Anticipation of aversive threat potentiates task-irrelevant attentional capture.
Cogn Emot
; 34(5): 1036-1043, 2020 08.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-31878835
ABSTRACT
Anxiety is believed to have a disruptive effect on attentional control, supported by evidence of increased distractibility among high trait anxious individuals. However, how feelings of current anxious apprehension influence selective attention is less well-understood. The present study examined this by assessing attentional capture by a novel distractor within a visual search task. Participants searched an array of coloured objects for a shape-defined target, while attempting to ignore a colour singleton distractor presented on half of the trials. To induce apprehension, participants completed the task in some blocks with a low probability threat of loud aversive sounds being presented. We found significantly increased distractibility within the threat condition when noise was anticipated but not played, as reflected by a larger distractor presence cost to reaction times. The finding that apprehension potentiates task-irrelevant attentional capture suggests a generalised role of anxious emotion in increasing distractibility.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Banco de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Ansiedad
/
Tiempo de Reacción
/
Atención
/
Anticipación Psicológica
Límite:
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Cogn Emot
Año:
2020
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Reino Unido