Don't worry: evidence for stable internal shielding during attentional flexibility despite anxious apprehension

Attentional flexibility refers to the ability to switch between external (perception) and internal (memory) attention. This ability is characterised by an internal shielding benefit, i.e. a stronger protection of internally maintained information against external input than vice versa. Recent work has shown that hypervigilance (anxious arousal) disrupts this internal shielding, as opposed to boosting external attention. However, hypervigilance is only one component of anxiety, leaving the question open whether the other one, namely anxious apprehension (worry), also influences attentional flexibility. To fill this gap, 100 participants were randomly assigned either to a worry or neutral group and asked to complete the Switching Attention Task (SAT), which is a standard paradigm to explore attentional flexibility. Manipulation checks confirmed that state anxiety was successfully induced in the worry group. A drift diffusion model was used to analyse the task data. Consistent with prior findings, the drift rate revealed internal shielding in the neutral group, which was largely preserved in the worry group. Accordingly, these findings indicate that anxious apprehension does not disrupt internal shielding during attentional flexibility as measured using the SAT, unlike anxious arousal that does.