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Background and objectivesWorry is predominantly a verbal-linguistic process with relatively little imagery. This study investigated whether the verbal nature of worry contributes to the maintenance of worry by enhancing attention to threat. It was hypothesised that verbal worry would lead to greater attentional bias to threat than imagery-based worry.MethodsFifty high-worriers were randomly assigned to one of two groups, one in which they were instructed to worry in a verbal way and one in which they worried in an imagery-based way, before completing a dot probe task as a measure of attention to threat-related words.ResultsThose who worried in verbal form demonstrated greater attentional bias to threat than did those who worried in imagery-based form. These findings could not be accounted for by group differences in personal relevance of or distress associated with worry topics, state mood following worry, levels of the relatedness of participants' worries to stimuli on the dot probe task, trait anxiety, general propensity to worry, nor adherence to the worry training.LimitationsThe present study only included word stimuli in the dot probe task; inclusion of images would allow for firmly rejecting the hypothesis that the attention effects observed following verbal worry were merely a result of priming verbal threat representations. Also, future studies could include a further control group that does not engage in any form of worry to ascertain that verbal worry increased attentional bias rather than imagery decreasing pre-existing attentional bias.ConclusionsPossible mechanisms underlying this effect of verbal worry on attention to threat are discussed, together with clinical implications of the current findings.

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Objective: This meta-review summarizes and synthesizes the most reliable findings regarding attentional bias in eating disorders across paradigms and stimulus types and considers implications for theory and future research.Method: Four databases were systematically searched, along with reference lists of included reviews, yielding 15 systematic reviews (four of which were also meta-analyses). The quality of each review was appraised using the AMSTAR-2.Results: Key findings from systematic reviews are summarized, organized by paradigm and stimulus type.Discussion: The authors synthesize evidence from the highest-quality studies. There is evidence for attentional avoidance and vigilance in eating disorders depending on stimulus properties (low vs. high-calorie food; high-body mass vs. low-body mass index photos of others) and attentional avoidance of food stimuli in those with anorexia nervosa. Sad mood induction may generate attentional bias for food in those with binge-eating disorder. There may also be attentional bias to general threat in eating disorder samples. This meta-review concludes that most systematic reviews in this field are low in quality and summarizes the main areas that could be improved upon in future reviews. Implications of this study's findings for theory and intervention research are also discussed. ResumenObjetivo: Esta meta-revisi on resume y sintetiza los hallazgos m as confiables con respecto al sesgo de atenci on en los trastornos de la conducta alimentaria a través de paradigmas y tipos de estímulos y considera las implicaciones para la teoría y la investigaci on futura.Método: Se realizaron búsquedas sistem aticas en cuatro bases de datos, junto con listas de referencias de las revisiones incluidas, lo que arroj o 15 revisiones sistem aticas (cuatro de las cuales también fueron metan alisis). La calidad de cada revisi on se evalu o mediante el AMSTAR-2.Resultados: Se resumen los hallazgos clave de las revisiones sistem aticas, organizados por paradigma y tipo de estímulo.Discusi on: Los autores sintetizan evidencia de estudios de la m as alta calidad. Existe evidencia de evitaci on atencional y vigilancia en los trastornos alimentarios dependiendo de las propiedades de los estímulos (alimentos bajos en calor oas frente

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