Extensive literature demonstrated the relation of trait anxiety to attentional bias to threat. Several studies pointed to the moderating role of attentional control. This study investigated whether...Show moreExtensive literature demonstrated the relation of trait anxiety to attentional bias to threat. Several studies pointed to the moderating role of attentional control. This study investigated whether trait anxiety correlated with attentional bias to threat and if this relation was moderated by one’s attentional control ability. Participants (N = 56) were aged between 18 and 31 years. To measure trait anxiety, participants filled out the State‐Trait Anxiety Inventory. Attentional control was measured using the Attentional Control Scale. A dual probe task was employed to assess participants’ attentional bias to threat. Based on previous research it was hypothesized that trait anxiety would positively correlate with attentional bias to mild threat when attentional control is low and that there would be no correlation between the two variables when attentional control is high. Further, it was hypothesized that trait anxiety and attentional bias to high threat would correlate negatively when attentional control is low while showing no association when attentional control is high. Pearson correlation coefficients and linear regression analyses revealed that trait anxiety and attentional bias to mild threat showed a significant positive correlation, but attentional control did not moderate the association. Contrary to expectations, trait anxiety correlated significantly positively with attentional bias to high threat and attentional control did not moderate the association. It was concluded that trait anxiety was related to attentional bias to threat. It was unclear, however, under which conditions individuals showed engagement or disengagement from threat. The moderating role of attentional control was not replicated.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
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
Research so far has shown that sleep is associated with and can predict suicidal ideation. One potential mediating variable in this relationship is mood, while studies have shown that mood is...Show moreResearch so far has shown that sleep is associated with and can predict suicidal ideation. One potential mediating variable in this relationship is mood, while studies have shown that mood is associated with both sleep and suicidal ideation. However, there is no known study so far on this topic. Therefore, the present single-case study aims at testing the mediation effect of mood on the relationship between sleep and short-term suicidal ideation using the Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) method. Both subjective and objective sleep quality measures were included. The study lasted 21 days, and the participant had to complete a short online questionnaire four times per day, administered on their phone. The questionnaire collected self-reported data on subjective sleep quality, mood, and suicidal ideation. Objective sleep quality was assessed using an actiwatch positioned on the participant's hand. Our hypotheses were that both objective and subjective poor sleep quality would lead to a subsequent decrease in positive mood over the day, which, in turn, would be associated with short-term (daily) increases in suicidal ideation. Two first-order autoregressive (AR[1]) multilevel models were developed, testing for each of the two sleep parameters separately. Statistical analyses revealed non-significant effects of both subjective and objective sleep quality on mood and suicidal ideation. However, results showed a significant effect of mood on suicidal ideation. This finding supports the importance of mood associations with suicidal ideation. We suggest that future research further explores the mediation effect of mood on the relationship between sleep and short-term suicidal ideation using larger samples and broader-item sleep scales.Show less
Background: Suicide forms a leading cause of death in the world, but much remains unknown about the daily risk factors for it. Stressful events are known to precede suicide attempts, but no...Show moreBackground: Suicide forms a leading cause of death in the world, but much remains unknown about the daily risk factors for it. Stressful events are known to precede suicide attempts, but no conclusions can be drawn about the proximal effect of stress on suicidal ideation and behavior. In addition, promising protective factors against stress and suicidal ideation, such as optimism, are yet to be studied in real-time. This case study aimed to discover more about the effect of stress on momentary suicidal ideation and whether optimism could protect an individual from the effects of stress. Methods: One participant was followed in daily life for 21 consecutive days, completing ecological momentary assessment (EMA) through a mobile phone app four times a day. EMA assessed stressful events, level of suicidal ideation and level of optimism. Simple linear regression analysis was performed to study the effect of stress on suicidal ideation and moderation analysis was performed to study the protective effect of optimism. Results: Stress was associated with momentary levels of suicidal ideation, with more stressful events being associated with more severe suicidal ideation. Optimism did not moderate the relationship between stress and suicidal ideation. Optimism independently was associated with momentary levels of suicidal ideation. Conclusions: Stress formed a significant risk factor for momentary suicidal ideation in a case study of daily predictors of suicidal ideation. Further replications of this study are needed to generalize the findings, but including stress management in treatment for suicidal symptoms might be particularly beneficial.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
The presented study targets the interplay of stress exposure and attentional responses towards threats in connection to trait anxiety. Previous research suggests that an underlying change in threat...Show moreThe presented study targets the interplay of stress exposure and attentional responses towards threats in connection to trait anxiety. Previous research suggests that an underlying change in threat-appraisal (indicated through higher trait anxiety scores) might significantly alter the attentional response of individuals when exposed to stress. Instead of displaying an attentional bias towards mild threats, it was hypothesised that the higher the score in trait anxiety assessment, the greater the avoidance behaviour. This project included 64 female students of Leiden University and assessed trait anxiety via Spielberger’s State-Trait-Anxiety-Inventory. Stress (psychosocial, physiological and anticipatory) was induced with three tasks prior to the start of the main experiment. To measure the attentional bias, a dot-probe task was implemented. The task consisted of 206 trials with an 80ms cue delay. Multiple regression analyses and post-hoc correlation analyses were performed, where almost no significant results were observed. Trait anxiety displayed significant effects, while stress exposure remained non-significant. The interaction of trait anxiety and stress exposure did not explain additional variance. The hypothesis regarding the change in attentional responses was thus rejected. Posthoc testing showed no significant correlations between trait anxiety and attentional bias and stress exposure and attentional bias. It remains unclear whether stress exposure significantly affects the attentional response towards threats in relation to trait anxiety.Show less
Steroid hormones are frequently highlighted as an important modulator of women’s susceptibility for developing mood and anxiety disorders. One of the often-considered influences is the effect of...Show moreSteroid hormones are frequently highlighted as an important modulator of women’s susceptibility for developing mood and anxiety disorders. One of the often-considered influences is the effect of estradiol on the dopaminergic activity in the prefrontal cortex. Given this association it was investigated if natural levels of estradiol might affect women’s executive functions. The focus of measurement was the participant’s performance on the flanker task. It was hypothesised that women in a menstrual cycle phase marked by high estradiol show enhanced interference control and post-error adjustment. The study was conducted as an observational, natural group design and executed in an online format. Self-reports on the menstrual cycle were used for an approximation of the women’s current estradiol levels based on which two groups of women, either high or low in estradiol, were created. Main comparisons were made between 29 naturally cycling women in total and 48 men. The outcomes suggest that the cycle phase of women and the assumed levels of estradiol may not have influenced the processes of interference control or post-error adjustment. To interpret the obtained results, the measured constructs, interference control, error monitoring, and the menstrual cycle are discussed, and possible uncontrolled variables outlined. Future research is needed to further explore women’s executive processes and related neural correlates in the context of the menstrual cycle. Research in this field may provide better understanding of possible influences on women’s cognitive and emotional circuits in the brain, which will help to achieve a clearer picture of women’s psychological wellbeing throughout their life span.Show less
The issue of depression among university students and the seriousness of the consequences of this problem is highlighted by numerous studies. The aim of this study is to examine if mindfulness is a...Show moreThe issue of depression among university students and the seriousness of the consequences of this problem is highlighted by numerous studies. The aim of this study is to examine if mindfulness is a potential prevention against the development of depressive symptoms among university students. We used the collected data from the study of Alzahrani et al. (2020), assessing depressive symptoms and mindfulness characteristics in 289 medical students in Saudi-Arabia (measured with the Five-Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire and the PatientHealth Questionnaire). With the use of a network analysis we examined the associations among the five facets of mindfulness and depressive symptoms together with the variable history of meditation. The constructed network informs us if, and how, facets of mindfulness are related to specific depressive symptoms, and thus can potentially act as a buffer against the onset of depressive symptoms among university students. Our results point out that four of the five facets of mindfulness are negatively related to depressive symptoms, consecutively acting with awareness, non-judging of inner experience, describing and nonreactivity to inner experience. However, the observed associations are relatively weak. In addition we found that history of meditation was unrelated to depressive symptoms but positively associated with the mindfulness subscale observing. Future research should focus on a qualitative assessment of depressive symptoms and the isolation of specific facets of mindfulness in order to improve data collection. These suggestions together with the use of network analysis could further explore the value of mindfulness practices as prevention for depression among university students.Show less
Background: Threat-related attentional bias is a dynamic process, determined by internal and external factors. Individual differences in attentional control, a core function of the executive system...Show moreBackground: Threat-related attentional bias is a dynamic process, determined by internal and external factors. Individual differences in attentional control, a core function of the executive system, is thought to modulate the expression of attentional bias. Attentional bias is also influenced by the threat level of a stimulus (mild and high). The effect of stress on attentional bias in relation to attentional control and threat level shows considerable heterogeneity. Aims and hypotheses: Investigate the association between attentional bias to different threat levels, stress and attentional control. Stress increases attentional bias towards all threats compared to the control condition. Attentional control moderates the effect of stress on attentional bias towards mild and high threats. Method: Sixty-four female participants completed a self-report attentional control measure, underwent a stress-induction (n = 32) or control (n = 32) procedure and completed the modified dot-probe task. Results: Attentional bias to high and mild threats was not affected by stress. Importantly, attentional control moderated the relation between stress and attentional bias to high threats. High attentional control was associated with an attentional bias towards high threats in the stress condition while high attentional control predicted an attentional bias away from high threats in the control condition on a trend level. This moderation effect was not shown for the association between stress and attentional bias to mild threats. Discussion: This study provides evidence that attentional control plays an important role in the manifestation of attentional bias to high threats in stressful and controlled situations in healthy individuals.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
Background: Trait Anxiety is related to maladaptive attentional bias (AB) towards threat, with vigilance towards mild threat and avoidance of high threat. In addition, research shows attentional...Show moreBackground: Trait Anxiety is related to maladaptive attentional bias (AB) towards threat, with vigilance towards mild threat and avoidance of high threat. In addition, research shows attentional control (AC) also moderates threat-related AB, counteracting the moderating role of anxiety. Angelidis, Hagenaars, van Son, van der Does, and Putman (2018) and Van Son, Angelidis, Hagenaars, van der Does, and Putman (2018) conducted dot-probe studies testing AB towards different threat stimuli on healthy participants and observed partially incongruent results. Research objective: This project aimed at firstly testing the moderating roles of trait anxiety and AC on AB towards different threat stimuli individually and secondly testing the moderating role interactively. Methods: 52 healthy students completed a self-report trait-anxiety and AC questionnaire. Additionally, AB was tested by letting the participants complete a dot-probe task with neutral, mild, and high threat level stimuli. Results: The moderating roles of trait anxiety and AC could only be partially confirmed with trait anxiety moderating vigilance towards mild threat and AC moderating vigilance towards high threat. However, trait anxiety and AC did not interactively moderate ABs to different threat levels. Discussion and conclusion: Individual differences in AC along with stimulus threat level importantly moderate anxious AB and need to be considered in future studies.Show less
Background: Depending on baseline catecholamine levels and executive cognitive function, caffeine may enhance or disturb such functions. Trait anxiety and stress are associated with increased...Show moreBackground: Depending on baseline catecholamine levels and executive cognitive function, caffeine may enhance or disturb such functions. Trait anxiety and stress are associated with increased catecholamine action and cognitive effects of caffeine as a function of these factors is largely unknown. Hypotheses: First, high trait performance anxiety increases state performance anxiety after a stressor. Second, caffeine leads to a higher increase in state performance anxiety, also moderated by trait anxiety. Third, caffeine leads to a worse WM performance, also depending on trait anxiety. Fourth, after the consumption of caffeine, high TBR will enhance WM, whereas low TBR will impair it. Methods: A continuous performance task (N-back) was used to assess WM and the interference by negative stimuli. A stress procedure was used to induce performance anxiety and electroencephalogram was used to calculate TBR. To assess trait anxiety and state performance anxiety, the Cognitive Test Anxiety Scale (CTAS) and the State Performance Anxiety Scale (SPAS) were used. Results: TBR moderated the effect of caffeine on WM. High TBR corresponded to an enhancement of WM, whereas caffeine may have overruled the effect of TBR on WM. CTAS moderated increases in SPAS after a stressor, but not when in interaction with caffeine manipulation. CTAS, in interaction with caffeine manipulation, did not influence WM. Conclusions: Our first and fourth hypotheses were confirmed, as the association between high CTAS and a higher increase in SPAS after a stressor, and the moderation role of TBR towards WM, alone and partially when in interaction with the caffeine manipulation, were confirmed. Our second and third hypotheses were rejected, as CTAS, in interaction with caffeine manipulation, did not influence WM or the increase in SPAS after a stressor.Show less
Background: Anxiety is one of the most common mental health problems among older adults. Although there are interventions that effectively reduce late-life anxiety, anxious older adults often do...Show moreBackground: Anxiety is one of the most common mental health problems among older adults. Although there are interventions that effectively reduce late-life anxiety, anxious older adults often do not receive adequate treatment and are less likely to benefit from psychotherapy, compared to younger adults. To enhance mental health services for the elderly, studies should explore which factors predict treatment outcomes, rather than solely focus on the overall treatment effectiveness. The aim of the present study is to investigate demographic (age and gender) and professional (years of working experience and geriatric education) therapeutic characteristics, as predictors of treatment outcomes (anxiety severity and treatment satisfaction) in anxious older adults. Methods: The study is a post-hoc analysis using data from a previous Randomised Controlled Trial (RCT) on treatment effectiveness in older adults with anxiety complaints. We examined data from 275 patients (55-75 years old) and 33 therapists, who worked in general practices in the Netherlands. We developed two multilevel regression models and intercept-only models, for both therapeutic outcomes. Results: The analyses showed that none of the therapeutic characteristics significantly predicted anxiety severity and treatment satisfaction at posttreatment; the therapist factor explained 0% and 15% of the variance in older adults’ anxiety and satisfaction levels, respectively. Discussion: Possible lack of power in the study hinders the interpretation of the null-findings regarding the demographic and professional therapist characteristics. The therapist factor does not predict late-life anxiety, but does have an effect on patients’ satisfaction. Limitations of the study and recommendations for future research are discussed.Show less
Various forms of anxiety, including state and trait cognitive test anxiety, are associated with disruptions in an individual’s cognitive task performance via its detrimental effects on attentional...Show moreVarious forms of anxiety, including state and trait cognitive test anxiety, are associated with disruptions in an individual’s cognitive task performance via its detrimental effects on attentional control capacity of individuals. These disruptions become more evident when the individual is under stress. Frontal EEG theta/beta ratio (TBR) has been suggested to reflect individuals’ baseline attentional control capacity. Furthermore, caffeine has been associated with facilitating or impairing attentional control processes, depending on individuals’ baseline prefrontal cortex functioning. The main goal of this study was to investigate the effects of caffeine on an individual’s working memory (WM) task performance under stress, based on their baseline TBR and anxiety vulnerability. An n-back task was used to assess WM task performance after experimentally induced acute performance stress in a betweensubjects design where the caffeine (200mg) and placebo manipulation was double-blinded, and the sample composed of 120 simulated data. Results of this study are based on synthetic data because of the inability to collect data during covid-19 lockdown. Results showed a moderation of TBR on caffeine: for people with high TBR at baseline (i.e. low attentional control capacity) caffeine boosted WM performance efficiency; while for people with low TBR at baseline (i.e. high attentional control capacity) caffeine disrupted WM performance efficiency. Results provide further support for TBR to be an indicator of attentional control capacity as well as underlining the importance of taking baseline prefrontal functioning of individuals into account when investigating the effects of caffeine on cognitive task performance as previously reported.Show less
