Attentional bias (AB) is when certain stimuli catch attention quicker than others, which varies according to individual characteristics. The study investigated: (1) if there is an AB to or from...Show moreAttentional bias (AB) is when certain stimuli catch attention quicker than others, which varies according to individual characteristics. The study investigated: (1) if there is an AB to or from itch; (2) whether this differs between people with chronic itch and healthy controls; (3) and if there is a possible AB/stress association. This is because understanding ABs to/from itch further elucidates the experience of patients with chronic itch and possible future clinical applications. Furthermore, an explorative analysis compared two tasks measuring AB, namely the Posner cueing and dot-probe task. The two tasks, alongside a stress-questionnaire, were administered online to the participants (N=70). A (frequentist and Bayesian) RM ANOVA was done for the main analysis, and a within- subjects t-test for the explorative task-comparison. Given that the task-comparison found the two tasks differing significantly (p = 0.01 d = -0.31), the results of the two tasks were interpreted separately. Overall, indications of AB being biased away from itch stimuli was found. When the AB was contrasted between participant group (people with and without chronic itch), the Posner cueing task found no significant difference (p = 0.68, ηp 2 = 0.003) whereas the dot-probe task found an AB away from itch-stimuli in patients with chronic itch (p = 0.02, ηp 2 = 0.077). Similar pattern unfolded with the stress-association: the Posner cueing task finding that AB did not significantly differ with stress (p = 0.23, ηp 2 = 0.021). The dot-probe task did find that they significantly differed (p = 0.01, ηp 2 = 0.091) where with higher stress, the AB switched to being an AB towards itch stimuli. The discrepancy between the two tasks aligns with expectations considering that the tasks were found inequivalent - highlighting one of the strengths of this study being that the two tasks were compared. Altogether this points towards differences in what the two tasks tap into, and that the attention of people with chronic itch is biased as a function of stress. Summarizing, AB to itch differed between the two groups and was associated with stress when using dot-probe task, which did not apply to the Posner cueing task.Show less
Humans evolved to live in social groups that require cooperation for survival. This has resulted in the development of social cognition, enabling us to determine the intentions and goals of other...Show moreHumans evolved to live in social groups that require cooperation for survival. This has resulted in the development of social cognition, enabling us to determine the intentions and goals of other individuals. To determine the trustworthiness of other individuals, observing aggressive and grooming interactions can be informative This study sought to investigate the differential allocation of attention towards the initiator or recipient in aggressive and grooming interactions. Furthermore, a possible interaction between the context and sex of the observer was investigated. Results indicate an attentional bias towards the initiator of aggression and recipient of grooming. The interaction of context and sex was also found to be significant. The bias in the aggressive context was only found for male participants. The bias in the grooming context was only found for female participants. Potential explanations for these biases are provided, suggesting a role for evolutionary mechanisms and social learning. Finally, several suggestions are made for future research.Show less
Background: Habitually attending to threat may contribute to anxiety. This threat-oriented attentional bias (AB) may occur in state anxiety (SA) and/or trait anxiety (TA). Current evidence is mixed...Show moreBackground: Habitually attending to threat may contribute to anxiety. This threat-oriented attentional bias (AB) may occur in state anxiety (SA) and/or trait anxiety (TA). Current evidence is mixed, possibly due to the low reliability/internal validity of a popular AB measurement tool, the Dot Probe. This study aims to clarify previous findings with a novel tool, the Dual Probe. Hypothesis: We predict those high in TA and SA will exhibit the highest threat-orientation levels, followed by those with solely high SA, then those with solely high TA. We predict low TA/SA to correlate with threat-avoidance or neutrality. Methods: Female Leiden University students (n = 58) completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. The Dual Probe task involved two on-screen pictures (mildly-threatening, neutral). After image offset, two letters appeared (50ms) in their respective locations, with participants instructed to press whichever key they saw. Threat-orientation was scored as proportion of threat-associated versus neutral-associated keypresses. Results: Analysis indicated re-test reliability of the Dual Probe (Spearman-Brown of .88). Bivariate Pearson’s r found no correlations between TA/SA and threat-orientation (TA revealed r = .03, p = .817; SA revealed r = -.05, p = .689). A multiple regression found no evidence of interaction effects (F (3, 54) = 0.986, p = .406, R2 = -.001). Discussion: Results suggest either a limited role of threat-oriented AB in the occurrence/maintenance of anxiety, or limitations in the study methods and sample. Possible theoretical connections to existing literature and practical implications for treatment are discussed, alongside future directions for the Dual Probe.Show less
Attentional biases seem to perpetuate social anxiety by locking focus onto threat-related information. The classical dot-probe task has been the golden standard of measuring selective attention...Show moreAttentional biases seem to perpetuate social anxiety by locking focus onto threat-related information. The classical dot-probe task has been the golden standard of measuring selective attention based on variations in reaction times (RT) due to bottom-up saliency. In recent decades, concerns have grown over this task's reliability, partly due to statistical concerns over its indexing method and because it fails to account for top-down behavioral strategies that circumvent bottom-up attentional capture. This pilot study tested the novel Parallel Target Attention Task (PATAT) assessing attentional biases towards novel stimuli, as it aims to overcome these shortcomings. The task measured participant’s responses to two target stimuli presented in proximity to a familiar and a novel stimulus. An attentional bias was then calculated as a straightforward sum of participant responses to novel stimuli. By contrasting images of faces and natural scenes, we examined whether a bias for novelty is category specific. Last but not least, we investigated whether people who display higher levels of Behavioral Inhibition (BI), pay more attention to novel stimuli. The task was able to measure an attention bias toward novelty in the majority of participants but fell short on replicating a category-dependent bias. Also, contrary to our hypothesis that novel stimuli elicit more bottom-up attentional capture in such participants, data showed the opposite trend, consistent with the observation that such individuals generally avoid novel experiences. Theoretical and methodological implications of the results are discussed.Show less
Itch is a common unpleasant sensation that comes with the urge to scratch. Itch draws our attention and can be adaptive to humans in order to alert individuals to potential threats. At the same...Show moreItch is a common unpleasant sensation that comes with the urge to scratch. Itch draws our attention and can be adaptive to humans in order to alert individuals to potential threats. At the same time, itch can impair daily functioning and strongly disrupt an individual’s quality of life when it becomes chronic. Even though itch is a prevalent symptom, research investigating an attentional bias towards itch, the tendency to pay attention towards itch-related stimuli over other stimuli, is scarce. Findings in this field are mixed and the divergent results might be explained by individual characteristics. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the influence of individual characteristics; namely neuroticism, catastrophizing and anxiety, on attentional bias towards itch by conducting a secondary analysis. Results from seven similar studies examining an attentional bias towards itch and individual characteristics were analyzed using a multilevel modeling analysis. All these studies used the dot-probe task to measure an attentional bias towards itch-related information (words or pictures). Additionally, several self-report questionnaires were administered, which were related to the individual characteristics. A total of 577 healthy participants were included. Results did not indicate an attentional bias towards itch-related words or pictures. Also, the individual characteristics, neuroticism, catastrophizing and anxiety, did not influence one’s attentional bias towards itch. This secondary analysis was a first step in combining findings on attentional bias towards itch and exploring its relationship with individual characteristics. Further research is warranted to optimize attentional bias measures and conduct more studies that focus on the influence of individual characteristics and attentional bias towards itch.Show less
This project investigated if there was any association between attentional bias (AB) towards itch-related stimuli and depression and anxiety scores in patients with chronic itch compared to healthy...Show moreThis project investigated if there was any association between attentional bias (AB) towards itch-related stimuli and depression and anxiety scores in patients with chronic itch compared to healthy controls. This study also explored if gender had an influence on any of these variables. An orientation dot-probe task with pictures adjusted to chronic itch was used as a measurement of AB. 16 pairings of a neutral image and an itch-related image which were displayed on screen for 500ms, either image was then replaced by two dots in either a horizontal or vertical orientation. Participants responded as quickly as possible to the orientation of the dots. The average reaction times were used to calculate an AB index for each participant. There were 6 participants in total: 5 with chronic itch and 1 healthy control. Patients with chronic itch were diagnosed with either psoriasis or atopic dermatitis(eczema). Participants also completed questionnaires including the DASS-21. Results showed that patients did not have higher levels of depression and anxiety symptomatology compared to the healthy control. There was no significant effect of group on AB indexes; the reaction times were not faster in patients with chronic itch compared to the healthy control. There was no significant effect of gender on depression and anxiety scores, or on AB. Future research is suggested to improve psychometric properties of AB paradigms. Likewise, this project calls for increased research into treatment possibilities for chronic itch, not only for somatic symptoms but for the emotional, cognitive, and behavioural consequences of these conditions.Show less
Background: The personality factors neuroticism, conscientiousness, and extraversion, as well as threat-related attentional bias are significantly associated with anxiety disorders,...Show moreBackground: The personality factors neuroticism, conscientiousness, and extraversion, as well as threat-related attentional bias are significantly associated with anxiety disorders, transdiagnostically. Hypothesis: These personality constructs are correlated with attentional bias, and it might be through this that they create vulnerability for anxiety. Methods: The cross-sectional experimental study (N = 40) administered a dual-probe-task with neutral, mildly-threatening, and highly-threatening images. Results: Significant negative associations with big effect sizes were found between conscientiousness and attending towards threat. More conscientious individuals automatically attended away from mild-threats. Conclusion and Implications: A pathway through which conscientiousness may be acting to create vulnerability for anxiety was proposed. The goal engagement system, as hypothesized in the cognitive- motivational model by Mogg & Bradley, keeps the attention automatically on goal-related stimuli in the absence of a perceived true threat in the environment. The current study adds a new layer to this model, illustrating how intact one’s goal engagement system, even in the absence of pathologic anxiety, is on a spectrum, and can be operationalized by one’s conscientiousness level. Individuals with lower levels of conscientiousness would not have a strong goal engagement system, not resulting in an automatic avoidance of mild-threats, leading overtime to an accumulation of evidence for negative cues, making it easier to form cognitive distortions, predisposing one to anxiety. Increasing conscientiousness might be a promising psychotherapeutic target. Crucial for the anxiety-related attentional bias research field, exploratory analyses showed conscientiousness to be a more important predictor of attentional bias, compared to attentional control. Future attentional bias studies should assess conscientiousness.Show less
The menstrual cycle has been demonstrated to have wide-ranging effects on cognition and emotions. Specific mood syndromes are associated with particular phases of the menstrual cycle, and the...Show moreThe menstrual cycle has been demonstrated to have wide-ranging effects on cognition and emotions. Specific mood syndromes are associated with particular phases of the menstrual cycle, and the prevalence of mood disorders is higher in women. We aimed to investigate, whether the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle has a negative effect on anxiety levels, through temporarily increased attention to negative emotional stimuli, referred to as attentional bias (AB). We collected data on 194 healthy participants using online surveys and an emotional dot-probe task (eDPT), with pictorial stimuli of emotional facial expressions (angry, fearful, happy, and neutral). We aimed to investigate whether different groups of participants (follicular phase women (N = 30), luteal phase women (N = 24), oral contraceptive using women (N = 75), and men (N = 65)) would exhibit ABs in the eDPT. We hypothesized that luteal phase women would show larger AB for emotional stimuli, and, specifically, angry and fearful stimuli. Further, we expected that differences in state anxiety levels between the groups would account for differences in AB. Our results did not support our hypotheses. We found a significant AB for emotional faces over neutral faces, and different average response times depending on the specific emotion in a given trial. However, the magnitude of these effects was the same for follicular phase women, luteal phase women, OC users, and men. Further, these results were unaffected by state anxiety levels of the participants. From these results, we could conclude that there simply is no difference in AB for emotional stimuli between the chosen groups of participants, using the eDPT. Alternatively, methodological constraints might have contributed to these null findings.Show less
Itch can produce significant problems and diminish quality of life because it requires a great deal of attention. The studies conducted on attentional bias towards itch differ greatly in results....Show moreItch can produce significant problems and diminish quality of life because it requires a great deal of attention. The studies conducted on attentional bias towards itch differ greatly in results. The primary aim of the current meta-analysis is to determine the overall extent of attentional bias towards visual itch stimuli which healthy individuals display when measured with the dot-probe task. A secondary aim is to investigate how strongly the individual character trait neuroticism predicts attentional bias towards itch in healthy individuals. In total, 563 healthy participants from seven different studies had been included in this meta-analysis for the first hypothesis, and 408 healthy participants from five studies for the second hypothesis. The main findings of the present meta-analysis do not support the notion that healthy individuals display attentional bias towards itch pictures and words (ES = 0.76, SE = 3.43, t (4.27) = 0.22, P = 0.835, 95% CI: -.3.39 to 4.04). Furthermore, it does not support the notion that individuals who score higher on neuroticism have an attentional bias towards itch pictures and words (ES = 0.33, SE = 0.38, t (326.33) = -0.88, P = 0.381, 95% CI: -3.24 to 3.87). This meta-analysis leads to prospective directions to further explore different factors of attentional bias towards itch stimuli. Future researchers need to investigate whether itch stimuli may potentially be biased in patients with chronic itch. Furthermore, studies are needed to investigate whether attentional bias is not reflected in these studies and how the differences in results are caused, for instance by researching other character traits.Show less
Attentional bias (AB) refers to increased attention or salience to certain stimuli. Women who use hormonal contraception only have a greater accuracy and response bias for sad expressions, which...Show moreAttentional bias (AB) refers to increased attention or salience to certain stimuli. Women who use hormonal contraception only have a greater accuracy and response bias for sad expressions, which can be linked to depression symptoms and diagnoses. It was hypothesized that women who use hormonal contraception have a larger AB towards negative emotions in comparison to naturally cycling women. Healthy female volunteers (N=266) participated in an online AB task, the emotional dot-probe task including the facial expressions: neutral, angry, happy, and fearful faces. Additionally, the participants filled in the DASS-21 questionnaire, where this study utilized the depression subscale. AB was quantified as the difference between reaction times to incongruent and congruent trials. A significant AB was found in this online set-up. The naturally cycling women group showed a stronger AB in comparison to the hormonal contraception users. This effect was independent of emotion. Even though no significant effect of depression was found and no correlation between AB and depression was found, there was a trend for the naturally cycling women group to score higher on depressive symptoms, which may contribute to the higher AB in this group. The contradictory results may be clarified by the fact that, compared to naturally cycling women, hormonal contraception users experience less variation in mood during the menstrual cycle and there is less negative mood throughout the menstrual period. By comparing these groups, these findings contribute to increasing evidence of research examining the use of hormonal contraception and the influence it may have on mood.Show less
Background: Threat-related attentional biases (ABs) in anxiety show considerable heterogeneity; there is evidence for hypervigilance to, and avoidance of threat. Taking the stimulus threat level...Show moreBackground: Threat-related attentional biases (ABs) in anxiety show considerable heterogeneity; there is evidence for hypervigilance to, and avoidance of threat. Taking the stimulus threat level and attentional control (AC) into account is thought to aid in explaining this heterogeneity. Prior work on the relations between these variables showed inconclusive results. Hypotheses: Trait anxiety levels, AC levels, and their interaction are associated with different patterns of AB scores, depending on the stimulus’s threat level. Methods: Fifty-two participants completed self-report measures of trait anxiety and AC and participated in a dot-probe task with neutral, mild threat, and high threat pictorial stimuli. Hypotheses were tested with rm ANOVAs and post-hoc correlation tests. Results: High trait anxiety was associated with hypervigilant AB to mild threat, but no association with AB to high threat was found. Low AC was related to more avoidance of high threat, but not to AB to mild threat. AC did not moderate the relationship between trait anxiety and threat-level dependent AB. Discussion and Conclusions: These findings confirm that threat level influences threat-related ABs in anxiety. While this relationship was not further influenced by individual differences in AC, the role AC on its own plays in threat-level dependent ABs is supported.Show less
It is hypothesized that anxiety disorders can be caused and maintained by defective, biased, or negative manners of attentional processing of threatening information. In much previous research the...Show moreIt is hypothesized that anxiety disorders can be caused and maintained by defective, biased, or negative manners of attentional processing of threatening information. In much previous research the role of attentional control and stimulus threat level in this process have been much neglected. The current study aimed to partly replicate two previous studies that did study these factors. Fifty-two female participants between the ages 18 and 30 completed the questionnaires for both trait anxiety and attentional control. Afterwards the participants performed a dot-probe task with neutral, mild and high threat pictures. Results showed that trait anxiety is related to on attentional bias towards mild threat but does not matter for high threat. Results also showed that lower attentional control resulted in more vigilance towards mild than high threat. Unexpectedly, we did not find significant results for the three-way interaction between threat level, trait anxiety and attentional control. We conclude that trait anxiety, stimulus threat level and attentional control are related to attentional bias, consequently it is very important to take individual differences for anxiety, attentional control and stimulus threat level into account.Show less
Models on social anxiety disorder, such as the Cognitive Behavioral Model by Rapee and Heimberg (1997) suggested that maladaptive attentional processes are strongly involved in the disorder’s...Show moreModels on social anxiety disorder, such as the Cognitive Behavioral Model by Rapee and Heimberg (1997) suggested that maladaptive attentional processes are strongly involved in the disorder’s etiology and maintenance. The current study aimed to build upon recent findings in highly socially anxious individuals by testing a non-clinical population for a positive relation between the attentional bias towards angry faces and social anxiety trait levels. Additionally, attentional biases to other emotional facial expressions (i.e., angry, happy, sad, and fearful) were explored for their relationship with social anxiety trait levels, as was the influence of context on the relationship between the attentional bias towards angry faces and social anxiety trait levels. 104 healthy participants completed the dot-probe task showing an emotional facial expression. This was done in in two natural settings (Apenheul or Night of Discoveries) and one lab setting. Results indicated a marginal significant trend of individuals with higher social anxiety trait levels also presenting stronger attentional biases towards angry faces. The additional exploratory investigations yielded no significant results. Based on the current results it was concluded that the relation between the attentional bias towards threat and social anxiety levels, which is quite consistently found in individuals with clinical levels of social anxiety, existed also in a weaker form in a healthy population, and might increase with higher social anxiety trait scores. This provides insight on how attentional biases might affect the general population’s behavior and how a potentially beneficial evolutionary function can turn dysfunctional in socially anxious individuals.Show less
Social anxiety (SA) is found to be highly co-prevalent for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Both are characterized by attentional abnormalities in emotional processing. Previous...Show moreSocial anxiety (SA) is found to be highly co-prevalent for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Both are characterized by attentional abnormalities in emotional processing. Previous research has shown a significant bias towards angry faces for individuals in both groups. This study aims to investigate the co-prevalence between SA and ASD traits in a non-clinical sample, and how these trait dimensions relate to an attentional bias (AB) towards angry faces. We want to investigate whether SA traits moderate the relationship between ASD traits and the AB towards threatening stimuli. A dot-probe paradigm and self-report questionnaires were used. The results suggest an overlap of characteristics of SA and ASD on trait levels in a non-clinical population. There was significant bias towards angry faces independent of SA and ASD traits. No significant link between the SA and ASD traits and the attentional bias was found and the relationship between ASD traits and the AB towards angry faces was independent of SA trait scores. These results could indicate that in comparison to clinical groups, individuals at lower levels of SA are able to regulate the attentional bias more easily or that the emotional processing for individuals with ASD traits does not reach the hypo- or hyper-arousal. We suggest further exploration of the AB at various points of the spectrum for SA, as well as for clinical groups with ASD. We recommend further investigation on the difference between the AB and disengagement index, in line with recent literature on SA.Show less
Parental stress can have a negative impact on attentional bias in infants, which is an emotion processing construct. The present study investigated if parental stress is positively related to...Show moreParental stress can have a negative impact on attentional bias in infants, which is an emotion processing construct. The present study investigated if parental stress is positively related to attentional bias towards fearful over happy faces in infants aged 5 to 19 months. The sample consisted out of 220 infants (male: 48,2%, female: 51,2%) and their 229 primary caregivers (male: 32,3%, female: 67,7%). The research has a cross-sectional experimental design. Attentional bias was measured with an eye-tracker, which measured dwell times in infants when looking at happy and fearful faces. Parental stress was measured with the stress-scale of the DASS. The analyses suggested that parental stress was not positively related to attentional bias of their infants, whereas other studies found that parental stress was positively related to attentional bias. These differences in findings may be due to the fact that SES-variables were not taken into account in the present study. Besides, attentional bias differs across age groups, but also age was not taken into account. Therefore, attentional bias is a dynamic construct, which needs to be further examined with respect to variables that influence the link between parental stress and attentional bias.Show less
Social anxiety disorder is a disabling disorder that runs in families. One way in which anxiety is transmitted from parents to children is through parental verbal information, which induces...Show moreSocial anxiety disorder is a disabling disorder that runs in families. One way in which anxiety is transmitted from parents to children is through parental verbal information, which induces attentional biases towards threat-associated animals over safety-associated animals. However, this effect has only been researched with unknown animals as the subject of information. Therefore the current study aimed to investigate the effect of parental verbal information on children’s attentional bias in a social situation, using human strangers as the subject of information. Additionally, the moderating role of child social anxiety was explored. For this study, children (aged 4-6, N=52) visited the lab with their primary caregiver. The caregivers then transferred messages to their children about two strangers: one paired with positive information, one with negative information. After the children completed a social performance task with the strangers posing as judges, the children completed a visual search task with pictures of the strangers to measure children’s attentional bias towards the strangers. Also, child social anxiety was measured by parental report on a questionnaire. A repeated measures ANOVA showed no significant effect of parental verbal information on child attentional bias. Child social anxiety also did not affect this relationship. The absence of a significant effect of verbal information on attentional bias can be explained by the non-aversive experience children had with the strangers. If this possible extinction effect is found in future studies as well, it may have implications for the extended use of exposure therapy in the treatment of child social anxiety.Show less
Is attentional bias the underlying concept behind the vicious circle in which children with low reading motivation, poor reading culture (home literacy environment) and lagging in reading...Show moreIs attentional bias the underlying concept behind the vicious circle in which children with low reading motivation, poor reading culture (home literacy environment) and lagging in reading performance determine themselves? In the current study, 428 primary school pupils from groups 6 and 7 are taken to investigate the influence of the home literacy environment and reading performance on the reading motivation . Through questionnaires it was found that a more stimulating home environment and literacy ensures a better the vocabulary and a stronger reading motivation . In addition, we investigated whether non- enthusiastic readers have a resistance (attentional bias) to reading. Attentional bias is measured with a digital selective attention task and was not found in enthusiastic or non - enthusiastic readers.Show less
