Offenders with antisocial personality disorder show attentional bias for violence-related stimuli

Attentional bias toward negative and positive pictorial stimuli and its relationship with distorted cognitions, empathy, and moral reasoning among men with intellectual disabilities who have committed crimes

“…Combining bias scores to positive and negative images revealed that those with an offense history had a bias toward affective images. These findings are similar to that reported by others using samples of offenders who do not have intellectual disabilities (Chan et al, 2010; Ciardha & Gormley, 2012; Domes et al, 2013; Gallagher‐Duffy et al, 2009; Smith & Waterman, 2003, 2004). In addition, and as reported by others, men with intellectual disabilities and a history of offending endorsed more distorted cognitions (Daniel et al, 2018; Langdon & Talbot, 2006; Langdon, Murphy, et al, 2011; Lindsay & Michie, 2004; Lindsay et al, 2006), and reported less general empathy (Hockley & Langdon, 2015; Langdon & Hockley, 2012); however, not all previous studies have reported that men with intellectual disabilities who have a history of committing crimes score lower on measures of empathy (Beail & Proctor, 2004; Langdon, Murphy, et al, 2011; Proctor & Beail, 2007; Ralfs & Beail, 2012) than men without such a history, which is likely related to measurement and sampling.…”

“…For those with a history of committing crimes, there is evidence that those with antisocial personality disorder have a bias toward violent words (Domes, Mense, Vohs, & Habermeyer, 2013); men and women with either a history of violent or non‐violent crimes have an attentional bias toward violent words, with those with the history of violent crime having the most marked bias (Smith & Waterman, 2003), sexual offenders have a bias toward sexual words (Price & Karl Hanson, 2007; Smith & Waterman, 2004), and images (Ciardha & Gormley, 2012); men with a history of perpetrating domestic violence have a bias toward aggressive words (Chan, Raine, & Lee, 2010), and teenage fire‐setters have an attentional bias toward fire‐related pictures (Gallagher‐Duffy, MacKay, Duffy, Sullivan‐Thomas, & Peterson‐Badali, 2009). Kimonis, Graham, and Cauffman (2018) demonstrated that attention to affective pictures among teenage boys with a history of violent crime was predicted by callous and unemotional or uncaring traits, which was moderated by the severity of aggression, a finding reported in previous studies (Kimonis, Frick, Fazekas, & Loney, 2006; Kimonis, Frick, Munoz, & Aucoin, 2008).…”

Associations Between Neurocognitive Characteristics, Treatment Outcome, and Dropout Among Aggressive Forensic Psychiatric Outpatients

“…An attentional bias refers to an a priori tendency to focus selectively on threatening information and is often measured by use of the Emotional Stroop Task (EST). An attentional bias toward aggressive- or violence-related words has been associated with higher levels of aggressive behavior in student populations as well as offenders and FPOs (e.g., Brugman et al, 2014 ; Chan, Raine, & Lee, 2010 ; Domes, Mense, Vohs, & Habermeyer, 2013 ; Smith & Waterman, 2003 , 2004 ). Even though a few studies examined this bias by use of the Stroop Task in clinical populations, it is not often used in clinical settings in association with treatment.…”

Freeze or forget? Virtual attack effects in an Emotional Sternberg Task

“…Processes underlying various mental health disorders could thus be expected to increase interference, as has indeed been found in a wide range of literature. Aggression and violence are associated with slowing effects on emotional Stroop tasks involving threat-related stimuli ( Brugman et al, 2016 ; Chan, Raine, & Lee, 2010 ; Domes, Mense, Vohs, & Habermeyer, 2013 ). Individuals suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) also show increased interference to trauma-related stimuli ( Aupperle, Melrose, Stein, & Paulus, 2012 ), e.g., in combat veterans with PTSD after deployment in Iraq to combat-related words ( Ashley, Honzel, Larsen, Justus, & Swick, 2013 ) and in Vietnam veterans with PTSD to pictures related to Vietnam ( Chemtob et al, 1999 ).…”