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Anxiety, conscious awareness and change detection
Sally M Gregory1, Anthony Lambert
1Research Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Psychology, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand. sally.m.gregory@gmail.com
Consciousness and Cognition
|October 18, 2011
Summary
Anxious individuals exhibit slower change detection. Negative emotional distractors, especially when presented subliminally, paradoxically speed up anxious participants' attention, suggesting a unique attentional state.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Emotional Processing
Background:
- Anxiety is associated with altered attentional processes.
- Attentional control theory posits that anxiety impacts the ability to manage attention.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate attentional scanning in anxious versus non-anxious individuals.
- To examine the influence of emotional distractor scenes on change detection.
Main Methods:
- Modified change detection paradigm with emotional distractor scenes.
- Measurement of change detection latencies in anxious and non-anxious groups.
- Manipulation of distractor scene valence (negative/positive) and exposure duration (subliminal/supraliminal).
Main Results:
- Anxious participants showed overall slower change detection latencies.
- Anxious participants' change detection was modulated by distractor emotional valence and exposure duration.
- Subliminal negative distractors facilitated faster change detection in anxious individuals compared to supraliminal negative or subliminal positive distractors.
Conclusions:
- Anxiety impacts attentional scanning, particularly in response to emotional stimuli.
- Subliminal negative distractors may induce a state of heightened, yet disengaged, attention in anxious individuals.
- Conscious awareness of emotional distractors leads to attentional engagement and slower performance in anxious individuals.
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