further avenues for investigating the bias, and its relation to anxiety vulnerability, are discussed.

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Selective attention and emotional vulnerability: Assessing the causal basis of their association through the experimental manipulation of attentional bias.

Cited by 49 publications

References 0 publications

The effect of working memory load on selective attention to emotional faces for social anxiety individuals

The effect of working memory load on selective attention to emotional faces for social anxiety individuals

Attentional biases to signals of negative information: Reliable measurement across three anxiety domains

Anxiety-linked biases in attention to cues signalling threat: Reliable individual differences across three anxiety domains.

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