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Updated: Jun 20, 2026

Measuring Attentional Biases for Threat in Children and Adults
Published on: October 19, 2014
Some animal specific fears are more specific than others: Evidence from attention and emotion measures
Sandra C Soares1, Francisco Esteves, Daniel Lundqvist
1Karolinska Institute, Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Section of Psychology, Stockholm, Sweden. sandra.soares@ki.se
Abstract:
Using a visual search methodology we investigated the effect of feared animal stimuli on attention. Our results confirmed the important role of emotion on attention. All participants detected fear-relevant stimuli (snakes and spiders) faster than neutral (mushrooms) ones against a background of fruits. In addition, spider fearful participants were sensitized specifically to detect their feared stimulus (spiders), compared to their fear-relevant but non-feared (snakes) and neutral stimuli. However, for participants fearful of snakes there was no significant difference in detection latencies between the feared (snakes) and the fear-relevant but non-feared animal stimuli (spiders). The results from the attention task were mirrored in the emotional ratings, which showed that spider fear was highly specific, whereas snake fear was associated with a more generalized enhanced evaluation of all negative stimuli.
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