Verbal worry facilitates attention to threat in high-worriers

Abstract

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.

Evaluative priming reveals dissociable effects of cognitive versus physiological anxiety on action monitoring.

“…Interestingly, previous studies already emphasized that worry induction could influence specific cognitive functions or processes such as attention orienting towards threat-related stimuli (Oathes et al, 2010;Williams et al, 2014), however in individuals that already had high levels of trait worry or were prone to worry, respectively, confirming a role of more stable trait dispositions (or interactions between state and 37 trait factors) in the case of worry in its propensity to interfere with cognitive processes. Accordingly, our new behavioral results are compatible with this interpretation, but they also extend these earlier findings by showing that trait, but not state worry, can influence early and automatic action monitoring processes.…”

“…Furthermore, Williams, Mathews, and Hirsch (2014) pointed out that worry manipulations (and therefore state worry) can have deleterious effects on cognitive functions such as attention.…”

Episodic foresight and anxiety: Proximate and ultimate perspectives

“…In doing so, she attempts to adjust her worry based on ongoing expectations about the occurrence of a potential threat. Worry tends to have a more verbal rather than visual manifestation, and individuals with GAD report less concrete descriptions of major worries relative to control participants (Leigh & Hirsch, ; Stöber & Borkovec, ; Williams, Mathews, & Hirsch, ). Given that the future is inherently uncertain, highly concretized worries may be a less efficient solution for enabling management of unexpected contingencies when they do arise, insofar as the occurrence of a threatening event may differ substantially from one's expectations.…”

The role of hand of error and stimulus orientation in the relationship between worry and error‐related brain activity: Implications for theory and practice

“…Studies show that worry is predominantly a verbal process, and that it is the verbal form of worry, rather than imagery-based worry, which depletes working memory and enhances attention to threatening information (Hayes, Hirsch, & Mathews, 2008;Leigh & Hirsch, 2011;Rapee, 1993;Williams, Mathews, & Hirsch, 2014). Demonstrating a clear relationship between verbal processes and worry, Engels et al (2007) found that worry was associated with greater activity in the left inferior frontal gyrus-an area involved in subvocal articulatory rehearsal and maintenance of verbal information (Awh et al, 1996;Fletcher & Henson, 2001;Zatorre, Meyer, Gjedde, & Evans, 1996).…”