The causal status of anxiety-linked attentional and interpretive bias

MacLeod, Colin; Campbell, Lynlee; Rutherford, Elizabeth M.; Wilson, Edward

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511521263.010

Cited by 35 publications

(31 citation statements)

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“…For instance, several studies provided evidence that attentional bias moderates the impact of negative life events on stress and anxiety (MacLeod & Hagan, 1992;MacLeod, Rutherford, Campbell, Ebsworthy, & Holker, 2002). Even further, cognitive training to reduce attentional bias, strongly reduces anxiety symptoms (see MacLeod, Campbell, Rutherford, & Wilson, 2004). Given the latter promising findings, research on the nature of attentional bias will be pivotal in guiding clinical efforts aimed at reducing cognitive biases.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attention to Threat in Anxiety-prone Individuals: Mechanisms Underlying Attentional Bias

et al. 2006

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Cognitive views on anxiety have proposed that attentional biases towards threatening information in high trait anxious individuals play an important role in the maintenance of anxiety and may even cause the development of clinical anxiety disorders. However, the precise nature of these attentional biases is under debate. In a pictorial version of the dot probe task, two accounts of attention to threat were contrasted and the components of attention involved in orienting to threat were assessed. Overall, the results support the view that all individuals orient to highly threatening pictures, with high trait anxious individuals orienting more strongly to moderately threatening pictures than the low trait anxious individuals. Attentional bias to threat in high trait anxious individuals was caused by attentional disengagement from threat. These results are discussed in relation to cognitive models of attention to threat.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attention to Threat in Anxiety-prone Individuals: Mechanisms Underlying Attentional Bias

et al. 2006

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“…Anxiety may lead to more negative interpretations, but more threatening interpretations may also induce anxious states. There is actually a growing literature, using a training paradigm, that suggests a causal relationship between interpretive biases and anxiety (MacLeod, Campbell, Rutherford, & Wilson, 2004;Mathews & Mackintosh, 2000;Yiend & Mackintosh, 2004). In this paradigm, participants are trained to interpret threat/neutral ambiguous stimulus in either the threatening or neutral manner.…”

Section: Causalitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The influence of affect on higher level cognition: A review of research on interpretation, judgement, decision making and reasoning

Blanchette

Richards

2010

Cognition & Emotion

572

396

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“…Cognitive theorists suggest that these habits of thought are causal factors in the etiology and maintenance of the disorders (Beck, 1976;Mathews & Mackintosh, 1998;Mathews & MacLeod, 2005;Mogg & Bradley, 1998;Williams, Watts, MacLeod, & Mathews, 1997). Anxiety has particularly been associated with a tendency to attend to threatening information-a phenomenon that has been termed negative attentional bias (see Figure 1 for a summary of the tasks commonly used to assess attentional bias; Fox, Russo, & Georgiou, 2005;MacLeod, Campbell, Rutherford, & Wilson, 2004;Mathews & MacLeod, 1985;Williams, Mathews, & MacLeod, 1996). Recent work, much of it discussed in the body of this article, has employed simple computer-based tasks in order to induce attentional biases in nonclinical populations (for reviews, see MacLeod, Koster, & Fox, 2009;Mathews & MacLeod, 2002).…”

Section: What Evidence Links Abnormalities Of Emotional Attention Andmentioning

confidence: 99%

The modification of attentional bias to emotional information: A review of the techniques, mechanisms, and relevance to emotional disorders

Browning

Holmes

Harmer

2010

Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience

218

141

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8A wealth of data from behavioral, neuroimaging, pharmacological, and genetic studies has served to highlight the centrality of attentional processes in our understanding of anxiety and depression. Aberrant deployment of attention, particularly in relation to emotional information, occupies a pivotal position in many of the contemporary models of these disorders in which it is considered a causally relevant, proximal illness process. This view suggests that interventions that modify the habitual deployment of attention to emotional information should impact upon illness expression. In the present article, we will review the evidence that emotional attention may be modified in both experimental and clinical settings. In doing so, we will highlight the data that demonstrate that this modification may be achieved by targeting at least two distinct control mechanisms. Finally, we will consider the implications of this work, particularly with regard to future research and treatment development. What Evidence Links Abnormalities of Emotional Attention and the Emotional Disorders?Both depression and anxiety have been associated with biases in the processing of emotional information; patients with these disorders habitually interpret, attend to, and/or remember information in a more negative manner than do nonclinical control participants (Mathews & MacLeod, 2005). Cognitive theorists suggest that these habits of thought are causal factors in the etiology and maintenance of the disorders (Beck, 1976;Mathews & Mackintosh, 1998;Mathews & MacLeod, 2005;Mogg & Bradley, 1998;Williams, Watts, MacLeod, & Mathews, 1997). Anxiety has particularly been associated with a tendency to attend to threatening information-a phenomenon that has been termed negative attentional bias (see Figure 1 for a summary of the tasks commonly used to assess attentional bias; Fox, Russo, & Georgiou, 2005;MacLeod, Campbell, Rutherford, & Wilson, 2004;Mathews & MacLeod, 1985;Williams, Mathews, & MacLeod, 1996). Recent work, much of it discussed in the body of this article, has employed simple computer-based tasks in order to induce attentional biases in nonclinical populations (for reviews, see MacLeod, Koster, & Fox, 2009;Mathews & MacLeod, 2002). Critically for psychopathology, these studies provide direct support for a causal role of attention in anxiety by demonstrating that inducing a negative attentional bias can lead to symptoms of anxiety in nonclinical participants.In depression, the most consistent cognitive abnormalities were initially described in measures of memory (Gilboa-Schechtman, Erhard-Weiss, & Jeczemien, 2002;Mathews & MacLeod, 2005;Ridout, Astell, Reid, Glen, & O'Carroll, 2003;Williams et al., 1997); however, there has been increasing interest in the possibility that attentional biases may exist in this disorder as well. Specifically, depression has been shown to be associated with a tendency to attend to the spatial location of negative words (Bradley, Mogg, & Lee, 1997;Donaldson, Lam, & Mathews, 2007;Mogg, Bradley, & Williams, 19...

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The causal status of anxiety-linked attentional and interpretive bias

Cited by 35 publications

References 0 publications

Attention to Threat in Anxiety-prone Individuals: Mechanisms Underlying Attentional Bias

Attention to Threat in Anxiety-prone Individuals: Mechanisms Underlying Attentional Bias

The influence of affect on higher level cognition: A review of research on interpretation, judgement, decision making and reasoning

The modification of attentional bias to emotional information: A review of the techniques, mechanisms, and relevance to emotional disorders

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