Mechanisms of attentional biases towards threat in anxiety disorders: An integrative review
Section snippets
Brief overview of major findings
Attentional bias towards threat among anxious populations is a relatively robust phenomenon (Bar-Haim et al., 2007, Cisler et al., 2009, Mogg and Bradley, 1998, Williams et al., 1996), with a recent meta-analysis demonstrating an aggregate effect size of d = .45 (Bar-Haim et al., 2007). The following sections review 2 major findings. First, attentional biases are observed across several different experimental tasks. Second, attentional biases are observed across anxiety disorders.
Previous theoretical models of attentional biases towards threat in anxiety
In the past 20 years several models have been put forward to account for the mechanisms underlying attentional bias in anxiety. The review of these models will focus on the mechanisms of attentional bias postulated by the models. It is important to note that these models have mainly focused on individual differences in trait anxiety. Spielberger, Gorsuch, Lushene, Vagg, and Jacobs (1983) described trait anxiety as a personality trait that predisposes an individual to respond with anxiety to
Review of evidence for the mechanisms of attentional bias
Given the theoretical discord, we now review the evidence in regards to the components of attentional bias, mediating mechanisms, and stages of processing.
How do the biases relate to other aspects of anxious responding?
There is a surprising lack of research investigating how the different components of attentional bias correlate with other aspects of anxious responding. The research is limited to demonstrating correlations between emotional Stroop biases and self-reported distress during actual or imagined stressors (MacLeod and Hagan, 1992, Nay et al., 2004, van den Hout et al., 1995). It remains unclear whether facilitated attention, difficulty in disengagement, and attentional avoidance similarly predict
Conclusions
The present paper conceptualized attentional biases in terms of three complimentary aspects: the attentional components, mediating mechanisms, and stages of information processing. Research has identified elements within each domain and suggested specific interrelations between the domains. Though future research is still needed to clarify inconsistencies and ambiguities, there has been clear progress in identifying the mechanisms of attentional biases. Future research in this area will
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