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Anticipated Attack Slows Responses in a Cued Virtual Attack Emotional Sternberg Task.

Thomas E Gladwin1,2,3, Matthijs Vink4,5

  • 1Department of Psychology and Counselling, University of Chichester, Chichester, United Kingdom.

Europe'S Journal of Psychology
|March 19, 2021
PubMed
Summary

Anticipating threatening stimuli reversibly slows reaction times in working memory tasks. The novel cued Virtual Attack Emotional Sternberg Task (cVAEST) effectively measures this threat-induced response slowing.

Keywords:
anticipationattackcuedemotional Sternbergfreezinginhibitionthreat

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Neuroscience
  • Human Behavior

Background:

  • Threatening stimuli can impair cognitive functions, including working memory.
  • Reaction time (RT) increases in working memory tasks may indicate disruption or a freezing response.
  • Existing methods for studying threat effects on cognition are limited.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate reversible response slowing caused by anticipated threat during working memory tasks.
  • To introduce and validate the cued Virtual Attack Emotional Sternberg Task (cVAEST) for studying threat anticipation.
  • To explore the influence of cue-stimulus interval (CSI) and memory set size on threat-induced slowing.

Main Methods:

  • Three online studies utilized the cVAEST with healthy adult participants (N=47, 40, 40).
  • Participants completed a Sternberg task where neutral cues predicted potential virtual attacks.
  • Varied cue-stimulus intervals (CSIs) and memory set sizes were manipulated across studies.

Main Results:

  • Threat anticipation consistently slowed RTs in the working memory task across all studies.
  • Study 1 showed decreased RTs when attacks occurred, regardless of CSI (memory set size 3).
  • Studies 2 & 3 revealed that threat-induced slowing was most pronounced shortly after cue presentation (CSI 200-500 ms) with a minimal memory set.

Conclusions:

  • Anticipation of attack stimuli reversibly slows performance on independent working memory tasks.
  • The cVAEST is a viable tool for investigating threat-induced response slowing.
  • The temporal dynamics of threat anticipation influence cognitive task performance.