I don't know where to look: the impact of intolerance of uncertainty on saccades towards non-predictive emotional face distractors

Skills and cautiousness predict performance in difficult search

People differ in how well they search. What are the factors that might contribute to this variability? We tested the contribution of two cognitive abilities: visual working memory (VWM) capacity and object recognition ability. Participants completed three tasks: a difficult inefficient visual search task, where they searched for a target letter T among skewed L distractors; a VWM task, where they memorized a color array and then identified whether a probed color belonged to the previous array; and the Novel Object Memory Test (NOMT), where they learnt complex novel objects and then identified them amongst objects that closely resembled them. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed that there are two latent factors that explain the shared variance among these three tasks: a factor indicative of the level of caution participants exercised during the challenging visual search task, and a factor representing their visual cognitive abilities. People who score high on the search cautiousness tend to perform a more accurate but slower search. People who score high on the visual cognitive ability factor tend to have a higher VWM capacity, a better object recognition ability, and a faster search speed. The results reflect two points: (1) Visual search tasks share components with visual working memory and object recognition tasks. (2) Search performance is influenced not only by the search display's properties but also by individual predispositions such as caution and general visual abilities. This study introduces new factors for consideration when interpreting variations in visual search behaviors.

Synchronized Incidental Affect Changes Ambiguity Preferences

Decisions under uncertainty are prevalent, but come under two distinct types. Risk, which has unknown outcomes but known probabilities for those outcomes and ambiguity which contains both unknown outcomes and unknown probabilities. Although there have been several studies linking affect and aversion to ambiguity, there have been no studies that have to identify how changing one's affective response can change their choices. A total of 166 adults ( M = 36.54, SD = 11.80) participated in an online study through Prolific. Participants were presented with a lottery on each trial which varied on its uncertainty type (risky vs ambiguous) and winning characteristics (winning probability and amount). Half of the ambiguous lotteries were paired with an neutral image (e.g., office supplies), while the other half was paired with an emotionally evocative image (e.g., burning house) that was hypothesized to incidentally influence their decisions. As measured by both raw choice data as well as through a computational model, participants were more averse to ambiguity when the lottery was paired with an emotionally evocative image. Follow-up analyses revealed that only lotteries in which the computational model predicted the participant would choose the lottery were affected by the images. This study highlights the phenomenon in which one's awareness of an affective stimulus can alter its impact on their decisions.

Just say 'I don't know': Understanding information stagnation during a highly ambiguous visual search task

Visual search experiments typically involve participants searching simple displays with two potential response options: 'present' or 'absent'. Here we examined search behavior and decision-making when participants were tasked with searching ambiguous displays whilst also being given a third response option: 'I don't know'. Participants searched for a simple target (the letter 'o') amongst other letters in the displays. We made the target difficult to detect by increasing the degree to which letters overlapped in the displays. The results showed that as overlap increased, participants were more likely to respond 'I don't know', as expected. RT analyses demonstrated that 'I don't know' responses occurred at a later time than 'present' responses (but before 'absent' responses) when the overlap was low. By contrast, when the overlap was high, 'I don't know' responses occurred very rapidly. We discuss the implications of our findings for current models and theories in terms of what we refer to as 'information stagnation' during visual search.

The effect of uncertainty on attentional bias in subclinical worriers: Evidence from reaction time and eye-tracking

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

High-worry individuals have been assumed to show attentional bias towards threat, particularly under high uncertainty. This study experimentally investigated the effect of uncertainty on attentional bias in subclinical worriers.

METHODS

A visual dot-probe task combined with eye-tracking was used to assess participants' attentional bias towards blurred and unfiltered stimuli. Fifty high-worry and 47 low-worry participants were randomly assigned to either the high- or low-uncertainty threat condition. Aversive noise bursts were delivered either unpredictably (the high-uncertainty threat condition) or predictably (the low-uncertainty threat condition) during the visual dot-probe task.

RESULTS

In the low-uncertainty threat condition, high-worry participants exhibited enhanced attentional engagement towards blurred pictures compared to low-worry participants. They also had shorter initial fixation latencies on blurred pictures than on unfiltered pictures. In the high-uncertainty threat condition, high-worry participants demonstrated more difficulty in disengaging from threatening pictures compared to low-worry participants.

LIMITATION

First, this study used a nonclinical sample. Second, the power was limited with regard to the analysis of eye-movement data. Third, anxiety and worry induced by noise bursts were measured using subjective rating scales only. Fourth, some picture characteristics, such as luminosity and complexity, were not controlled. Finally, uncertainty related to delivery of noise bursts and pictures were both manipulated dichotomously.

CONCLUSION

This study highlights the importance of uncertainty in the maintenance of attentional bias towards threat-related pictures in high-worry individuals.

The impact of threat of shock-induced anxiety on alerting, orienting, and executive function in women: an ERP study

The present study used a combination of the Threat-of-Shock paradigm and the Attention Network Test (ANT) to investigate how induced anxiety affects alerting, orienting, and executive control and whether individual differences in threat sensitivity moderate these effects. Forty-two female subjects completed the ANT task in alternation under shock-threat and no-shock ("safe") conditions while event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded. The results showed that anxiety induced by the threat of shock had a significant impact on alerting and executive control functions at the neural level. Specifically, alerting-related N1 and stimulus-preceding negativity (SPN) differences between double cue and no cue conditions were greater in the threat versus safe state, suggesting that the induced anxiety promoted the early perception of cues and preparation for the target. Moreover, executive control-related P3 and sustained potential (SP) differences between incongruent and congruent trials were greater in the threat versus safe state, indicating that the induced anxiety might improve the attentional allocation efficiency and stimulate subjects to recruit more cognitive resources to resolve conflicts. However, orienting-related ERPs were not affected by the threat of shock, but the threat of shock promoted the processing efficiency of spatial-cue at the behavioral level. Analysis of individual differences revealed that trait anxiety moderated the attentional allocation efficiency when performing executive control related tasks in the threat versus safe state. Our findings demonstrate the adaptive significance of the threat of shock-induced anxiety in that being in an anxious state can enhance individuals' alerting, orienting, and executive functions.

Using different types of visual reaction time measurements for assessing cognitive difficulties in depression

There is a need for objective, easy and relatively short methods to diagnose cognition in depression. We have constructed a set of simple visual tasks using three different ways of speed measuring: paper-pencil-based, computer-based, and eye-tracking based. We used a single case design with 22 participants. A clinical group counted 11 patients with major depression examined two times (first examination without medication and second after three months of medical treatment) together with a group of 11 matched healthy controls. Cognitive difficulties were observable in all the checked levels of performance. The weakest in all tasks were patients before medication, some improvement was observed after medical treatment, but not matching the level of healthy controls. Cognitive difficulties were not eliminated by medical treatment as quickly as emotional disturbances were. The observed difficulties could be interpreted in terms of psychomotor retardation, a typical symptom in depression, which proved to be mainly cognitive as the analysis of differences in reaction times and the first saccade latencies concluded. The analysis of simple visual reaction times on several stages turned out to be a promising method to measure the cognitive state in persons with mood disorders and cognitive convalescence during major depressive disorder treatment.

Using what we know about threat reactivity models to understand mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has been accompanied by unprecedented levels of stress and threats in a variety of domains (e.g., health, livelihood). Individual differences in threat reactivity may explain why some individuals are at elevated risk for the development or maintenance of psychopathology during the COVID-19 pandemic. This article describes several prominent models, mechanisms, and components of threat reactivity (e.g., appraisals, intolerance of uncertainty, avoidance) and discusses how they might help improve understanding of changes in psychopathology during and following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Proof of Concept of Novel Visuo-Spatial-Motor Fall Prevention Training for Old People

Falls in the geriatric population are one of the most important causes of disabilities in this age group. Its consequences impose a great deal of economic burden on health and insurance systems. This study was conducted by a multidisciplinary team with the aim of evaluating the effect of visuo-spatial-motor training for the prevention of falls in older adults. The subjects consisted of 31 volunteers aged 60 to 92 years who were studied in three groups: (1) A group under standard physical training, (2) a group under visuo-spatial-motor interventions, and (3) a control group (without any intervention). The results of the study showed that visual-spatial motor exercises significantly reduced the risk of falls of the subjects.

The Missing Pieces of the Puzzle: A Review on the Interactive Nature of A-Priori Expectancies and Attention Bias toward Threat

The role of attention bias in the etiology and maintenance of anxiety disorders has been studied extensively over decades. Attention bias reflects maladaptation in cognitive processing, as perceived threatening stimuli receive prioritized processing even when they are task-irrelevant or factually unthreatening. Recently, there has been some interest in the role of a-priori expectancies in attention bias toward threat. The current review article will present recent studies as examples that emphasize the need for more comprehensive research about the interactive effects of various factors that affect the relationship between expectancies and attention bias toward threatening stimuli in anxiety. The current review article suggests a holistic view, which advocates for more integrative research, as a dynamic network could underlie changes in attention bias. The study of the interaction between such factors, with a focus on expectancy, can lead to more ecological and clinically important results, and thus to more informed and fine-tuned treatments that are based on manipulation of expectancies. Such methods, in turn, can also help in shedding light on the research of attention bias, in a mutual relationship between research and therapy.

State anxiety reduces working memory capacity but does not impact filtering cost for neutral distracters

Current theories propose that anxiety adversely impacts working memory (WM) by restricting WM capacity and interfering with efficient filtering of task-irrelevant information. The current study investigated the effect of shock-induced state anxiety on WM capacity and the ability to filter task-irrelevant neutral stimuli. We measured the contralateral delay activity (CDA), an event-related potential that indexes the number of items maintained in WM, while participants completed a lateralized change detection task. The task included low and high WM loads, as well as a low load plus distracter condition. This design was used to assess WM capacity for low and high loads and investigate an individual's ability to filter neutral task-irrelevant stimuli. Participants completed the task under two conditions, threat of shock and safe. We observed a reduced CDA in the threat compared to the safe condition that was specific for high memory load. However, we did not find any differences in CDA filtering cost between threat and safe conditions. In addition, we did not find any differences in behavioral performance between the threat and safe conditions. These findings suggest that being in an anxious state reduces the neural representation for large amounts of information in WM, but have little effect on the filtering of neutral distracters.

The Impact of Intolerance of Uncertainty and Cognitive Behavioural Instructions on Safety Learning

Background

Difficulty updating threat associations to safe associations has been observed in individuals who score high in self-reported Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU). Here we sought to determine whether an instruction based on fundamental principles of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy could promote safety learning in individuals with higher levels of IU, whilst controlling for self-reported trait anxiety (STICSA).

Methods

We measured skin conductance response, pupil dilation and expectancy ratings during an associative threat learning task in which participants either received a cognitive behavioural instruction or no instruction prior to threat extinction (n = 92).

Results

Analyses revealed that both self-reported IU and STICSA similarly predicted differences in skin conductance response. Only individuals with lower IU/STICSA in the cognitive behavioural instruction condition displayed successful safety learning via skin conductance response.

Conclusions

These initial results provide some insight into how simple cognitive behavioural instructions combined with exposure are applied differently in individuals with varying levels of self-reported anxiety. The results further our understanding of the role of basic cognitive behavioural principles and self-reported anxiety in safety learning.

Intolerance of uncertainty is associated with reduced attentional inhibition in the absence of direct threat

Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is a dispositional tendency to find uncertain situations aversive. There is limited understanding as to how IU may bias attention to uncertainty in the absence of direct threat. Here we examined the extent to which uncertain distractors and individual differences in IU impacted eye-movements during an attentional capture task. Participants were asked to move their eyes towards a target, whilst ignoring an array of distractors. An additional distractor could appear before or after the target in a near or far location from the target. We observed high IU individuals to display fewer first saccades to the target in all conditions. The results were specific to IU, over trait anxiety. Overall, these results suggest that IU modulates attention to uncertainty in the absence of direct threat. Such findings inform the conceptualisation of IU and its relation to psychopathology.