Viewing behaviour of spider phobics and non‐phobics in the presence of threat and safety stimuli

Lange, Wgt; Tierney, KJ; Reinhardt-Rutland, Anthony; Vivekananda-Schmidt, Pirashanthie

doi:10.1348/0144665031752989

Cited by 24 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 11 publications

(17 reference statements)

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“…Trials lasted 3 minutes, and increased maintenance of gaze on the spider, as well as the room’s exit, was found in high versus low spider fearful individuals. The sustained maintenance of gaze on real spiders found byLange et al (2004) contrasts with the sustained avoidance of gaze on mere images of spiders found over 3 s (Hermans et al, 1999; Rinck & Becker, 2006), 9 s (Pflugshaupt et al, 2007) and 60 s (Rinck & Becker, 2006) trials. One might conclude that Lange et al’s findings cast doubt on the clinical significance of attentional avoidance of threatening images, because the phenomenon may be limited to encounters with mere representations of threat.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 58%

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Eye tracking of attention in the affective disorders: A meta-analytic review and synthesis

Armstrong

Olatunji

2012

Clinical Psychology Review

841

716

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A large body of research has demonstrated that affective disorders are characterized by attentional biases for emotional stimuli. However, this research relies heavily on manual reaction time (RT) measures that cannot fully delineate the time course and components of attentional bias. Eye tracking technology, which allows relatively direct and continuous measurement of overt visual attention, may provide an important supplement to RT measures. This article reviews eye tracking research on anxiety and depression, evaluating the experimental paradigms and eye movement indicators used to study attentional biases. Also included is a meta-analysis of extant eye tracking research (33 experiments; N = 1579) on both anxiety and depression. Relative to controls, anxious individuals showed increased vigilance for threat during free viewing and visual search, and showed difficulty disengaging from threat in visual search tasks, but not during free viewing. In contrast, depressed individuals were not characterized by vigilance for threat during free viewing, but were characterized by reduced orienting to positive stimuli, as well as reduced maintenance of gaze on positive stimuli and increased maintenance of gaze on dysphoric stimuli. Implications of these findings for theoretical accounts of attentional bias in anxiety and depression are discussed, and avenues for future research using eye-tracking technology are outlined.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 58%

“…For example, Lange, Tierney, Reinhardt-Rutland, and Vivekananda-Schmidt (2004) presented a live spider to individuals high and low in spider fear. The spider was presented on either side of a television presenting a program that participants were instructed to watch carefully.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Eye tracking of attention in the affective disorders: A meta-analytic review and synthesis

Armstrong

Olatunji

2012

Clinical Psychology Review

841

716

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“…Finally, and based on a multidimensional scaling approach, Cavanagh and Davey (2001) have proposed that the two attentional biases -one towards threat and the other away from it -can be regarded as outcomes of a general preference for both threat and safety information in phobia. Supporting this idea, it has been demonstrated that spider phobics -when placed in a room with a live spider and a single exit door -show an attentional bias towards both the spider and the door (Lange, Tierney, Reinhardt-Rutland, & Vivekananda-Schmidt, 2004;Thorpe & Salkovskis, 1998).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

“…In contrast to the large number of studies based on cognitive paradigms such as emotional stroop or visual dot probe tasks, relatively few studies used oculomotor data to investigate the behavior of patients with anxiety disorders (e.g., Bradley, Mogg, & Millar, 2000;Horley, Williams, Gonsalvez, & Gordon, 2003;Lange et al, 2004;Miltner, Krieschel, Hecht, Trippe, & Weiss, 2004;Pflugshaupt et al, 2005;Rinck, Reinecke, Ellwart, Heuer, & Becker, 2005). This is surprising as eye movement patterns are thought to reflect attentional processes more directly than cognitive paradigms, since the former are not mediated by verbal or manual responses (Bryant, Harvey, Gordon, & Barry, 1995).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

To look or not to look at threat?

Pflugshaupt¹,

Mosimann²,

Schmitt³

et al. 2007

Journal of Anxiety Disorders

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“…In the majority of these tasks, slides that have a range of objects in them (including a picture of a spider) are shown to individuals who vary in spider fear (Gerdes, Alpers, and Pauli, 2008; Rinck and Becker, 2006; Pflugshaupt et al, 2005; Lange, Tierney, Reinharnd-Rutland, & Vivekananda-Schmidt, 2004). The data has suggested that spider phobics initially fixate faster on spider stimuli and then avoid them (Pflugshaupt et al, 2005; Rinck and Becker.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Eye tracking and visual attention to threating stimuli in veterans of the Iraq war

Kimble

Fleming

Bandy

et al. 2010

Journal of Anxiety Disorders

133

122

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Theoretical and clinical characterizations of attention in PTSD acknowledge the possibility for both hypervigilance and avoidance of trauma-relevant stimuli. This study used eye tracking technology to investigate visual orientation and attention to traumatic and neutral stimuli in nineteen veterans of the Iraq War. Veterans saw slides in which half the screen had a negatively valenced image and half had a neutral image. Negatively valenced stimuli were further divided into stimuli that varied in trauma relevance (either Iraq war or civilian motor vehicle accidents). Veterans reporting relatively higher levels of PSTD symptoms had larger pupils to all negatively valenced pictures and spent more time looking at them than did veterans lower in PTSD symptoms. Veterans higher in PTSD symptoms also showed a trend towards looking first at Iraq images. The findings suggest that posttraumatic pathology is associated with vigilance rather than avoidance when visually processing negatively valenced and trauma relevant stimuli. Keywords PTSD; eye tracking; attention; hypervigilance; veteransHypervigilance is an increase in attention to threatening, potentially threatening, or traumarelevant stimuli and is a widely reported symptom in post traumatic stress disorder (APA, 2000). This symptom may have numerous manifestations including constant visual scanning for suspicious behavior in pubic places, an alertness for unusual sounds, noting of entrances and exits in enclosed places, constant checking of locks inside the home, or investigation of circumstances that seem out of the ordinary. Hypervigilance is also critical to theoretical characterizations of the disorder in which attentional biases toward threat is thought to be a central organizing feature in post traumatic thought and behavior (Litz and Keane, 1989;Chemtob, Roitblat, Hamada, Carlson, and Twentyman, 1988;Ehlers and Clark, 2000). Such models posit that increased attentional bias to threat might maintain or even initiate other symptoms in the disorder such as intrusive memories, flashbacks, concentration difficulties, and avoidance behaviors.Understandably, there has been considerable effort dedicated to understanding the nature and extent of attentional biases in PTSD. The majority of this work has been accomplished through Please address correspondence to: Matthew O. Kimble, Psychology Department, Middlebury College, Middlebury VT 05753, Phone: 802 443 5402, Fax: 802 443 2072, mkimble@middlebury.edu. Publisher's Disclaimer: This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final citable form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain. (Dagleish, Moradi, Taghavi, Neshat,-Doost, and Yule, 2001;Harvey,...

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Viewing behaviour of spider phobics and non‐phobics in the presence of threat and safety stimuli

Cited by 24 publications

References 11 publications

Eye tracking of attention in the affective disorders: A meta-analytic review and synthesis

Eye tracking of attention in the affective disorders: A meta-analytic review and synthesis

To look or not to look at threat?

Eye tracking and visual attention to threating stimuli in veterans of the Iraq war

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