Influence of anxiety, depression and looming cognitive style on auditory looming perception
Section snippets
Looming cognitive style and the processing of warning signals
A “looming vulnerability” model advanced by Riskind states that anxiety is associated with a cognitive bias to exaggerate forward threat movement (Riskind, 1997, Riskind et al., 2012). The model posits that a key function served by threat processing (in both human and nonhuman animals) is to serve the need to rapidly detect and respond to early warning signals. The model posits the looming cognitive style (LCS) as a faulty cognitive bias that exaggerates this tendency (Riskind, Williams,
Effects of anxiety and looming cognitive style and auditory looming
Based on theoretical logic, we expected that the nature of the perceived vulnerability (or LCS dimension) would moderate the impact of anxiety on the anticipatory auditory looming bias. On the one hand, a person who has the looming cognitive style for physical threats is primed to anticipate (and be vigilant for) rapidly approaching physical dangers, and higher levels of anxiety will predict a stronger anticipatory auditory looming bias. A person who has a low level of the looming cognitive
Present study
The present study was designed to examine our predictions that anxiety symptoms will interact differently with each LCS dimension of personal danger in the prediction of the anticipatory auditory looming bias. A secondary aim was to test the specificity of the predicted effects to anxiety symptoms by comparing them to depression symptoms. Even though anxiety and depression are highly inter-correlated (Brown et al., 1998, Clark and Watson, 1991), they are assumed to have different adaptive
Participants
One hundred undergraduates (72% female) at a suburban university participated in the IRB-approved study for course credit. Participant age ranged from 18 to 51 years (M = 21.32, SD = 4.68).1 Inclusion criteria included fluency in spoken and written English. Racial composition of the sample was relatively diverse: 59% Caucasian, 24% Asian, 10% African American, 1% Pacific Islander, and 6% identified as other. Measures of
Results
Table 1 presents the means, SDs, and intercorrelations of the study variables. As can be seen from the table, anxiety symptoms were significantly correlated with depression symptoms, and both LMSQ subscales. Depression symptoms were also correlated with both LMSQ subscales and the LMSQ subscales were correlated with each other. Anticipatory bias for auditory looming had a nonsignificant tendency to correlate with anxiety symptoms. No gender effects were found for anxiety or depression symptoms
Discussion
Although it has been shown that individuals over-estimate the closeness of a sound source that approaches (Bach et al., 2009, Bach et al., 2008, Neuhoff, 2001), the present study demonstrates the impact of anxiety and depression symptoms and cognitive biases (i.e., looming cognitive style; LCS) on the perception of these ecologically fundamental warning signals. We expected that anxiety symptoms and LCS dimensions synergistically combine to predict anticipatory auditory looming. In addition, we
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2021, Journal of Environmental PsychologyThe effect of audio cues and sound source stimuli on the perception of approaching objects
2020, Applied AcousticsFrontal cortex selectively overrides auditory processing to bias perception for looming sonic motion
2020, Brain ResearchCitation Excerpt :Generalization across species further implies the privileged status of looming signals likely has a common phylogenetic (neural) origin that may reflect a selective advantage due to evolutionary pressures (Neuhoff, 1998, 2001). While looming cues sometimes signal success in acquiring sought-after objects during goal-directed behaviors (Schiff et al., 1962), they are overwhelmingly perceived as threatening (Schiff et al., 1962; Vagnoni et al., 2012) and anxiety/fear-inducing (Riskind et al., 2014) as approaching objects pose greater risk to an organism than receding objects. Given the clear survival importance of decoding sonic motion, a foundational question to address relates to the neural origins of this perceptual anisotropy and how the brain creates privilege for looming auditory motion.
Perception of objects that move in depth, using ecologically valid audio cues
2018, Applied AcousticsCitation Excerpt :However, the use of ecologically valid stimuli, real world sounds, and full audio cues as proposed by Gaver [5,6] assists in building a comprehensive understanding of human perception of an objects movement. Studies that investigate looming perception using real world sounds include Bach et al. [1] and Tajadura-Jiménez et al. [25], whilst studies that investigate looming perception using a 3-Dimensional virtual sound source with full spatial cues include Bach et al. [1], Riskind et al. [19], and Neuhoff et al. [15,16]. The acoustic variables which comprise the full spatial cues include absolute delay, the Doppler shift, atmospheric filtering, gain attenuation due to atmospheric spreading, ground reflection attenuation, and HRTF’s.
The Looming Maladaptive Style Questionnaire: Measurement invariance and relations to anxiety and depression across 10 countries
2017, Journal of Anxiety DisordersCitation Excerpt :Nonetheless, across the eight countries, a two-factor solution (i.e., physical and social looming) was deemed more appropriate, consistent with previous research (González-Díez et al., 2014). Also, in view of the LMSQ subtypes’ differential validity with other constructs (e.g., Brown & Stopa, 2008; Riskind et al., 2011, 2014, 2016), we decided to adopt the two-factor model in the current analysis. Configural and metric invariances were established for the two-factor LMSQ model across the eight countries.
Neural activity during object perception in schizophrenia patients is associated with illness duration and affective symptoms
2016, Schizophrenia ResearchCitation Excerpt :In contrast, considering the putative role of anxiety in the detection of potential dangers, decreased brain activation along with anxiety could point to enhanced perceptual alertness in anxious individuals. In the same vein, an auditory study in healthy individuals revealed that anxiety increased the perception of an auditory warning signal while depression reduced it (Riskind et al., 2014). Anxiety and depression are prevalent in patients with schizophrenia and have been found to be associated with psychotic symptoms as well as with functional and social outcome (Hartley et al., 2013; Lysaker and Salyers, 2007; Schennach-Wolff et al., 2011; Wetherell et al., 2003).