Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Preparedness and Phobias

Preparedness and Phobias

Human fear responses to certain stimuli, such as darkness, heights, deep water, and blood, can often arise despite the absence of direct negative experiences. This phenomenon is rooted in evolutionary psychology, which posits that humans have developed a predisposition to fear stimuli that historically posed significant survival threats. This predisposition, known as preparedness, suggests that early humans who developed a fear of potentially dangerous entities, such as venomous snakes and...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Connecting the dots - recognition of artificial and natural shapes relies on representing points of high information.

Vision research·2026

Same author

Commentary: Making Patient Data Count-Opportunities and Challenges for Open Science in Clinical Psychology.

Journal of clinical psychology·2026

Same author

Leveraging ubiquitous mobile sensors to track infant expressions and movements.

Infant behavior & development·2026

Same author

Individual Brain Charting: fifth release of high-resolution fMRI data for cognitive mapping.

Scientific data·2026

Same author

Waiting for translation: A review of translational research in psychological treatment.

Clinical psychology review·2026

Same author

Motion parallax allows 7-8-month-old infants to distinguish pictures from their referents.

i-Perception·2025

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 16, 2025

Using Looming Visual Stimuli to Evaluate Mouse Vision

Using Looming Visual Stimuli to Evaluate Mouse Vision

Published on: June 13, 2019

Moving spiders do not boost visual search in spider fear.

Miriam Becker¹, Nikolaus F Troje², Filipp Schmidt^3,4

¹Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Marburg, Gutenbergstr. 18, 35032, Marburg, Germany. miriam.becker@uni-marburg.de.

Scientific Reports

|August 16, 2024

Summary

Motion significantly impacts attention to fear-relevant stimuli, altering visual search patterns for spiders and snakes. Point-light stimuli effectively capture attention, suggesting their utility in studying biological motion effects.

More Related Videos

Manipulation of Color Patterns in Jumping Spiders for Use in Behavioral Experiments

Manipulation of Color Patterns in Jumping Spiders for Use in Behavioral Experiments

Published on: May 21, 2019

Human Fear Conditioning Conducted in Full Immersion 3-Dimensional Virtual Reality

Human Fear Conditioning Conducted in Full Immersion 3-Dimensional Virtual Reality

Published on: August 9, 2010

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Jun 16, 2025

Using Looming Visual Stimuli to Evaluate Mouse Vision

Using Looming Visual Stimuli to Evaluate Mouse Vision

Published on: June 13, 2019

Manipulation of Color Patterns in Jumping Spiders for Use in Behavioral Experiments

Manipulation of Color Patterns in Jumping Spiders for Use in Behavioral Experiments

Published on: May 21, 2019

Human Fear Conditioning Conducted in Full Immersion 3-Dimensional Virtual Reality

Human Fear Conditioning Conducted in Full Immersion 3-Dimensional Virtual Reality

Published on: August 9, 2010

Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Neuroscience
Visual Perception

Background:

Previous studies on fear-relevant stimuli used static images, neglecting motion's role.
Biological motion, visualized through point-light stimuli, offers a unique way to study dynamic attention.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the effect of motion on attentional capture in spider-fearful and non-fearful individuals.
To compare the efficacy of point-light stimuli versus naturalistic videos in visual search tasks.
To examine how motion influences established visual search phenomena for fear-relevant stimuli.

Main Methods:

A visual search task was employed with spider-fearful (n=30) and non-fearful (n=31) participants.
Stimuli included static images, point-light displays, and naturalistic videos of animals (snakes, spiders, cats, doves).
Tasks involved searching for targets among static or moving distractors, or vice versa.

Main Results:

Static stimuli replicated previous findings: faster detection of snakes, increased distraction by both snakes and spiders.
Motion stimuli, however, reduced or abolished these stimulus-specific effects.
Point-light stimuli proved as effective as naturalistic videos in modulating visual search.

Conclusions:

Biological motion substantially modulates visual search phenomena, challenging findings based solely on static stimuli.
The use of point-light stimuli is sufficient for studying motion's impact on attention.
Future research should incorporate dynamic stimuli to enhance ecological validity in attention studies.