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Anxiety and selective attention to angry faces: an antisaccade study

Anxiety and selective attention to angry faces: an antisaccade study
Anxiety and selective attention to angry faces: an antisaccade study
Cognitive models of anxiety propose that anxiety is associated with an attentional bias for threat, which increases vulnerability to emotional distress and is difficult to control. The study aim was to investigate relationships between the effects of threatening information, anxiety, and attention control on eye movements. High and low trait anxious individuals performed antisaccade and prosaccade tasks with angry, fearful, happy, and neutral faces. Results indicated that high-anxious participants showed a greater antisaccade cost for angry than neutral faces (i.e., relatively slower to look away from angry faces), compared with low-anxious individuals. This bias was not found for fearful or happy faces. The bias for angry faces was not related to individual differences in attention control assessed on self-report and behavioral measures. Findings support the view that anxiety is associated with difficulty in using cognitive control resources to inhibit attentional orienting to angry faces, and that attention control is multi-faceted.
2044-5911
54-65
Reinholdt-Dunne, M.L.
4504d8c8-2ff7-444f-9f34-c6abbd61bf81
Mogg, K.
5f1474af-85f5-4fd3-8eb6-0371be848e30
Benson, V.
4827cede-6668-4e3d-bded-ade4cd5e5db5
Bradley, B. P.
bdacaa6c-528b-4086-9448-27ebfe463514
Hardin, M.G.
3ee9c832-830e-4b13-9de7-26d3c88f6331
Liversedge, S.P.
3ebda3f3-d930-4f89-85d5-5654d8fe7dee
Pine, D.S.
2e901eb3-8789-4838-8891-bce5e005727c
Ernst, M.
577e5b64-aa72-47d1-8093-7b1f9a27dc76
Reinholdt-Dunne, M.L.
4504d8c8-2ff7-444f-9f34-c6abbd61bf81
Mogg, K.
5f1474af-85f5-4fd3-8eb6-0371be848e30
Benson, V.
4827cede-6668-4e3d-bded-ade4cd5e5db5
Bradley, B. P.
bdacaa6c-528b-4086-9448-27ebfe463514
Hardin, M.G.
3ee9c832-830e-4b13-9de7-26d3c88f6331
Liversedge, S.P.
3ebda3f3-d930-4f89-85d5-5654d8fe7dee
Pine, D.S.
2e901eb3-8789-4838-8891-bce5e005727c
Ernst, M.
577e5b64-aa72-47d1-8093-7b1f9a27dc76

Reinholdt-Dunne, M.L., Mogg, K., Benson, V., Bradley, B. P., Hardin, M.G., Liversedge, S.P., Pine, D.S. and Ernst, M. (2012) Anxiety and selective attention to angry faces: an antisaccade study. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 24 (1), 54-65. (doi:10.1080/20445911.2011.560111).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Cognitive models of anxiety propose that anxiety is associated with an attentional bias for threat, which increases vulnerability to emotional distress and is difficult to control. The study aim was to investigate relationships between the effects of threatening information, anxiety, and attention control on eye movements. High and low trait anxious individuals performed antisaccade and prosaccade tasks with angry, fearful, happy, and neutral faces. Results indicated that high-anxious participants showed a greater antisaccade cost for angry than neutral faces (i.e., relatively slower to look away from angry faces), compared with low-anxious individuals. This bias was not found for fearful or happy faces. The bias for angry faces was not related to individual differences in attention control assessed on self-report and behavioral measures. Findings support the view that anxiety is associated with difficulty in using cognitive control resources to inhibit attentional orienting to angry faces, and that attention control is multi-faceted.

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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 23 November 2010
Published date: January 2012
Organisations: Clinical Neuroscience

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 168045
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/168045
ISSN: 2044-5911
PURE UUID: b45ab179-7448-4cd6-bb22-dfc6bbd83bcd
ORCID for B. P. Bradley: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-2801-4271

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 24 Nov 2010 12:59
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 02:45

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Contributors

Author: M.L. Reinholdt-Dunne
Author: K. Mogg
Author: V. Benson
Author: B. P. Bradley ORCID iD
Author: M.G. Hardin
Author: S.P. Liversedge
Author: D.S. Pine
Author: M. Ernst

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