Effects of anxiety and attention control on processing pictorial and linguistic emotional information
Effects of anxiety and attention control on processing pictorial and linguistic emotional information
This study investigated the role of executive attention control in modulating selective processing of emotional information in anxiety. It was hypothesized that the combination of high anxiety and poor attention control would be associated with greater difficulty in ignoring task-irrelevant threat-related information. The study included both faces and words as stimuli. Cognitive interference effects were assessed using two emotional Stroop tasks: one with angry, fearful, happy and neutral faces, and one with threat-related, positive, and neutral words. An objective measure of attention control was obtained from the Attention Network Task. There were four participant groups with high/low trait anxiety and high/low attention control. Results indicated that the combination of high anxiety and poor attention control was associated with greater cognitive interference by emotional faces (including angry faces), compared to neutral faces. This interference effect was not evident in participants with high anxiety and high attentional control, or in low anxious individuals. There was no evidence of associations between anxiety, attention control, and the interference effect of emotional words. Results indicate that high anxiety and poor attention control together predict enhanced processing of emotionally salient information, such as angry facial expressions. Implications for models of emotion processing are discussed.
anxiety, attention control, emotional Stroop task, emotional faces
410-417
Reinholdt-Dunne, Marie Louise
89d8f25c-6a92-43bd-b2ab-a4d11422f929
Mogg, Karin
5f1474af-85f5-4fd3-8eb6-0371be848e30
Bradley, Brendan P.
bdacaa6c-528b-4086-9448-27ebfe463514
2009
Reinholdt-Dunne, Marie Louise
89d8f25c-6a92-43bd-b2ab-a4d11422f929
Mogg, Karin
5f1474af-85f5-4fd3-8eb6-0371be848e30
Bradley, Brendan P.
bdacaa6c-528b-4086-9448-27ebfe463514
Reinholdt-Dunne, Marie Louise, Mogg, Karin and Bradley, Brendan P.
(2009)
Effects of anxiety and attention control on processing pictorial and linguistic emotional information.
Behaviour Research and Therapy, 47 (5), .
(doi:10.1016/j.brat.2009.01.012).
Abstract
This study investigated the role of executive attention control in modulating selective processing of emotional information in anxiety. It was hypothesized that the combination of high anxiety and poor attention control would be associated with greater difficulty in ignoring task-irrelevant threat-related information. The study included both faces and words as stimuli. Cognitive interference effects were assessed using two emotional Stroop tasks: one with angry, fearful, happy and neutral faces, and one with threat-related, positive, and neutral words. An objective measure of attention control was obtained from the Attention Network Task. There were four participant groups with high/low trait anxiety and high/low attention control. Results indicated that the combination of high anxiety and poor attention control was associated with greater cognitive interference by emotional faces (including angry faces), compared to neutral faces. This interference effect was not evident in participants with high anxiety and high attentional control, or in low anxious individuals. There was no evidence of associations between anxiety, attention control, and the interference effect of emotional words. Results indicate that high anxiety and poor attention control together predict enhanced processing of emotionally salient information, such as angry facial expressions. Implications for models of emotion processing are discussed.
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Published date: 2009
Keywords:
anxiety, attention control, emotional Stroop task, emotional faces
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Local EPrints ID: 64916
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/64916
ISSN: 0005-7967
PURE UUID: 56891036-f53d-4d83-9c2e-ba7f615eb5e5
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Date deposited: 23 Jan 2009
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 03:19
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Author:
Marie Louise Reinholdt-Dunne
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