Memory-based attentional biases: Anxiety is linked to threat avoidance

Rohner, Jean-Christophe

doi:10.1080/02699930341000365

Cited by 11 publications

(15 citation statements)

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“…In particular, the prime induced avoidance of hostile information might have positively biased the perception of the target person. In line with this argumentation, Rohner (2004) found evidence for an expectancy-based avoidance bias: In high trait anxiety threat faces were attentionally avoided relative to friendly faces when a preceding cue, in that study a neutral face, predicted the appearance of an angry face. Expectancy of the appearance of a threat face thus led to attentional avoidance.…”

Section: Maier Et Almentioning

confidence: 55%

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Priming the trait category “hostility”: The moderating role of trait anxiety

Maier¹,

Berner

Hau

et al. 2007

Cognition & Emotion

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Section: Maier Et Almentioning

confidence: 55%

“…The latter two variables were examined for outliers, which were defined as numbers with z-transformed standard scores above '/1.96 and below (/1.96 (cf. see Rohner, 2004). The negativity rating difference score and the EWL trait anxiety score had 10 and 7 outliers, respectively.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 97%

Priming the trait category “hostility”: The moderating role of trait anxiety

Maier¹,

Berner

Hau

et al. 2007

Cognition & Emotion

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“…Although participants usually can remember at least some aspects of the scene, they often cannot remember all the scene’s details (Burke, Heuer, & Reisberg, 1992; Kensinger, Garoff-Eaton, & Schacter, 2007a). Interestingly, several factors impact the amount of detail remembered within a complex visual image, including the nature of the features contained within the image and individual differences in the types of information prioritized for processing and retention (Calvo & Avero, 2005; Easterbrook, 1959; Rohner, 2004). …”

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confidence: 99%

“…Compared to lower anxiety persons, those with high anxiety show an attentional bias and increased vigilance towards threatening information, which is independent of response bias (Calvo & Avero, 2005; Williams, Watts, MacLeod, & Mathews, 1999, for review). They also attend disproportionately to even mildly negative stimuli, possibly because they interpret them as more threatening than do lower trait-anxious individuals (Calvo & Avero, 2005; Rohner, 2004). Highly anxious individuals not only orient their attention toward threatening information more often than less anxious individuals (e.g., Rohner, 2004), they also have difficulty disengaging attention from threat-related stimuli (e.g., Fox, Russo, Bowles, & Dutton, 2001).…”

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confidence: 99%

“…They also attend disproportionately to even mildly negative stimuli, possibly because they interpret them as more threatening than do lower trait-anxious individuals (Calvo & Avero, 2005; Rohner, 2004). Highly anxious individuals not only orient their attention toward threatening information more often than less anxious individuals (e.g., Rohner, 2004), they also have difficulty disengaging attention from threat-related stimuli (e.g., Fox, Russo, Bowles, & Dutton, 2001). These anxiety-induced changes in attention appear to have downstream effects upon the way in which information is remembered; for example, anxious individuals are more likely than are non-anxious individuals to remember pictures as being “zoomed in” on the emotional elements (Mathews & Mackintosh, 2004).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Impact of individual differences upon emotion-induced memory trade-offs

Waring

Payne

Schacter

et al. 2010

Cognition & Emotion

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After seeing a scene containing an emotional component (e.g., a snake in a forest) people often demonstrate a "trade-off" in memory, where memory for the emotional component (e.g., the snake) is good, but memory for the nonemotional elements (e.g., the forest) is poor. The result is an incomplete memory retaining central emotional information at the expense of neutral background information. Though almost everyone demonstrates the trade-off, there may be individual differences in the magnitude of the effect. We investigated whether differences in the strength of the trade-off would correlate with anxiety levels, working memory capacity, and executive functioning abilities. Sixty-four participants studied scenes comprised of a negative or neutral item placed on a neutral background, and memory was later tested for items and backgrounds separately. The magnitude of the trade-off correlated positively with anxiety and negatively with visuospatial working memory and executive function. These results suggest that greater anxiety, poor visuospatial working memory, and poor executive function may inhibit formation of complete mental representations of these complex emotional scenes. Keywords individual differences; emotion; memory; trade-off Although memories often are retained with a great degree of clarity, it is well known that humans do not create truly photographic quality memories. Most of the time, we are unable to retain in memory all features of an event with vividness and accuracy. Rather, some features of an experience are recalled with vividness and accuracy, while others are less clear and may become distorted over time.These effects have been noted many times in laboratory studies of memory for complex visual scenes. Although participants usually can remember at least some aspects of the scene, theyCorrespondence concerning this article should be sent to: Jill D. Waring, Department of Psychology, Boston College, McGuinn Hall 301, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467 waringj@bc.edu Phone: 617-552-0659 Fax: 617-552-0532. 1 ANOVAs revealed no effect of presentation rate on the magnitude of the trade-off for specific recognition (F(1,39)=1.56, p=.22) or general recognition scores (F(1,39)< .1). ANOVAs also revealed no main effect of delay on the magnitude of the trade-off in general recognition scores (F(1,63)=2.08, p=.16) and only a trend for an effect of delay upon specific recognition scores (F(1,63) =3.62, p=.06). The strength of the correlations between the general and specific recognition trade-offs and cognitive scores also did not differ as a function of presentation rate or delay; using Fisher's r-to-z transformed correlation coefficients revealed no differences in the strength of correlations between cognitive measures and trade-off magnitude that survived the Bonferroni correction (general, z(r) <2.27, p>.02; specific, z(r) <2.74, p>.006). often cannot remember all the scene's details (Burke, Heuer, & Reisberg, 1992;Kensinger, Garoff-Eaton, & Schacter, 2007a). Interestingly, several factors impact the ...

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Life is … great! Emotional attention during instructed and uninstructed ambiguity resolution in relation to depressive symptoms

Sánchez

Everaert

Putter

et al. 2015

Biological Psychology

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Attention and interpretation biases are closely involved in depression. However, it is unclear whether they reflect processing tendencies (i.e., driven by schemas) and/or ability-related processes (i.e., dependent on attentional control). This study tested depressive symptom severity, attention bias, and interpretation bias associations under both processing conditions. Fifty-two participants completed two versions of the scrambled sentences test (to measure interpretation bias) while eye movements were recorded (to measure attention bias). Participants were instructed to unscramble sentences by reporting the first sentence coming to mind (tendency version) and in a fixed, positive manner (ability version). Depressive symptom severity was correlated with attention bias under both conditions. Attention bias acted as an intervening variable in the relation between depressive symptoms and interpretation bias during ability processes. These findings suggest that attention biases reflect both processing tendencies and ability dysfunctions, with attentional control as a relevant mechanism in the interpretation of emotional material.

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Memory-based attentional biases: Anxiety is linked to threat avoidance

Cited by 11 publications

References 0 publications

Priming the trait category “hostility”: The moderating role of trait anxiety

Priming the trait category “hostility”: The moderating role of trait anxiety

Impact of individual differences upon emotion-induced memory trade-offs

Life is … great! Emotional attention during instructed and uninstructed ambiguity resolution in relation to depressive symptoms

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