Attentional capture and trait anxiety: evidence from inhibition of return

Attentional biases regarding attentional capture by threat-related stimuli in anxious people were investigated by using a standard spatial cueing procedure suitable to measure inhibition of return (IOR). In two experiments, participants categorized the emotional valence of either emotional (positive and negative words) or non-emotional (neutral words in both experiments and sets of 'xxx' in Experiment 1) targets that were preceded by a peripheral non-predictive cue. The typical IOR effect (slower responses for words presented at previously cued locations) was observed for non-emotional and positive stimuli, with similar results being observed for both low and high trait anxiety groups. For negative stimuli, however, the high trait anxiety group did not show the IOR effect, while it was present in the low trait anxiety group. This general pattern of results suggests that, in individual with high trait anxiety, threatening stimuli can capture attention at the locations whether attentional capture is hindered by other cognitive effects such as IOR.