Examining information processing biases in spider phobia using the rapid serial visual presentation paradigm

Empirical research has demonstrated the existence of attentional biases towards threat in anxiety disorders. Paradigms commonly used to assess attentional biases have failed to demonstrate consistent findings as well as reveal the specific features of attentional biases. The current study investigated the utility of the rapid serial visual presentation paradigm in assessing attentional biases among 40 undergraduate students with high spider phobia (SP) symptoms and 40 undergraduate students with low SP symptoms. Results revealed that across participants, threatening information was processed in a facilitated and automatic manner and resulted in an immediate (i.e., within 120 ms) attentional capture. Following immediate attentional capture, however, only high SP participants exhibited an attentional alertness towards subsequent stimuli following threat presentation. These results extend traditional attentional bias literature, and theoretical implications are discussed.