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Updated: May 27, 2026

Measuring Attentional Biases for Threat in Children and Adults
Published on: October 19, 2014
Enhanced attentional capture in trait anxiety
Jason S Moser1, Mark W Becker, Tim P Moran
1Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA. jmoser@msu.edu
Abstract:
Attentional Control Theory (ACT) proposes that anxiety is specifically associated with more attentional distraction by salient stimuli. Moreover, there is some suggestion that worry is one mechanism whereby anxiety impairs attentional control. However, direct evidence for these hypotheses is lacking. In the current study we addressed limitations of previous work by examining the relationships between trait anxiety and worry and attentional distraction by a salient, task-irrelevant color singleton in a visual search task. Results revealed that trait anxiety, but not worry, was related to increased attentional distraction (i.e., capture) by the color singleton. The current results suggest that anxiety is associated with a general enhancement of bottom-up processes involved in motivational significance detection. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).
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