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Raila H, Bouwer A, Moran CA, Kneeland ET, Modi R, Joormann J. The mindful gaze: trait mindful people under an instructed emotion regulation goal selectively attend to positive stimuli. Cogn Emot 2024; 38:256-266. [PMID: 37987770 PMCID: PMC11003715 DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2023.2270198] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/21/2023] [Accepted: 10/04/2023] [Indexed: 11/22/2023]
Abstract
Trait mindfulness confers emotional benefits and encourages skillful emotion regulation, in part because it helps people more deliberately attend to internal experiences and external surroundings. Such heightened attentional control might help skillfully deploy one's attention towards certain kinds of stimuli, which may in turn help regulate emotions, but this remains unknown. Testing how trait mindful people deploy attention when regulating their emotions could help uncover the specific mechanisms of mindfulness that confer its emotional benefits. The present study aimed to determine whether high trait mindfulness is associated with sustained attention biases to (i.e. longer gaze at) emotional scenes, when all participants are given the emotion regulation goal of staying in a positive mood. To measure this, we used eye tracking to assess selective attention to positive, neutral, and negative photographs. Higher trait mindfulness was associated with both a stronger attention bias for positive (vs. neutral and vs. negative) images, as well as greater success staying in a positive mood during viewing. Surprisingly, this attention bias towards the positive images did not mediate the relationship between mindfulness and maintenance of positive mood. Future work should compare visual attention to other emotion regulation strategies that may maximise positive affect for mindful people.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hannah Raila
- Department of Psychology, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT
| | - Annabel Bouwer
- Department of Psychology, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA
| | - Cole A. Moran
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT
| | - Elizabeth T. Kneeland
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT
- Department of Psychology, Amherst College, Amherst, MA
| | - Rhea Modi
- Department of Psychology, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA
| | - Jutta Joormann
- Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT
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Díaz DE, Tseng WL, Michalska KJ. Pre-scan state anxiety is associated with greater right amygdala-hippocampal response to fearful versus happy faces among trait-anxious Latina girls. BMC Psychiatry 2024; 24:1. [PMID: 38167015 PMCID: PMC10759434 DOI: 10.1186/s12888-023-05403-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2023] [Accepted: 11/24/2023] [Indexed: 01/05/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Unfamiliarity with academic research may contribute to higher levels of anticipatory state anxiety about affective neuroimaging tasks. Children with high trait anxiety display differences in brain response to fearful facial affect compared to non-anxious youth, but little is known about the influence of state anxiety on this association. Because reduced engagement in scientific research and greater mistrust among minoritized groups may lead to systematic differences in pre-scan state anxiety, it is crucial to understand the neural correlates of state anxiety during emotion processing so as to disambiguate sources of individual differences. METHODS The present study probed the interactive effects of pre-scan state anxiety, trait anxiety, and emotional valence (fearful vs. happy faces) on neural activation during implicit emotion processing in a community sample of 46 preadolescent Latina girls (8-13 years). RESULTS Among girls with mean and high levels of trait anxiety, pre-scan state anxiety was associated with greater right amygdala-hippocampal and left inferior parietal lobe response to fearful faces relative to happy faces. CONCLUSIONS Anticipatory state anxiety in the scanning context may cause children with moderate and high trait anxiety to be hypervigilant to threats, further compounding the effects of trait anxiety. Neuroimaging researchers should control for state anxiety so that systematic differences in brain activation resulting from MRI apprehension are not misleadingly attributed to demographic or environmental characteristics.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dana E Díaz
- Department of Psychology, University of California, Riverside, CA, USA.
- Department of Psychiatry, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, New York, NY, USA.
| | - Wan-Ling Tseng
- Yale Child Study Center, Yale School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA
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3
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Potthoff J, Wabnegger A, Schienle A. A differentiated look at emotions: association between gaze behaviour during the processing of affective videos and emotional granularity. Cogn Emot 2023:1-8. [PMID: 37712658 DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2023.2258576] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/15/2022] [Revised: 06/21/2023] [Accepted: 06/29/2023] [Indexed: 09/16/2023]
Abstract
The ability to distinguish between subtle differences among emotions of similar valence is labelled emotion differentiation (ED). Previous research has demonstrated that people high in ED are less likely to use disengagement regulation strategies (i.e. avoidance/distraction) during negative affective states.The present eye-tracking study examined associations between ED and visual attention/avoidance of affective stimuli. A total of 160 participants viewed emotional video clips (positive/ negative), which were concurrently presented with a non-affective distractor image. After each video, participants verbally described their experienced emotions with adjectives in an open-response format. Moreover, they completed an ED questionnaire.The computed ED specificity index for the negative videos (the number of specific adjectives divided by all adjectives used) was positively associated with the scores on the ED questionnaire and visual revisits for the negative videos (how many times the participants gazed back and forth between video and distractor). This viewing style might reflect more active exploratory behaviour directed toward acquiring information about the negative stimulus and its context. The ED measures were not associated with the gaze behaviour for positive videos.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jonas Potthoff
- Department of Psychology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
| | | | - Anne Schienle
- Department of Psychology, University of Graz, Graz, Austria
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Tipura E, Souto D, Fox E. Trait-Anxious People Take Longer to Search for Happy Faces in the Presence of Neutral and Fearful Distractors. TRENDS IN PSYCHOLOGY = TEMAS EM PSICOLOGIA 2023; 32:572-588. [PMID: 39114644 PMCID: PMC11304531 DOI: 10.1007/s43076-023-00305-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/04/2023] [Indexed: 08/10/2024]
Abstract
A large body of evidence suggests that processing of affective information is typically disrupted in anxiety. It has also been hypothesized that anxious individuals are less able to evaluate contextual cues and to respond in an adaptive way to stress. In the present study, 25 participants (16 females; 9 males) scoring high (scores of 45 or above) and 26 participants (13 females; 13 males) scoring low (scores of 35 and below) on a standardized measure of trait anxiety performed an emotion search task to investigate attentional biases when the task provides an explicit emotional context. An emotional context was set in each block by asking participants to look as quickly as possible at a face expressing a specific emotion, while eye movements were being recorded. On each trial, two faces appeared, one of them expressing the target emotion and the other one expressing a distractor emotion. High trait-anxious participants showed slower response times (time to look at the instructed emotion), regardless of the affective context, compared to the control group. Additionally, we found slower responses to happy faces (positive context) in the anxious group in the presence of neutral and fearful distractors. Cognitive control may therefore be disrupted in anxiety, as anxious people take longer to process (search for) happy faces, presumably because attentional resources are drawn by neutral and fearful distractors. Those differences were not observed in a simple reaction times task, which suggests that attentional biases, and not differential processing of low-level facial features, are responsible for those differences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eda Tipura
- Laboratory of Behavioral Neurology and Imaging of Cognition, Department of Neuroscience, University Medical Center, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
- Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
| | - David Souto
- School of Psychology and Vision Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
| | - Elaine Fox
- School of Psychology, University of Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia
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5
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Skaramagkas V, Ktistakis E, Manousos D, Kazantzaki E, Tachos NS, Tripoliti E, Fotiadis DI, Tsiknakis M. eSEE-d: Emotional State Estimation Based on Eye-Tracking Dataset. Brain Sci 2023; 13:brainsci13040589. [PMID: 37190554 DOI: 10.3390/brainsci13040589] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2023] [Revised: 03/22/2023] [Accepted: 03/29/2023] [Indexed: 04/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Affective state estimation is a research field that has gained increased attention from the research community in the last decade. Two of the main catalysts for this are the advancement in the data analysis using artificial intelligence and the availability of high-quality video. Unfortunately, benchmarks and public datasets are limited, thus making the development of new methodologies and the implementation of comparative studies essential. The current work presents the eSEE-d database, which is a resource to be used for emotional State Estimation based on Eye-tracking data. Eye movements of 48 participants were recorded as they watched 10 emotion-evoking videos, each of them followed by a neutral video. Participants rated four emotions (tenderness, anger, disgust, sadness) on a scale from 0 to 10, which was later translated in terms of emotional arousal and valence levels. Furthermore, each participant filled three self-assessment questionnaires. An extensive analysis of the participants’ answers to the questionnaires’ self-assessment scores as well as their ratings during the experiments is presented. Moreover, eye and gaze features were extracted from the low-level eye-recorded metrics, and their correlations with the participants’ ratings are investigated. Finally, we take on the challenge to classify arousal and valence levels based solely on eye and gaze features, leading to promising results. In particular, the Deep Multilayer Perceptron (DMLP) network we developed achieved an accuracy of 92% in distinguishing positive valence from non-positive and 81% in distinguishing low arousal from medium arousal. The dataset is made publicly available.
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6
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Bruchmann M, Mertens L, Schindler S, Straube T. Potentiated early neural responses to fearful faces are not driven by specific face parts. Sci Rep 2023; 13:4613. [PMID: 36944705 PMCID: PMC10030637 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-31752-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2022] [Accepted: 03/16/2023] [Indexed: 03/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Prioritized processing of fearful compared to neutral faces is reflected in increased amplitudes of components of the event-related potential (ERP). It is unknown whether specific face parts drive these modulations. Here, we investigated the contributions of face parts on ERPs to task-irrelevant fearful and neutral faces using an ERP-dependent facial decoding technique and a large sample of participants (N = 83). Classical ERP analyses showed typical and robust increases of N170 and EPN amplitudes by fearful relative to neutral faces. Facial decoding further showed that the absolute amplitude of these components, as well as the P1, was driven by the low-frequency contrast of specific face parts. However, the difference between fearful and neutral faces was not driven by any specific face part, as supported by Bayesian statistics. Furthermore, there were no correlations between trait anxiety and main effects or interactions. These results suggest that increased N170 and EPN amplitudes to task-irrelevant fearful compared to neutral faces are not driven by specific facial regions but represent a holistic face processing effect.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maximilian Bruchmann
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Von-Esmarch-Str. 52, 48149, Münster, Germany.
- Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Münster, Germany.
| | - Léa Mertens
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Von-Esmarch-Str. 52, 48149, Münster, Germany
| | - Sebastian Schindler
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Von-Esmarch-Str. 52, 48149, Münster, Germany
- Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Münster, Germany
| | - Thomas Straube
- Institute of Medical Psychology and Systems Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Von-Esmarch-Str. 52, 48149, Münster, Germany
- Otto Creutzfeldt Center for Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, University of Muenster, Münster, Germany
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7
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Monk JE, Colditz IG, Clark S, Lee C. Repeatability of an attention bias test for sheep suggests variable influence of state and trait affect on behaviour. PeerJ 2023; 11:e14730. [PMID: 36751637 PMCID: PMC9899428 DOI: 10.7717/peerj.14730] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2022] [Accepted: 12/20/2022] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Understanding the effects of repeated testing on behaviour is essential for behavioural tests that are re-applied to the same individuals for research and welfare assessment purposes. Assessing the repeatability of behaviour can also help us understand the influence of persistent traits vs transient states on animal responses during testing. This study examined the repeatability of behavioural responses in an attention bias test developed for sheep as a measure of affective state. Sheep were assessed in the attention bias test three times (n = 81 sheep), with testing occurring at intervals of 1 year then 2 weeks. During testing, individual sheep were exposed to a dog located behind a window for 3 s in a 4 × 4 m arena, then the dog was obscured from view, removed and sheep behaviours were recorded for 180 s. We hypothesised that behaviours in the test would have moderate-high repeatability but that the mean behavioural responses would change over consecutive trials as sheep habituated to the test environment. To estimate repeatability, data were modelled using restricted maximum likelihood linear mixed-effects models, fitting animal ID as a random effect. Vigilance behaviour, defined as having the head at or above shoulder height, was moderately repeatable (r = 0.58). Latency to eat (r = 0.20) and duration spent looking towards the previous location of the dog (attention to the dog wall) (r = 0.08) had low repeatability. Mean latency to eat did not differ significantly between trials (P = 0.2) and mean vigilance behaviour tended to decrease over the trials (P = 0.07). Mean duration of attention to the dog wall significantly decreased across the trials (P < 0.001), while mean zones crossed increased (P < 0.001), as did behaviours directed towards the exit door such as duration in proximity and pawing at the door. Overall, vigilance behaviour was moderately repeatable, suggesting it may have been driven by temperament or personality traits, while attention and feeding behaviours may have been more influenced by transient affective states or other factors, however further research is needed to better tease apart these potential effects. Sheep demonstrated some habituation to the test over consecutive trials. Care should therefore be taken during future application of the test to ensure all animals undergoing attention bias testing have equivalent experience for a valid interpretation of their relative behavioural responses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessica E. Monk
- School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia,Agriculture and Food, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Armidale, NSW, Australia
| | - Ian G. Colditz
- Agriculture and Food, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Armidale, NSW, Australia
| | - Sam Clark
- School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia
| | - Caroline Lee
- School of Environmental and Rural Science, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia,Agriculture and Food, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Armidale, NSW, Australia
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8
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Kaur G, Anand R, Chakrabarty M. Trait Anxiety Influences Negative Affect-modulated Distribution of Visuospatial Attention. Neuroscience 2023; 509:145-156. [PMID: 36493911 DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2022.11.034] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/03/2022] [Revised: 11/25/2022] [Accepted: 11/28/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Visuospatial attention allows humans to selectively gate and prioritize visual (including salient, emotional) information for efficiently navigating natural visual environments. As emotions have been known to influence attentional performance, we asked if emotions also modulate the spatial distribution of visual attention and whether any such effect was further associated with individual differences in anxiety. Participants (n = 28) discriminated the orientation of target Gabor patches co-presented with distractors, speedily and accurately. The key manipulation was randomly presenting a task-irrelevant face emotion prime briefly (50 ms), conveying Neutral/Disgust/Scrambled (Null) emotion signal 150 ms preceding the target patches. We calculated attention gradient (change in negative inverse attentional efficiency with unit change in distance from the source of emotion signal) as a metric to answer our questions. Specifically, the Disgust signal modulated the direction of attention gradients differentially in individuals with varying degrees of trait - anxiety, such that the gradients correlated negatively with individual trait-anxiety scores. This implies spatial shifts in Disgust-signalled visual attention with varying trait - anxiety levels. Neutral yielded attention gradients comparable to Scrambled, implying no specific effect of this signal and there was no association with anxiety levels in both. No correlation was observed between state - anxiety and the emotion-cued attention gradients. In sum, the results suggest that individual trait - anxiety levels influence the effect of negative and physiologically arousing emotion signals (e.g., Disgust) on the spatial distribution of visual attention. The findings could be of relevance for understanding biases in visual behaviour underlying affective states and disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gursimran Kaur
- Dept. of Social Sciences and Humanities, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi, New Delhi 110020, India
| | - Rakshita Anand
- Dept. of Human-Centered Design, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi, New Delhi 110020, India
| | - Mrinmoy Chakrabarty
- Dept. of Social Sciences and Humanities, Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology Delhi, New Delhi 110020, India.
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9
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Xing C, Zhang Y, Lu H, Zhu X, Miao D. Trait anxiety affects attentional bias to emotional stimuli across time: A growth curve analysis. Front Neurosci 2022; 16:972892. [PMID: 36188484 PMCID: PMC9516103 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2022.972892] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2022] [Accepted: 08/22/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Many studies have illustrated the close relationship between anxiety disorders and attentional functioning, but the relationship between trait anxiety and attentional bias remains controversial. This study examines the effect of trait anxiety on the time course of attention to emotional stimuli using materials from the International Affective Picture System. Participants with high vs. low trait anxiety (HTA vs. LTA) viewed four categories of pictures simultaneously: dysphoric, threatening, positive, and neutral. Their eye-movements for each emotional stimulus were recorded for static and dynamic analysis. Data were analyzed using a mixed linear model and growth curve analysis. Specifically, the HTA group showed a greater tendency to avoid threatening stimuli and more pupil diameter variation in the early period of stimulus presentation (0–7.9 s). The HTA group also showed a stronger attentional bias toward positive and dysphoric stimuli in the middle and late period of stimulus presentation (7.9–30 s). These results suggest that trait anxiety has a significant temporal effect on attention to emotional stimuli, and that this effect mainly manifests after 7 s. In finding stronger attentional avoidance of threatening stimuli and more changes in neural activity, as well as a stronger attentional bias toward positive stimuli, this study provides novel insights on the relationship between trait anxiety and selective attention.
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10
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Early hypervigilance and later avoidance: Event-related potentials track the processing of threatening stimuli in anxiety. Behav Res Ther 2022; 158:104181. [DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2022.104181] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/26/2021] [Revised: 07/25/2022] [Accepted: 08/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
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Nelson AL, Quigley L, Carriere J, Kalles E, Smilek D, Purdon C. Avoidance of mild threat observed in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) using eye tracking. J Anxiety Disord 2022; 88:102577. [PMID: 35525072 DOI: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2022.102577] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/24/2021] [Revised: 03/19/2022] [Accepted: 04/28/2022] [Indexed: 10/18/2022]
Abstract
Attentional biases towards threat are assumed to be a causal factor in the development of anxiety disorders, including generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). However, findings have been inconsistent, and studies often examine single time-point bias during threat exposure, instead of across time. Attention to threat may shift throughout exposure (e.g., from initial engagement to avoidance), and research suggests that threat intensity and state anxiety influence attentional biases. No studies to our knowledge have examined biases across time and with varying threat intensity and state anxiety. Participants with GAD (n=38) and non-anxious controls (n=25) viewed emotional (high threat, mild threat, and positive) and neutral image pairs under calm and anxious mood states while their eye movements were tracked. Participants showed an initial orientation to emotional images, and, under the anxious mood induction, demonstrated a bias towards threatening images at first fixation and over time. Results suggest it may be normative to attend to threat cues over other stimuli while in an anxious state. Individuals with GAD uniquely showed a bias away from mild (but not high) threat images over time relative to controls. Implications for theories of attentional biases to threat and clinical implications for GAD and anxiety disorders broadly are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea L Nelson
- Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave W, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada
| | - Leanne Quigley
- Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology, Yeshiva University, 1165 Morris Park Ave, Bronx, NY 10461, USA
| | - Jonathan Carriere
- Department of Psychology, Bishop's University, 2600 Rue College, Sherbrooke, QC J1M 1Z7, Canada
| | - Elizabeth Kalles
- Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave W, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada
| | - Daniel Smilek
- Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave W, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada
| | - Christine Purdon
- Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo, 200 University Ave W, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada.
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Eye tracking evidence of threat-related attentional bias in anxiety- and fear-related disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Clin Psychol Rev 2022; 93:102142. [DOI: 10.1016/j.cpr.2022.102142] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/19/2021] [Revised: 01/03/2022] [Accepted: 03/03/2022] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
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13
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Kim AJ, Alambeigi H, Goddard T, McDonald AD, Anderson BA. Bicyclist-evoked arousal and greater attention to bicyclists independently promote safer driving. Cogn Res Princ Implic 2021; 6:66. [PMID: 34674059 PMCID: PMC8531163 DOI: 10.1186/s41235-021-00332-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/31/2021] [Accepted: 10/11/2021] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
While attention has consistently been shown to be biased toward threatening objects in experimental settings, our understanding of how attention is modulated when the observer is in an anxious or aroused state and how this ultimately affects behavior is limited. In real-world environments, automobile drivers can sometimes carry negative perceptions toward bicyclists that share the road. It is unclear whether bicyclist encounters on a roadway lead to physiological changes and attentional biases that ultimately influence driving behavior. Here, we examined whether participants in a high-fidelity driving simulator exhibited an arousal response in the presence of a bicyclist and how this modulated eye movements and driving behavior. We hypothesized that bicyclists would evoke a robust arousal and orienting response, the strength of which would be associated with safer driving behavior. The results revealed that encountering a bicyclist evoked negative arousal by both self-report and physiological measures. Physiological and eye-tracking measures were themselves unrelated, however, being independently associated with safer driving behavior. Our findings offer a real-world demonstration of how arousal and attentional prioritization can lead to adaptive behavior.
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Kim AJ, Anderson BA. How Does Threat Modulate the Motivational Effects of Reward on Attention? Exp Psychol 2021; 68:165-172. [PMID: 34711076 DOI: 10.1027/1618-3169/a000521] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
Studies on attentional bias have overwhelmingly focused on the priority of different stimuli and have rarely manipulated the state of the observer. Recently, the threat of unpredictable shock has been utilized to experimentally induce anxiety and investigate how negative arousal modulates attentional control. Experimentally induced anxiety has been shown to reduce the attentional priority afforded to reward-related stimuli while enhancing the efficiency of goal-directed attentional control. It is unclear which of these two influences might dominate when attending to reward-related stimuli is consistent with task goals and by extension what the scope of the modulatory influence of threat on attention is. In contrast to paradigms in the visual domain, a novel auditory identification task has demonstrated a robust influence of target-value associations on selective attention. In the present study, we examined how the threat of shock modulates the influence of learned value on voluntary attention. In both threat and no-threat conditions, we replicate prior findings of voluntary prioritization of reward-associated sounds. However, unlike in studies measuring involuntary attentional capture, threat did not modulate the influence of reward on attention. Our findings highlight important limitations to when and how threat modulates the control of attention, contextualizing prior findings.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andy J Kim
- Texas A&M Institute for Neuroscience, Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA
| | - Brian A Anderson
- Texas A&M Institute for Neuroscience, Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA
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15
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Konovalova I, Antolin JV, Bolderston H, Gregory NJ. Adults with higher social anxiety show avoidant gaze behaviour in a real-world social setting: A mobile eye tracking study. PLoS One 2021; 16:e0259007. [PMID: 34695140 PMCID: PMC8544831 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0259007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/05/2021] [Accepted: 10/08/2021] [Indexed: 01/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Attentional biases are a core characteristic of social anxiety (SA). However, research has yielded conflicting findings and failed to investigate these biases in real, face-to-face social situations. Therefore, this study examined attentional biases in SA by measuring participants’ eye gaze within a novel eye-tracking paradigm during a real-life social situation. Student participants (N = 30) took part in what they thought was a visual search study, when a confederate posing as another participant entered the room. Whilst all participants avoided looking at the confederate, those with higher SA fixated for a shorter duration during their first fixation on him, and executed fewer fixations and saccades overall as well as exhibiting a shorter scanpath. These findings are indicative of additional avoidance in the higher SA participants. In contrast to previous experimental work, we found no evidence of social hypervigilance or hyperscanning in high SA individuals. The results indicate that in unstructured social settings, avoidance rather than vigilance predominates, especially in those with higher SA.
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Affiliation(s)
- Irma Konovalova
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Bournemouth University, Poole, Dorset, United Kingdom
- School of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton, Hampshire, United Kingdom
| | - Jastine V. Antolin
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Bournemouth University, Poole, Dorset, United Kingdom
| | - Helen Bolderston
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Bournemouth University, Poole, Dorset, United Kingdom
| | - Nicola J. Gregory
- Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science and Technology, Bournemouth University, Poole, Dorset, United Kingdom
- * E-mail:
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Barthel AL, Aderka IM, Byrne AJ, Peckham AD, Hofmann SG. Distinct and interacting impacts of trait anxiety and a state anxiety manipulation on attentional switching. ANXIETY STRESS AND COPING 2021; 35:409-424. [PMID: 34632875 DOI: 10.1080/10615806.2021.1983801] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/20/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES According to the Attentional Control Theory, individuals with high levels of anxiety often shift their attention inefficiently due to increased effort to meet task demands. However, literature on the effects of anxiety on shifting performance is discrepant. This study examined the impacts of trait and state anxiety on attentional shifting and whether worry or depression explained variance in shifting. DESIGN AND METHODS One-hundred thirty-eight undergraduate psychology students were randomized to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) or control TSST. Subjects completed measures of state/trait anxiety, worry, and depression and a computerized attention task. Statistical analyses included linear mixed modelling (LMM), t-tests, and ANOVAs. RESULTS Results revealed significant effects of state and trait anxiety and worry, but not depression. Type (location/direction) and presentation (switch/repeat) of trials also affected response times. Trait anxiety significantly related to trial presentation but did not interact with trial type. State anxiety did not significantly relate to either trial index. State and trait anxiety significantly impacted overall response time. Results revealed variations in cognitive flexibility, but no interactions between state and trait anxiety in predicting task switching. CONCLUSION These findings are discussed in the context of Attentional Control Theory and relevant empirical research.
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Affiliation(s)
- Abigail L Barthel
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Idan M Aderka
- School of Psychological Sciences, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
| | - Andrew J Byrne
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
| | | | - Stefan G Hofmann
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
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17
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Stainer MJ, Raj PV, Aitken BM, Bandarian-Balooch S, Boschen MJ. Decision-making in single and multiple-screen CCTV surveillance. APPLIED ERGONOMICS 2021; 93:103383. [PMID: 33581584 DOI: 10.1016/j.apergo.2021.103383] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2020] [Revised: 01/31/2021] [Accepted: 02/04/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
One task of CCTV operation is to decide whether footage shown in videos depicts criminal behaviour, or allows a viewer to predict its occurrence. An increasing prevalence of cameras in the world, means an increase in screens in the control room. This presents a signal-to-noise challenge where the signal (criminal activity) may become more difficult to detect amongst the noise. We used signal detection approaches to understand which factors were associated with decision-making in a CCTV task. When detecting aggressive incidents, higher conscientiousness was associated with making better decisions, with a higher criterion for responding (meaning fewer false-positive responses). However, conscientious individuals tended to be less confident (in multiplex displays), and were slower in responding - which reflects that these individuals require more evidence to make these decisions. Higher trait cognitive anxiety was again associated with making earlier responses, while extraversion was also associated with earlier responding in multiplexed displays. Taken in combination, our results suggest that there is a fine balance between making correct decisions, and making early decisions - and that these need to be considered together in the CCTV task.
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Affiliation(s)
- Matthew J Stainer
- School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia.
| | - Puneet V Raj
- School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia
| | - Benjamin M Aitken
- School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia
| | | | - Mark J Boschen
- School of Applied Psychology, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia
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18
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Neutral and threatening distracter word stimuli are unnecessarily stored in working memory but do not differ in their degree of working memory storage. Biol Psychol 2021; 162:108091. [PMID: 33864873 DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2021.108091] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/20/2020] [Revised: 04/07/2021] [Accepted: 04/07/2021] [Indexed: 01/29/2023]
Abstract
Evidence suggests that threatening stimuli induce attentional biases compared to neutral stimuli, leading to subsequent storage in working memory. The current study examined how threatening versus neutral word distracters influence attention, and how this affects the unnecessary storage of these task-irrelevant stimuli in working memory. We measured the N2pc and contralateral delay activity (CDA), two event-related potentials (ERPs) that index attentional selection and the number of items maintained in WM, respectively, as participants completed a lateralized change detection task using word stimuli. Our results replicated work demonstrating a CDA effect for word stimuli, and found that distracter words are unnecessarily stored in working memory. However, we observed non-significant differences in attentional bias and working memory storage between distracter word conditions, and individual variation in anxiety was not associated with these processes. Bayes Factor analyses supported these null effects, suggesting that differences between neutral and threatening distracter words are unlikely.
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19
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Yuan S, Xu M, Yao X, Zhang L, Du X, Yang D. Impact of trust violations on Attentional Bias and working memory updating. CURRENT PSYCHOLOGY 2021. [DOI: 10.1007/s12144-021-01432-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
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20
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Howarth ER, Kemp C, Thatcher HR, Szott ID, Farningham D, Witham CL, Holmes A, Semple S, Bethell EJ. Developing and validating attention bias tools for assessing trait and state affect in animals: A worked example with Macaca mulatta. Appl Anim Behav Sci 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.applanim.2020.105198] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
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21
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Erbey M, Roebbig J, Babayan A, Kumral D, Reinelt J, Reiter AMF, Schaare L, Uhlig M, Nierhaus T, Van der Meer E, Gaebler M, Villringer A. Positivity in Younger and in Older Age: Associations With Future Time Perspective and Socioemotional Functioning. Front Psychol 2020; 11:567133. [PMID: 33281667 PMCID: PMC7705101 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.567133] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/29/2020] [Accepted: 10/22/2020] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Aging has been associated with a motivational shift to positive over negative information (i.e., positivity effect), which is often explained by a limited future time perspective (FTP) within the framework of socioemotional selectivity theory (SST). However, whether a limited FTP functions similarly in younger and older adults, and whether inter-individual differences in socioemotional functioning are similarly associated with preference for positive information (i.e., positivity) is still not clear. We investigated younger (20–35 years, N = 73) and older (60–75 years, N = 56) adults’ gaze preferences on pairs of happy, angry, sad, and neutral faces using an eye-tracking system. We additionally assessed several parameters potentially underlying inter-individual differences in emotion processing such as FTP, stress, cognitive functioning, social support, emotion regulation, and well-being. While we found no age-related differences in positivity when the entire trial duration was considered, older adults showed longer fixations on the more positive face in later stages of processing (i.e., positivity shifts). This allocation of resources toward more positive stimuli might serve an emotion regulatory purpose and seems consistent with the SST. However, our findings suggest that age moderates the relationship between FTP and positivity shifts, such that the relationship between FTP and positivity preferences was negative in older, and positive in younger adults, potentially stemming from an age-related differential meaning of the FTP construct across age. Furthermore, our exploratory analyses showed that along with the age and FTP interaction, lower levels of worry also played a significant role in positivity shifts. We conclude that positivity effects cannot be solely explained by aging, or the associated reduced FTP per se, but is rather determined by a complex interplay of psychosocial and emotional features.
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Affiliation(s)
- Miray Erbey
- Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.,MindBrainBody Institute at the Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.,International Max Planck Research School on the Life Course, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany
| | - Josefin Roebbig
- Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Anahit Babayan
- Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Deniz Kumral
- Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.,MindBrainBody Institute at the Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Janis Reinelt
- Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Andrea M F Reiter
- Lifespan Developmental Neuroscience, Technische Universität Dresden, Dresden, Germany
| | - Lina Schaare
- Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.,International Max Planck Research School NeuroCom, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Marie Uhlig
- Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.,International Max Planck Research School NeuroCom, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Till Nierhaus
- Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.,Department of Education and Psychology, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Elke Van der Meer
- Department of Psychology, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Michael Gaebler
- Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.,MindBrainBody Institute at the Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany
| | - Arno Villringer
- Department of Neurology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany.,MindBrainBody Institute at the Berlin School of Mind and Brain, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.,Department of Cognitive Neurology, Leipzig University Hospital, Leipzig, Germany
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22
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Attentional bias towards negative stimuli in healthy individuals and the effects of trait anxiety. Sci Rep 2020; 10:11826. [PMID: 32678129 PMCID: PMC7367300 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-68490-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/18/2019] [Accepted: 06/24/2020] [Indexed: 01/20/2023] Open
Abstract
This study aimed to investigate the time course of attentional bias for negative information in healthy individuals and to assess the associated influence of trait anxiety. Thirty-eight healthy volunteers performed an emotional dot-probe task with pairs of negative and neutral scenes, presented for either 1 or 2 s and followed by a target placed at the previous location of either negative or neutral stimulus. Analyses included eye movements during the presentation of the scenes and response times associated with target localization. In a second step, analyses focused on the influence of trait anxiety. While there was no significant difference at the behavioral level, the eye-tracking data revealed that negative information held longer attention than neutral stimuli once fixated. This initial maintenance bias towards negative pictures then increased with increasing trait anxiety. However, at later processing stages, only individuals with the highest trait anxiety appeared to fixate longer on negative pictures than neutral pictures, individuals with low trait anxiety showing the opposite pattern. This study provides novel evidence that healthy individuals display an attentional maintenance bias towards negative stimuli, which is associated with trait anxiety.
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23
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Wang S, Gao JY, Li X, Wu Y, Huo XX, Han CX, Kang MJ, Sun H, Ge BL, Liu Y, Liu YQ, Zhou JP, Wang Z. Correlation between crowdedness in emergency departments and anxiety in Chinese patients. World J Clin Cases 2020; 8:2802-2816. [PMID: 32742990 PMCID: PMC7360700 DOI: 10.12998/wjcc.v8.i13.2802] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/17/2020] [Revised: 05/13/2020] [Accepted: 06/02/2020] [Indexed: 02/05/2023] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Emergency department (ED) overcrowding is a severe health care concern, while anxiety and depression rates among ED patients have been reported to be substantially higher compared to the general population. We hypothesized that anxiety due to over crowdedness may lead to adverse events in EDs.
AIM To investigate correlations between crowdedness in EDs and anxiety of patients and nurses, and to identify factors affecting their anxiety.
METHODS In this prospective observational study, a total 43 nurses and 389 emergency patients from two tier III hospitals located in Beijing were included from January 2016 to August 2017. Patients were grouped into inpatients when they were hospitalized after diagnoses, or into outpatients when they were discharged after treatments. The State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI Form Y) questionnaire was used to investigate patient and nurse anxieties, while crowdedness of EDs was evaluated with the National Emergency Department Over Crowding Score.
RESULTS The present results revealed that state anxiety scores (49.50 ± 6.00 vs 50.80 ± 2.80, P = 0.005) and trait anxiety scores (45.40 ± 5.70 vs 46.80 ± 2.70, P = 0.002) between inpatients (n = 173) and outpatients (n = 216) were significantly different, while the state anxiety of nurses (44.70 ± 5.80) was different from those of both patient groups. Generalized linear regression analysis demonstrated that multiple factors, including crowdedness in the ED, were associated with state and trait anxieties for both inpatients and outpatients. In addition, there was an interaction between state anxiety and trait anxieties. However, multivariable regression analysis showed that while overcrowding in the ED did not directly correlate with patients’ and nurses’ anxiety levels, the factors that did correlate with state and trait anxieties of inpatients were related to crowdedness. These factors included waiting time in the ED, the number of patients treated, and the number of nurses in the ED, whereas for nurses, only state and trait anxieties correlated significantly with each other.
CONCLUSION Waiting time, the number of patients treated, and the number of nurses present in the ED correlate with patient anxiety in EDs, but crowdedness has no effect on nurse or patient anxiety.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shuang Wang
- Department of Emergency Medicine, Beijing Shijitan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100038, China
| | - Jun-Yi Gao
- Department of Cardiology, Beijing Shijitan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100038, China
| | - Xiang Li
- Emergency Intensive Care Unit, Beijing Shijitan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100038, China
| | - Yu Wu
- Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Beijing Shijitan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100038, China
| | - Xiao-Xia Huo
- Department of Emergency Medicine, Beijing Shijitan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100038, China
| | - Chao-Xia Han
- Department of Emergency Medicine, Beijing Shijitan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100038, China
| | - Meng-Jie Kang
- Emergency Intensive Care Unit, Beijing Shijitan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100038, China
| | - Hong Sun
- Department of Emergency Medicine, Peking University People’s Hospital, Beijing 100044, China
| | - Bao-Lan Ge
- Department of Emergency Medicine, Peking University Third Hospital, Beijing 100191, China
| | - Yu Liu
- Department of Emergency Medicine, Chinese PLA General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China
| | - Ying-Qing Liu
- Department of Emergency Medicine, Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100020, China
| | - Jian-Ping Zhou
- Department of Emergency Medicine, Beijing Friendship Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100050, China
| | - Zhen Wang
- Department of Emergency Medicine, Beijing Shijitan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing 100038, China
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24
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Gabel MS, McAuley T. React to act: Negative mood, response inhibition, and the moderating role of emotional reactivity. MOTIVATION AND EMOTION 2020. [DOI: 10.1007/s11031-020-09841-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
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25
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The reliability of attentional biases for emotional images measured using a free-viewing eye-tracking paradigm. Behav Res Methods 2020; 51:2748-2760. [PMID: 30350023 DOI: 10.3758/s13428-018-1147-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
Cognitive theories of anxiety disorders and depression posit that attentional biases play a role in the development, maintenance, and recurrence of these disorders. Several paradigms have been used to examine attentional biases in anxiety and depression, but information on the reliability of different attentional bias indices is limited. In this study we examined the internal consistency and 6-month test-retest reliability of attentional bias indices derived from a free-viewing eye-tracking paradigm. Participants completed two versions of an eye-tracking task-one that used naturalistic images as stimuli, and one that used face images. In both tasks, participants viewed displays of four images, each display consisting of one threat image, one sad image, one positive/happy image, and one neutral image. The internal consistency of the fixation indices (dwell time and number of fixations) for threat, sad, and positive images over the full 8-s display was moderate to excellent. When the 8-s display was divided into 2-s intervals, the dwell times for the 0- to 2-s and 2- to 4-s intervals showed lower reliability, particularly for the face images. The attentional bias indices for the naturalistic images showed adequate to good stability over the test-retest period, whereas the test-retest reliability estimates for the face images were in the low to moderate range. The implications of these results for attentional bias research are discussed.
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26
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Williot A, Blanchette I. The influence of an emotional processing strategy on visual threat detection by police trainees and officers. APPLIED COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY 2019. [DOI: 10.1002/acp.3616] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Alexandre Williot
- Groupe de recherche CogNAC (Cognition, Neurosciences, Affect et Comportement), Department of PsychologyUniversité du Québec à Trois‐Rivières Québec Canada
| | - Isabelle Blanchette
- Groupe de recherche CogNAC (Cognition, Neurosciences, Affect et Comportement), Department of PsychologyUniversité du Québec à Trois‐Rivières Québec Canada
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27
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Jendryczko D, Scharfen J, Holling H. The Impact of Situational Test Anxiety on Retest Effects in Cognitive Ability Testing: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach. J Intell 2019; 7:E22. [PMID: 31547510 PMCID: PMC6963292 DOI: 10.3390/jintelligence7040022] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/30/2019] [Revised: 08/17/2019] [Accepted: 09/16/2019] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
When a cognitive ability is assessed repeatedly, test scores and ability estimates are often observed to increase across test sessions. This phenomenon is known as the retest (or practice) effect. One explanation for retest effects is that situational test anxiety interferes with a testee's performance during earlier test sessions, thereby creating systematic measurement bias on the test items (interference hypothesis). Yet, the influence of anxiety diminishes with test repetitions. This explanation is controversial, since the presence of measurement bias during earlier measurement occasions cannot always be confirmed. It is argued that people from the lower end of the ability spectrum become aware of their deficits in test situations and therefore report higher anxiety (deficit hypothesis). In 2014, a structural equation model was proposed that specifically allows the comparison of these two hypotheses with regard to explanatory power for the negative anxiety-ability correlation found in cross-sectional assessments. We extended this model for usage in longitudinal studies to investigate the impact of test anxiety on test performance and on retest effects. A latent neighbor-change growth curve was implemented into the model that enables an estimation of retest effects between all pairs of successive test sessions. Systematic restrictions on model parameters allow testing the hypothetical reduction in anxiety interference over the test sessions, which can be compared to retest effect sizes. In an empirical study with seven measurement occasions, we found that a substantial reduction in interference upon the second test session was associated with the largest retest effect in a figural matrices test, which served as a proxy measure for general intelligence. However, smaller retest effects occurred up to the fourth test administration, whereas evidence for anxiety-induced measurement bias was only produced for the first two test sessions. Anxiety and ability were not negatively correlated at any time when the interference effects were controlled for. Implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Jendryczko
- Institute of Psychology, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, 48149 Münster, Germany.
| | - Jana Scharfen
- Institute of Psychology, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, 48149 Münster, Germany.
| | - Heinz Holling
- Institute of Psychology, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, 48149 Münster, Germany.
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28
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Houle-Johnson SA, O'Brien B, Ashbaugh AR. Negative verbal self-relevant feedback is recognized with greater accuracy than facial feedback regardless of depression or social anxiety. J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry 2019; 64:1-8. [PMID: 30711826 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2019.01.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2018] [Revised: 01/16/2019] [Accepted: 01/17/2019] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Self-referent information is critical for navigating the social realm, as we constantly use both verbal and non-verbal feedback in our interactions to understand ourselves and the world. In non-clinical samples, a memory bias for positive self-referent information has been observed, while a negativity bias has been observed among those with depression and anxiety. While research suggests that visual and auditory information is processed differently, no study has yet examined if memory biases persist for self-referent information presented by either means. We examined differences in memory for self-relevant social information presented as verbal or facial feedback, and whether symptoms of depression or anxiety influence memory for such information. We predicted that participants would remember more positive feedback overall, and that depression and anxiety would be positively related to memory for negative items. METHODS Participants gave a speech, and were provided with positive and negative feedback via facial expressions, (n = 25) or verbal feedback presented aurally (n = 26). Participants then did a recognition test for the feedback they recieved. RESULTS Recognition was higher for negative compared to positive feedback in the verbal condition, regardless of depression or anxiety. No memory biases were observed in the facial feedback condition. LIMITATIONS No neutral stimuli was presented. CONCLUSIONS Findings suggest that the type of social feedback one receives may influence how information is remembered, regardless of symptomatology. Future studies should examine the mechanisms by which memory biases exist for different types of self-relevant feedback.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephanie A Houle-Johnson
- University of Ottawa, School of Psychology, 136 Jean-Jacques Lussier Private, Ottawa, ON, K1N 6N5, Canada.
| | - Bronwyn O'Brien
- University of Ottawa, School of Psychology, 136 Jean-Jacques Lussier Private, Ottawa, ON, K1N 6N5, Canada.
| | - Andrea R Ashbaugh
- University of Ottawa, School of Psychology, 136 Jean-Jacques Lussier Private, Ottawa, ON, K1N 6N5, Canada.
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29
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Kan Y, Duan H, Chen X, Wang X, Xue W, Hu W. Attentional blink affected by acute stress in women: The role of affective stimuli and attentional resources. Conscious Cogn 2019; 75:102796. [PMID: 31374428 DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2019.102796] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2019] [Revised: 07/15/2019] [Accepted: 07/21/2019] [Indexed: 12/27/2022]
Abstract
The role of attentional resources and affective stimuli on temporal selective attention in the rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) paradigm under acute stress was explored among women. Seventy-three female undergraduates were randomly assigned to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) group or control group. We found that when the first target was negative, stress increased its accuracy. Stress promoted the recognition of neutral target two (T2) only at lag2, and there was no interaction with theemotionality of target one (T1). In addition, the accumulated effect of stress enhanced temporal selective attention, predominately 20-40 min after the TSST task; cortisol concentration during this time period could significantly predict AB task performance. In summary, when attentional resources were severely insufficient, individuals under stress were more able to focus on the current target; that is, stress facilitated selective attention. A novel result was that participants were exempt from the affective influence of previous targets, which may have been caused by activation of the autonomic nervous system and gender differences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuecui Kan
- Key Laboratory of Modern Teaching Technology, Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China; School of Psychology, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China
| | - Haijun Duan
- Key Laboratory of Modern Teaching Technology, Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China.
| | - Xitong Chen
- Key Laboratory of Modern Teaching Technology, Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China
| | - Xuewei Wang
- Key Laboratory of Modern Teaching Technology, Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China
| | - Wenlong Xue
- Key Laboratory of Modern Teaching Technology, Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China
| | - Weiping Hu
- Key Laboratory of Modern Teaching Technology, Ministry of Education, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an, China; Collaborative Innovation Center of Assessment Towards Basic Education Quality, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
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30
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Abstract
There is substantial evidence that heightened anxiety vulnerability is characterized by increased selective attention to threatening information. The reliability of this anxiety-linked attentional bias has become the focus of considerable recent interest. We distinguish between the potential inconsistency of anxiety-linked attentional bias and inconsistency potentially reflecting the psychometric properties of the assessment approaches used to measure it. Though groups with heightened anxiety vulnerability often exhibit, on average, elevated attention to threat, the evidence suggests that individuals are unlikely to each display a stable, invariant attentional bias to threat. Moreover, although existing assessment approaches can differentiate between groups, they do not exhibit the internal consistency or test-retest reliability necessary to classify individuals in terms of their characteristic pattern of attentional responding to threat. We discuss the appropriate uses of existing attentional bias assessment tasks and propose strategies for enhancing classification of individuals in terms of their tendency to display an attentional bias to threat.
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Affiliation(s)
- Colin MacLeod
- Elizabeth Rutherford Memorial Centre for the Advancement of Research on Emotion, School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia
| | - Ben Grafton
- Elizabeth Rutherford Memorial Centre for the Advancement of Research on Emotion, School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia
| | - Lies Notebaert
- Elizabeth Rutherford Memorial Centre for the Advancement of Research on Emotion, School of Psychological Science, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia
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31
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Kim AJ, Anderson BA. Threat reduces value-driven but not salience-driven attentional capture. ACTA ACUST UNITED AC 2019; 20:874-889. [PMID: 30869945 DOI: 10.1037/emo0000599] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/21/2023]
Abstract
What we direct our attention to is strongly influenced by both bottom-up and top-down processes. Moreover, the control of attention is biased by prior learning, such that attention is automatically captured by stimuli previously associated with either reward or threat. It is unknown whether value-oriented and threat-oriented mechanisms of selective information processing function independently of one another, or whether they interact with each other in the selection process. Here, we introduced the threat of electric shock into the value-driven attentional capture paradigm to examine whether the experience of threat influences the attention capturing quality of previously reward-associated stimuli. The results showed that value-driven attentional capture was blunted by the experience of threat. This contrasts with previous reports of threat potentiating attentional capture by physically salient stimuli, which we replicate here. Our findings demonstrate that threat selectively interferes with value-based but not salience-based attentional priority, consistent with a competitive relationship between value-based and threat-based information processing. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
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Affiliation(s)
- Andy Jeesu Kim
- Texas A&M Institute for Neuroscience and Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University
| | - Brian A Anderson
- Texas A&M Institute for Neuroscience and Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Texas A&M University
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32
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Anxious and alert? Hypervigilance in social anxiety disorder. Psychiatry Res 2018; 269:740-745. [PMID: 30273899 DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2018.08.086] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2017] [Revised: 06/25/2018] [Accepted: 08/24/2018] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
The vast majority of research on attentional biases to threat focusses on selective attention, even though several cognitive-behavioral models furthermore assume hypervigilance to be important in this regard. Thus, the current study examined hypervigilance in trait and state social anxiety. We analyzed visual scanpath lengths and fixation counts of participants with Social Anxiety Disorder (SAD) (n = 61) and healthy controls (n = 60) in a combined visual search and eye tracking paradigm, including photographs of facial expressions. Half of all participants were randomly assigned to a state anxiety induction. Interaction effects revealed opposed attentional patterns of participants with SAD as compared to healthy controls considering overall visual scanpath lengths (F(1,117) = 5.32, p = 0.023, η2partial = 0.043) and fixation counts (F(1,117) = 5.10, p = 0.026, η2partial = 0.042). Accordingly, participants with SAD showed signs of hypervigilance in the anxiety induction condition. In contrast, there was no main effect of diagnostic group, indicating that individuals with SAD shift their attentional focus to broad scanning behavior only under conditions of threat. Our results add to the small number of existing studies on hypervigilance in SAD and suggest the topic to be promising for future research.
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Yu Q, Zhuang Q, Wang B, Liu X, Zhao G, Zhang M. The effect of anxiety on emotional recognition: evidence from an ERP study. Sci Rep 2018; 8:16146. [PMID: 30385790 PMCID: PMC6212571 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-34289-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/21/2017] [Accepted: 10/18/2018] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Anxiety-related bias in the recognition memory based on trait anxiety has induced some studies. Their results, however, were conflicting. In fact, anxious differences not only differed from personality traits but also from different anxiety mood levels. We explored the emotional memory bias in both trait and state anxiety individuals, the high trait and high state anxiety group, the high trait and low state anxiety group, the low trait and high state anxiety group, and the low trait and low state anxiety group, on classic recognition paradigm using event-related potentials (ERPs). The behavioral results showed high state anxiety levels increased the d' of negative words, regardless of the trait anxiety of participant is high or low, and a lower d' of recognition memory for negative words than for neutral and positive words in all participants. Moreover, Electrophysiological results supported the findings of behavior, showing an earlier N400 (250-500 ms) latency elicited for new-negative words in high state level than in low state levels in right parietal region. These results suggested that the memory bias to negative events resides in state anxiety, but not in trait anxiety.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qianqian Yu
- Research Center of Brain and Cognitive neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, 116029, China
| | - Qian Zhuang
- Research Center of Brain and Cognitive neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, 116029, China
| | - Bo Wang
- College of Public Health, Zhengzhou University, Henan, 450001, China
| | - Xingze Liu
- Research Center of Brain and Cognitive neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, 116029, China
| | - Guang Zhao
- Research Center of Brain and Cognitive neuroscience, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian, 116029, China.
| | - Meng Zhang
- Department of Psychology, Xinxiang Medical University, Henan, 453003, China.
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Wermes R, Lincoln TM, Helbig-Lang S. Attentional biases to threat in social anxiety disorder: time to focus our attention elsewhere? ANXIETY STRESS AND COPING 2018; 31:555-570. [DOI: 10.1080/10615806.2018.1483497] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/14/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Richard Wermes
- Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Tania M. Lincoln
- Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
| | - Sylvia Helbig-Lang
- Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
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Nota JA, Coles ME. Shorter sleep duration and longer sleep onset latency are related to difficulty disengaging attention from negative emotional images in individuals with elevated transdiagnostic repetitive negative thinking. J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry 2018; 58:114-122. [PMID: 29111422 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2017.10.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/16/2017] [Revised: 10/06/2017] [Accepted: 10/09/2017] [Indexed: 02/06/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Repetitive negative thinking (RNT) is often associated with disruptions in sleep and circadian rhythms. Disruptions in sleep and circadian rhythms may deal a "second hit" to attentional control deficits. This study evaluated whether sleep and circadian rhythm disruptions are related to the top-down control of attention to negative stimuli in individuals with heightened repetitive negative thinking. METHODS Fifty-two community adults with high levels of transdiagnostic RNT and varying habitual sleep durations and bedtimes participated in a hybrid free-viewing and directed attention task using pairs of emotionally-evocative and neutral images while eye-tracking data were collected. Self-report and clinician-administered interviews regarding sleep were also collected. RESULTS Shorter habitual sleep duration was associated with more time looking at emotionally negative compared to neutral images during a free-viewing attention task and more difficulty disengaging attention from negative compared to neutral images during a directed attention task. In addition, longer sleep onset latencies were also associated with difficulty disengaging attention from negative stimuli. The relations between sleep and attention for positive images were not statistically significant. LIMITATIONS A causal link between sleep and attentional control cannot be inferred from these cross-sectional data. The lack of a healthy control sample means that the relations between sleep disruption, attention, and emotional reactivity may not be unique to individuals with RNT. CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that sleep disruption may be associated with a specific impact on cognitive resources that are necessary for the top-down inhibitory control of attention to emotionally negative information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jacob A Nota
- Binghamton University, Department of Psychology, United States.
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Chronaki G, Broyd SJ, Garner M, Benikos N, Thompson MJJ, Sonuga-Barke EJS, Hadwin JA. The Moderating Effect of Self-Reported State and Trait Anxiety on the Late Positive Potential to Emotional Faces in 6-11-Year-Old Children. Front Psychol 2018. [PMID: 29515476 PMCID: PMC5826320 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00125] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Introduction: The emergence of anxiety during childhood is accompanied by the development of attentional biases to threat. However, the neural mechanisms underlying these biases are poorly understood. In addition, previous research has not examined whether state and trait anxiety are independently associated with threat-related biases. Methods: We compared ERP waveforms during the processing of emotional faces in a population sample of 58 6-11-year-olds who completed self-reported measures of trait and state anxiety and depression. Results: The results showed that the P1 was larger to angry than neutral faces in the left hemisphere, though early components (P1, N170) were not strongly associated with child anxiety or depression. In contrast, Late Positive Potential (LPP) amplitudes to angry (vs. neutral) faces were significantly and positively associated with symptoms of anxiety/depression. In addition, the difference between LPPs for angry (vs. neutral) faces was independently associated with state and trait anxiety symptoms. Discussion: The results showed that neural responses to facial emotion in children with elevated symptoms of anxiety and depression were most evident at later processing stages characterized as evaluative and effortful. The findings support cognitive models of threat perception in anxiety and indicate that trait elements of anxiety and more transitory fluctuations in anxious affect are important in understanding individual variation in the neural response to threat in late childhood.
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Affiliation(s)
- Georgia Chronaki
- Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience (DCN) Laboratory, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, United Kingdom.,Division of Neuroscience and Experimental Psychology, University of Manchester, Manchester, United Kingdom.,School of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom
| | - Samantha J Broyd
- School of Psychology, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia
| | - Matthew Garner
- School of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom
| | - Nicholas Benikos
- Department of Cognitive Science, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | | | | | - Julie A Hadwin
- School of Psychology, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom
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Parmentier FBR, Pacheco-Unguetti AP, Valero S. Food words distract the hungry: Evidence of involuntary semantic processing of task-irrelevant but biologically-relevant unexpected auditory words. PLoS One 2018; 13:e0190644. [PMID: 29300763 PMCID: PMC5754127 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0190644] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2017] [Accepted: 12/18/2017] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Rare changes in a stream of otherwise repeated task-irrelevant sounds break through selective attention and disrupt performance in an unrelated visual task by triggering shifts of attention to and from the deviant sound (deviance distraction). Evidence indicates that the involuntary orientation of attention to unexpected sounds is followed by their semantic processing. However, past demonstrations relied on tasks in which the meaning of the deviant sounds overlapped with features of the primary task. Here we examine whether such processing is observed when no such overlap is present but sounds carry some relevance to the participants’ biological need to eat when hungry. We report the results of an experiment in which hungry and satiated participants partook in a cross-modal oddball task in which they categorized visual digits (odd/even) while ignoring task-irrelevant sounds. On most trials the irrelevant sound was a sinewave tone (standard sound). On the remaining trials, deviant sounds consisted of spoken words related to food (food deviants) or control words (control deviants). Questionnaire data confirmed state (but not trait) differences between the two groups with respect to food craving, as well as a greater desire to eat the food corresponding to the food-related words in the hungry relative to the satiated participants. The results of the oddball task revealed that food deviants produced greater distraction (longer response times) than control deviants in hungry participants while the reverse effect was observed in satiated participants. This effect was observed in the first block of trials but disappeared thereafter, reflecting semantic saturation. Our results suggest that (1) the semantic content of deviant sounds is involuntarily processed even when sharing no feature with the primary task; and that (2) distraction by deviant sounds can be modulated by the participants’ biological needs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fabrice B. R. Parmentier
- Neuropsychology & Cognition Group, Department of Psychology and Research Institute for Health Sciences (iUNICS), University of the Balearic Islands, Palma, Balearic Islands, Spain
- Balearic Islands Health Research Institute (IdISBa), Palma, Balearic Islands, Spain
- School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
- * E-mail:
| | - Antonia P. Pacheco-Unguetti
- Neuropsychology & Cognition Group, Department of Psychology and Research Institute for Health Sciences (iUNICS), University of the Balearic Islands, Palma, Balearic Islands, Spain
- Centro de Psicología Pacheco Unguetti, Granada, Spain
| | - Sara Valero
- Neuropsychology & Cognition Group, Department of Psychology and Research Institute for Health Sciences (iUNICS), University of the Balearic Islands, Palma, Balearic Islands, Spain
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Perceiving emotions in robot body language: Acute stress heightens sensitivity to negativity while attenuating sensitivity to arousal. COMPUTERS IN HUMAN BEHAVIOR 2017. [DOI: 10.1016/j.chb.2017.06.036] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/19/2022]
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How Well Can We Measure Visual Attention? Psychometric Properties of Manual Response Times and First Fixation Latencies in a Visual Search Paradigm. COGNITIVE THERAPY AND RESEARCH 2017. [DOI: 10.1007/s10608-016-9830-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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Macatee RJ, Albanese BJ, Schmidt NB, Cougle JR. Attention bias towards negative emotional information and its relationship with daily worry in the context of acute stress: An eye-tracking study. Behav Res Ther 2016; 90:96-110. [PMID: 28013055 DOI: 10.1016/j.brat.2016.12.013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2016] [Revised: 11/10/2016] [Accepted: 12/16/2016] [Indexed: 01/04/2023]
Abstract
Cognitive theories of anxiety psychopathology cite biased attention towards threat as a central vulnerability and maintaining factor. However, many studies have found threat bias indices to have poor reliability and have failed to observe the theorized relationship between threat bias and anxiety symptoms; this may be due to the non-unitary nature of threat bias and the influence of state-level variables on its expression. Accumulating data suggests that state anxious mood is important for the robust expression of threat bias and for relations to emerge between threat bias and symptoms, though this possibility has not been experimentally tested. Eye-tracking was used to assess multiple forms of threat bias (i.e., early vigilance, sustained attention, facilitated engagement, delayed disengagement) thought to be related to anxiety. A non-clinical sample (N = 165) was recruited to test the hypothesis that biased attention towards threat, but not dysphoric or positive emotional stimuli, during an anxious mood induction, but not at a pre-stress baseline, would prospectively predict greater worry symptoms on days in which more naturalistic stressors occurred. Results revealed the hypothesized moderation effect for sustained attention towards threat after the mood induction but not at baseline, though sustained attention towards dysphoric stimuli also moderated the effect of stressors on worry. Worry-relevant sustained attention towards negative emotional stimuli may be a partially mood-context dependent phenomenon.
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Affiliation(s)
- Richard J Macatee
- Department of Psychology, Florida State University, P.O. Box 3064301, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA
| | - Brian J Albanese
- Department of Psychology, Florida State University, P.O. Box 3064301, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA
| | - Norman B Schmidt
- Department of Psychology, Florida State University, P.O. Box 3064301, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA
| | - Jesse R Cougle
- Department of Psychology, Florida State University, P.O. Box 3064301, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA.
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Dong Y, De Beuckelaer A, Yu L, Zhou R. Eye-movement evidence of the time-course of attentional bias for threatening pictures in test-anxious students. Cogn Emot 2016; 31:781-790. [DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2016.1152953] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Yunying Dong
- Key Laboratory of Child Development and Learning Science, Southeast University, Ministry of Education, Nanjing, People's Republic of China
| | - Alain De Beuckelaer
- Institute for Management Research, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Department of Personnel Management, Work and Organizational Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Liang Yu
- Key Laboratory of Child Development and Learning Science, Southeast University, Ministry of Education, Nanjing, People's Republic of China
| | - Renlai Zhou
- Key Laboratory of Child Development and Learning Science, Southeast University, Ministry of Education, Nanjing, People's Republic of China
- Department of Psychology, School of Social and Behavior Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, People's Republic of China
- State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, People's Republic of China
- Beijing Key Lab of Applied Experimental Psychology, School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, People's Republic of China
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Jin AB, Steding LH, Webb AK. Reduced emotional and cardiovascular reactivity to emotionally evocative stimuli in major depressive disorder. Int J Psychophysiol 2015; 97:66-74. [DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2015.04.014] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/10/2014] [Revised: 04/22/2015] [Accepted: 04/23/2015] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
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Moacdieh N, Sarter N. Clutter in electronic medical records: examining its performance and attentional costs using eye tracking. HUMAN FACTORS 2015; 57:591-606. [PMID: 25850110 DOI: 10.1177/0018720814564594] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2014] [Accepted: 11/21/2014] [Indexed: 06/04/2023]
Abstract
OBJECTIVE The objective was to use eye tracking to trace the underlying changes in attention allocation associated with the performance effects of clutter, stress, and task difficulty in visual search and noticing tasks. BACKGROUND Clutter can degrade performance in complex domains, yet more needs to be known about the associated changes in attention allocation, particularly in the presence of stress and for different tasks. Frequently used and relatively simple eye tracking metrics do not effectively capture the various effects of clutter, which is critical for comprehensively analyzing clutter and developing targeted, real-time countermeasures. METHOD Electronic medical records (EMRs) were chosen as the application domain for this research. Clutter, stress, and task difficulty were manipulated, and physicians' performance on search and noticing tasks was recorded. Several eye tracking metrics were used to trace attention allocation throughout those tasks, and subjective data were gathered via a debriefing questionnaire. RESULTS Clutter degraded performance in terms of response time and noticing accuracy. These decrements were largely accentuated by high stress and task difficulty. Eye tracking revealed the underlying attentional mechanisms, and several display-independent metrics were shown to be significant indicators of the effects of clutter. CONCLUSION Eye tracking provides a promising means to understand in detail (offline) and prevent (in real time) major performance breakdowns due to clutter. APPLICATION Display designers need to be aware of the risks of clutter in EMRs and other complex displays and can use the identified eye tracking metrics to evaluate and/or adjust their display.
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Ng E, Lee K. Effects of trait test anxiety and state anxiety on children's working memory task performance. LEARNING AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES 2015. [DOI: 10.1016/j.lindif.2015.04.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/14/2022]
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Trait Anxiety, State Anxiety, and Attentional Bias to Threat: Assessing the Psychometric Properties of Response Time Measures. COGNITIVE THERAPY AND RESEARCH 2015. [DOI: 10.1007/s10608-015-9670-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
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Nelson AL, Purdon C, Quigley L, Carriere J, Smilek D. Distinguishing the roles of trait and state anxiety on the nature of anxiety-related attentional biases to threat using a free viewing eye movement paradigm. Cogn Emot 2014; 29:504-26. [DOI: 10.1080/02699931.2014.922460] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/20/2023]
Affiliation(s)
- Andrea L. Nelson
- Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo , Waterloo, ON, Canada
| | - Christine Purdon
- Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo , Waterloo, ON, Canada
| | - Leanne Quigley
- Department of Psychology, University of Calgary , Calgary, AB, Canada
| | - Jonathan Carriere
- Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo , Waterloo, ON, Canada
| | - Daniel Smilek
- Department of Psychology, University of Waterloo , Waterloo, ON, Canada
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Ousdal OT, Andreassen OA, Server A, Jensen J. Increased amygdala and visual cortex activity and functional connectivity towards stimulus novelty is associated with state anxiety. PLoS One 2014; 9:e96146. [PMID: 24755617 PMCID: PMC3995962 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0096146] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/22/2013] [Accepted: 04/03/2014] [Indexed: 11/19/2022] Open
Abstract
Novel stimuli often require a rapid reallocation of sensory processing resources to determine the significance of the event, and the appropriate behavioral response. Both the amygdala and the visual cortex are central elements of the neural circuitry responding to novelty, demonstrating increased activity to new as compared to highly familiarized stimuli. Further, these brain areas are intimately connected, and thus the amygdala may be a key region for directing sensory processing resources to novel events. Although knowledge regarding the neurocircuit of novelty detection is gradually increasing, we still lack a basic understanding of the conditions that are necessary and sufficient for novelty-specific responses in human amygdala and the visual cortices, and if these brain areas interact during detection of novelty. In the present study, we investigated the response of amygdala and the visual cortex to novelty, by comparing functional MRI activity between 1st and 2nd time presentation of a series of emotional faces in an event-related task. We observed a significant decrease in amygdala and visual cortex activity already after a single stimulus exposure. Interestingly, this decrease in responsiveness was less for subjects with a high score on state anxiety. Further, novel faces stimuli were associated with a relative increase in the functional coupling between the amygdala and the inferior occipital gyrus (BA 18). Thus, we suggest that amygdala is involved in fast sensory boosting that may be important for attention reallocation to novel events, and that the strength of this response depends on individual state anxiety.
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Affiliation(s)
- Olga T. Ousdal
- NORMENT, KG Jebsen Centre for Psychosis Research, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital and Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- Department of Radiology, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway
| | - Ole A. Andreassen
- NORMENT, KG Jebsen Centre for Psychosis Research, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital and Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
| | - Andres Server
- Department of Neuroradiology, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway
| | - Jimmy Jensen
- NORMENT, KG Jebsen Centre for Psychosis Research, Division of Mental Health and Addiction, Oslo University Hospital and Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- Centre for Psychology, Kristianstad University, Kristianstad, Sweden
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D'Hondt F, Honoré J, Williot A, Sequeira H. State anxiety modulates the impact of peripherally presented affective stimuli on foveal processing. J Affect Disord 2014; 152-154:91-6. [PMID: 23768530 DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2013.05.051] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/23/2013] [Accepted: 05/17/2013] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND The priority processing of peripherally presented affective stimuli was recently shown in healthy individuals to divert attentional resources dedicated to foveal processing. Here we investigated the influence of sub-clinical levels of anxiety and depression on this bias. METHODS Eighty-four participants were submitted to psychological tests that evaluate anxiety and depression levels. Then, they had to make speeded responses to the direction of left- or right-oriented arrows that were presented foveally at fixation. Each arrow was preceded by a peripherally presented pair of pictures, one neutral and one emotional, unpleasant or pleasant. Thus, the direction of the foveal arrow was either congruent or not with the peripheral location of the previously presented emotional picture. Data analysis focused on the differences of reaction times between congruent and incongruent conditions, which assess the spatial response bias in the task. RESULTS A main effect of state-anxiety was observed suggesting that the higher the level of state-anxiety, the greater the congruence effect. LIMITATIONS Since the obtained result relates to subclinical anxiety levels, its generalization to anxiety disorders remains tentative. CONCLUSIONS State-anxiety appears to modulate the propensity to be influenced by emotionally salient information occurring in peripheral vision, independently of its relevance to the ongoing behavior. The long-term persistence of a high level of alertness for emotional cues in visual periphery could contribute to the causation and the maintenance of anxiety disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
- Fabien D'Hondt
- Université Lille Nord de France, Lille, France; LNFP, UDSL, Lille, France; Neurosciences, Université de Lille 1, Villeneuve d'Ascq, France.
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