Automaticity of Attentional Bias to Threat in High and Low Worriers

Cognitive Therapy and Research
Huw GoodwinColette R Hirsch

Abstract

Individuals with high levels of worry are more likely than others to attend to possible threats, although the extent of top-down attentional control processes on this bias is unknown. We compared the performance of high (n = 26) and low worriers (n = 26) on a probe discrimination task designed to assess attention to threat cues, under cognitive load or no-load conditions. The expected difference between groups was confirmed, with high worriers being more likely to attend to threat cues than low worriers. Importantly however, there were no significant effects involving condition (cognitive load vs. no-load), nor any significant association with self-perceived attentional control ability. These results suggest that pathological worriers are more likely to attend to threat than are individuals with low levels of worry, regardless of task demands on limited cognitive control resources. This finding is consistent with the dominance of habitual bottom-up influences over top-down control processes in biased attention to threat.

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Citations

Feb 14, 2019·Journal of Trauma & Dissociation : the Official Journal of the International Society for the Study of Dissociation (ISSD)·Matthew O Kimble, Andrew S Hyatt
May 1, 2021·Acta Psychologica·Lital Daches CohenOrly Rubinsten
Jul 3, 2021·Entropy·Stephen Fox

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