Publications by year
2023
Dondzilo L, Basanovic J, Grafton B, Bell J, Turnbull G, MacLeod C (2023). A serial mediation model of attentional engagement with thin bodies on body dissatisfaction: the role of appearance comparisons and rumination.
CURRENT PSYCHOLOGY,
42(3), 1896-1904.
Author URL.
Basanovic J (2023). Anxiety-linked biases in attention to cues signalling threat: Reliable individual differences across three anxiety domains.
Abstract:
Anxiety-linked biases in attention to cues signalling threat: Reliable individual differences across three anxiety domains.
Cognitive models of anxiety vulnerability and psychopathology have proposed that individual differences in anxiety are characterised by biases in attentional responding to threat valenced information. Traditional approaches used to examine these biases have measured selective attention to stimuli that represent threats, such as pictures of negative scenes, angry faces, or feared animals. Though these approaches have repeatedly yielded evidence of these effects the measurement reliability of these approaches has been poor, limiting the confidence with which hypotheses can be tested. Recent research has demonstrated that biased attention to cues signalling imminent threat can be measured with acceptable reliability, suggesting a credible avenue for investigating anxiety-linked differences in attentional processing of threat valenced information. However, the relation between this process and anxiety vulnerability has not been tested. The present study conducted three experiments that recruited participants who varied in trait and state anxiety (N = 134), social anxiety (N = 122), or spider fear (N = 131) to complete an assessment of selective attention to cues indicating the location of threat valenced stimuli. Analyses revealed each anxiety domain to be associated with attentional vigilance, or avoidance, of threat cues and the reliability of selective attention indices to be acceptable (r-split-half =. 69 -. 81). The findings demonstrate multiple anxiety domains are characterised by biased attentional responding to cues signalling threat and that such biases can be measured reliably. Implications for theories of anxiety-linked attention processing and further avenues for investigating the bias, and its relation to anxiety vulnerability, are discussed.
Abstract.
Basanovic J, Todd J, van Bockstaele B, Notebaert L, Meeten F, Clarke PJF (2023). Assessing anxiety-linked impairment in attentional control without eye-tracking: the masked-target antisaccade task.
Behav Res Methods,
55(1), 135-142.
Abstract:
Assessing anxiety-linked impairment in attentional control without eye-tracking: the masked-target antisaccade task.
Contemporary cognitive theories of anxiety and attention processing propose that heightened levels of anxiety vulnerability are associated with a decreasing ability to inhibit the allocation of attention towards task-irrelevant information. Existing performance-based research has most often used eye-movement assessment variants of the antisaccade paradigm to demonstrate such effects. Critically, however, eye-movement assessment methods are limited by expense, the need for expert training in administration, and limited mobility and scalability. These barriers have likely led to researchers' use of suboptimal methods of assessing the relationship between attentional control and anxiety vulnerability. The present study examined the capacity for a non-eye-movement-based variant of the antisaccade task, the masked-target antisaccade task (Guitton et al. 1985), to detect anxiety-linked differences in attentional control. Participants (N = 342) completed an assessment of anxiety vulnerability and performed the masked-target antisaccade task in an online assessment session. Greater levels of anxiety vulnerability predicted poorer performance on the task, consistent with findings observed from eye-movement methods and with cognitive theories of anxiety and attention processing. Results also revealed the task to have high internal reliability. Our findings indicate that the masked-target antisaccade task provides a psychometrically reliable, low-cost, mobile, and scalable assessment of anxiety-linked differences in attentional control.
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Dondzilo L, Basanovic J (2023). Body dissatisfaction and selective attention to thin-ideal bodies: the moderating role of attentional control. Body Image, 46, 443-448.
Basanovic J, Myles O, MacLeod C (2023). Do the eyes have it? a comparison of eye-movement and attentional-probe-based approaches to indexing attentional control within the antisaccade paradigm.
Q J Exp Psychol (Hove),
76(2), 221-230.
Abstract:
Do the eyes have it? a comparison of eye-movement and attentional-probe-based approaches to indexing attentional control within the antisaccade paradigm.
Individual differences in the ability to control visual attention, often termed "attentional control," have been of particular interest to cognitive researchers. This has led to the development of numerous tasks intended to measure attentional control, including the antisaccade task. While attentional performance on the antisaccade task is typically indexed through the recording of eye movements, increasingly researchers are reporting the use of probe-based methods of indexing attentional performance on the task. Critically, no research has yet determined the convergence of measures yielded by each of these assessment methods, nor compared the reliability of these measures. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether antisaccade cost measures yielded by a probe-based adaptation of the task converge with antisaccade cost measures yielded by an eye movement task in the sample of individuals, and whether these alternative approaches have comparable levels of psychometric reliability. Ninety-three individuals completed an eye movement task and a probe-based task at two assessment times, and an index of antisaccade cost was computed from each task at each assessment time. Analyses revealed that the antisaccade cost index yielded by each task demonstrated high internal reliability (eye-movement, rSB = .92; probe-based, rSB = .80-.84) and high test-retest reliability (eye-movement, rSB = .82; probe-based, rSB = .72), but modest measurement convergence (r = .21-.35). Findings suggest that probe-based and eye-movement based antisaccade tasks measure shared variance in attentional control, although their measures do not converge strongly enough to be considered equivalent measures of attentional control.
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Pandzic I, Notebaert L, Basanovic J, MacLeod C (2023). Examining the role of trait anxiety and attentional bias to negative information in intrusion vulnerability following an emotionally negative event. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 81
Basanovic J, Dondzilo L, Rudaizky D, Van Bockstaele B (2023). Reliability and convergence of approach/avoidance bias assessment tasks in the food consumption domain.
Q J Exp Psychol (Hove),
76(5), 968-978.
Abstract:
Reliability and convergence of approach/avoidance bias assessment tasks in the food consumption domain.
Theories of motivation posit that people will more readily approach positive or appetitive stimuli, and there has been growing interest in the relationship between biases in approach and avoidance behaviours for food cues and food craving and consumption behaviour. Two paradigms commonly employed by research to investigate this relationship are the approach-avoidance task (AAT) and the stimulus-response compatibility task (SRCT). However, it is yet to be determined whether the measures yielded by these tasks reflect the same processes operating in the food craving and consumption domain. The present study examined the internal reliability and convergence of AAT and SRCT paradigms in their assessment of biased approach to unhealthy compared with healthy food stimuli, and whether the measures yielded by the AAT and SRCT paradigms demonstrated associations with individual differences in food craving and eating behaviour. One hundred twenty-one participants completed an SRCT, an AAT using an arm movement response mode, and an AAT using a key-press response mode. The measures yielded comparable and acceptable levels of internal consistency, but convergence between the different task bias scores was modest or absent, and only approach bias as measured with the AAT task using an arm movement response mode was associated with self-report measures of eating behaviour and trait food craving. Thus, tasks did not converge strongly enough to be considered equivalent measures of approach/avoidance biases, and the AAT task using an arm movement response seems uniquely suited to detect approach biases argued to characterise maladaptive eating behaviour and craving.
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2022
Ji JL, Basanovic J, MacLeod C (2022). Social activity promotes resilience against loneliness in depressed individuals: a study over 14-days of physical isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia.
Sci Rep,
12(1).
Abstract:
Social activity promotes resilience against loneliness in depressed individuals: a study over 14-days of physical isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia.
Loneliness is a subjectively perceived state of social isolation that is associated with negative emotional, cognitive, and physical health outcomes. Physical distancing and shelter-in-place public health responses designed to curb COVID-19 transmission has led to concerns over elevated risk of loneliness. Given that physical isolation does not necessitate social isolation in the age of digital communication, this study investigated the relationship between the frequency of social interaction and loneliness over a two-week period in people engaging in physical distancing and examined whether this relationship was moderated by physical isolation level, age, or depression. A self-selected sample of N = 469 individuals across Australia who were engaged in physically distanced living completed daily surveys for 14-days during April to June of 2020. Multilevel modelling showed that more frequent social interaction with close, but not intermediate or distant contacts, was uniquely associated with lower loneliness. In addition, being younger, more depressed, more anxious, or having a mental health condition diagnosis (past or present) were also independently associated with higher loneliness. Critically, depression was the only significant moderator of the relationship between social interaction and loneliness over time, where more frequent social interaction with close contacts buffered against loneliness over time in high depression individuals only. The findings suggest that encouraging social activity with close contacts may promote resilience against loneliness in individuals with elevated depression symptoms.
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Basanovic J, Page J, MacLeod C (2022). The attenuation of spider avoidance action tendencies in spider-fearful individuals and its impact on explicit evaluation of spider stimuli.
Behav Res Ther,
151Abstract:
The attenuation of spider avoidance action tendencies in spider-fearful individuals and its impact on explicit evaluation of spider stimuli.
Researchers have demonstrated that individuals with heightened levels of spider-fear, as compared to relatively lower levels of spider-fear, are characterised a pattern of action tendencies that facilitates the speed to complete 'avoidance' movements, as compared to 'approach movements, in the face of spider-stimuli. However, research has not determined whether such tendencies are able to be manipulated, and the impact of their manipulation, in individuals with heightened spider-fear. Seventy-one participants who reported relatively high levels of spider-fear completed an action tendency manipulation procedure. The procedure was designed to attenuate avoidance action tendencies, by repeatedly requiring completion of approach actions in response to images of spiders (Approach Spider Condition), or to have no impact on action tendencies (Control Condition). Participants completed an assessment of approach and avoidance action tendencies to images of spiders and butterflies, and rated the unpleasantness and disgust of images of spiders and butterflies, before and after completion of the manipulation procedure. Analyses revealed that avoidance action tendencies to spider stimuli were attenuated in the Approach Spider Condition as compared to the Control Condition as intended. However, conditions did not differ in the evaluation of spider stimuli following the manipulation procedure. The findings demonstrate that avoidance action tendencies to spider stimuli can be manipulated amongst individuals with heightened spider-fear, though their manipulation does not lead to change in explicit evaluation of spider stimuli. The implications of these findings and avenues for future research are discussed.
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2021
Basanovic J, Todd J, Van Bockstaele B, Notebaert L, Meeten F, Clarke P (2021). Assessing anxiety-linked impairment in attentional control without eye-tracking: the masked-target antisaccade task.
Dondzilo L, Basanovic J, Bell J, Mills C, Dinic R, Blechert J (2021). Assessment of approach-avoidance tendencies in body image using a novel touchscreen paradigm.
J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry,
70Abstract:
Assessment of approach-avoidance tendencies in body image using a novel touchscreen paradigm.
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Approaching the thin-ideal and avoiding the stigma of fatness are motivational tendencies resulting from the internalisation of sociocultural appearance norms. Individual differences in subclinical levels of eating disorder symptomatology may be related to variation in motivational tendencies regarding thin vs. non-thin bodies. METHODS: to empirically investigate this hypothesis, the current study employed a novel touchscreen approach-avoidance task with the capacity to effectively simulate compatible approach-avoidance movements. Eighty-four undergraduate females pulled closer or pushed away images depicting either bodies or objects, in response to weight category (underweight bodies vs. overweight bodies) and object category (kitchen items vs. office tools), by means of arm movements. RESULTS: Unexpectedly, results revealed relatively faster approach of overweight bodies and relatively faster avoidance of underweight bodies. Moreover, speeded approach towards overweight bodies, relative to underweight bodies, correlated positively with elevated eating disorder symptomatology. LIMITATIONS: the current sample was restricted to undergraduate women. CONCLUSIONS: the current study provides initial evidence for the utility of a touchscreen-based measure of approach-avoidance tendencies in body image, albeit comparison with other bias assessments would be necessary. Moreover, our findings suggest that a greater tendency to approach overweight bodies is associated with elevated eating disorder symptomatology. Future extensions of the current work are necessary to clarify the function of motivational tendencies in the body image context.
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Mazidi M, Grafton B, Basanovic J, MacLeod C (2021). Attentional control moderates the relationship between social anxiety and selective attentional responding to negative social information: evidence from objective measures of attentional processes.
Cogn Emot,
35(7), 1440-1446.
Abstract:
Attentional control moderates the relationship between social anxiety and selective attentional responding to negative social information: evidence from objective measures of attentional processes.
Cognitive theories of social anxiety implicate greater attention to negative social information in the development and maintenance of heightened social anxiety. Empirical evidence for this proposal, however, has been inconsistent. The aim of the current study was to examine the role of attentional control, which is one's ability to deploy attention to goal-relevant information as a potential moderator of the association between selective attentional responding to negative social information and social anxiety. Eighty-nine adults were recruited through Mechanical Turk platform and completed the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale as well as a novel paradigm designed to measure selective attentional responding to negative social information (angry faces) and attentional control. Attentional control was operationalised as the capacity to direct attention to the specified target stimuli. The results supported the hypothesis that attentional control plays this moderating role. Specifically, while participants with low levels of attentional control exhibited a positive association between social anxiety and selective attentional responding to negative social information, this association was eliminated among participants with high levels of attentional control. This finding may explain the heterogeneity of research findings in this area. Implications, limitations and directions for future research are discussed.
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Basanovic J, Kaiko I, MacLeod C (2021). Change in Attentional Control Predicts Change in Attentional Bias to Negative Information in Response to Elevated State Anxiety.
COGNITIVE THERAPY AND RESEARCH,
45(1), 111-122.
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Basanovic J, Notebaert L, Clarke PJF, MacLeod C (2021). Emotion-in-Motion: an ABM Approach that Modifies Attentional Disengagement from, Rather than Attentional Engagement with, Negative Information.
COGNITIVE THERAPY AND RESEARCH,
45(1), 90-98.
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Basanovic J, Dondzilo L, Rudaizky D, Van Bockstaele B (2021). Reliability and Convergence of Approach/Avoidance Bias Assessment Tasks in the Food Consumption Domain.
Ji JL, Basanovic J, MacLeod C (2021). Social activity promotes resilience against loneliness in depressed individuals: a study over 14-days of physical isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia.
2020
Dondzilo L, Basanovic J, Grafton B, Bell J, Turnbull G, MacLeod C (2020). A serial mediation model of attentional engagement with thin bodies on body dissatisfaction: the role of appearance comparisons and rumination.
Basanovic J, Grafton B, Ford A, Hirani V, Glance D, MacLeod C, Almeida OP (2020). Cognitive bias modification to prevent depression (COPE): results of a randomised controlled trial.
Psychol Med,
50(15), 2514-2525.
Abstract:
Cognitive bias modification to prevent depression (COPE): results of a randomised controlled trial.
BACKGROUND: Although efficacious treatments for major depression are available, efficacy is suboptimal and recurrence is common. Effective preventive strategies could reduce disability associated with the disorder, but current options are limited. Cognitive bias modification (CBM) is a novel and safe intervention that attenuates biases associated with depression. This study investigated whether the delivery of a CBM programme designed to attenuate negative cognitive biases over a period of 1 year would decrease the incidence of major depression among adults with subthreshold symptoms of depression. METHODS: Randomised double-blind controlled trial delivered an active CBM intervention or a control intervention over 52 weeks. Two hundred and two community-dwelling adults who reported subthreshold levels of depression were randomised (100 intervention, 102 control). The primary outcome of interest was the incidence of major depressive episode assessed at 11, 27 and 52 weeks. Secondary outcomes included onset of clinically significant symptoms of depression, change in severity of depression symptoms and change in cognitive biases. RESULTS: Adherence to the interventions was modest though did not differ between conditions. Incidence of major depressive episodes was low. Conditions did not differ in the incidence of major depressive episodes. Likewise, conditions did not differ in the incidence of clinically significant levels of depression, change in the severity of depression symptoms or change in cognitive biases. CONCLUSIONS: Active CBM intervention did not decrease the incidence of major depressive episodes as compared to a control intervention. However, adherence to the intervention programme was modest and the programme failed to modify the expected mechanism of action.
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Basanovic J, Myles O, MacLeod C (2020). Do the eyes have it? a comparison of eye-movement and attentional-probe based approaches to indexing attentional control within the anti-saccade paradigm.
Qi S, Basanovic J, Wang L, Xiang S, Hu W, Yi X (2020). Regulation of negative emotions through positive reappraisal and distancing in high-trait-anxious women.
J Affect Disord,
267, 191-202.
Abstract:
Regulation of negative emotions through positive reappraisal and distancing in high-trait-anxious women.
BACKGROUND: Positive reappraisal and distancing are two distinct cognitive reappraisal strategies for emotion regulation. Critically however, research examining the impact of elevated trait anxiety on cognitive reappraisal has often conflated these strategies. Thus, the present study investigated whether high-trait-anxious (HTA) women can effectively utilize positive reappraisal and distancing to regulate emotional responses to negative stimuli. METHODS: Twenty-six HTA women and twenty-seven low-trait-anxious (LTA) women were investigated in a self-generated reappraisal paradigm. Subjective measures of emotional regulation and event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded while participants were instructed to passively view neutral or negative pictures, or to reinterpret negative pictures in a positive way (positive reappraisal) or a detached and unemotional way (distancing). RESULTS: HTA women, as compared to LTA women, reported smaller reductions in negative affect after positive reappraisal and smaller reductions in emotional arousal after distancing. Though ERP data did not reveal corresponding differences in the centro-parietal late positive potential during emotion regulation, data did reveal HTA women exhibited enhanced recruitment of cognitive control during positive reappraisal and greater preparatory processing before engaging in distancing. LIMITATIONS: Future research should examine the generalizability of the present results in clinical anxiety individuals, male sample and other reappraisal strategies. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, HTA women appeared to recruit more cortical resources, suggestive of compensatory mechanisms, to achieve a similar performance as LTA women when engaging in positive reappraisal and distancing strategies to regulate negative emotions. Therefore, the findings demonstrate that HTA women are characterized by the inefficient implementation of positive reappraisal and distancing strategies.
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Clarke P, Marinovic W, Todd J, Basanovic J, Chen NTM, Notebaert L (2020). What is attention bias variability? Examining the potential roles of attention control and response time variability in its relationship with anxiety.
Clarke PJF, Marinovic W, Todd J, Basanovic J, Chen NTM, Notebaert L (2020). What is attention bias variability? Examining the potential roles of attention control and response time variability in its relationship with anxiety.
Behav Res Ther,
135Abstract:
What is attention bias variability? Examining the potential roles of attention control and response time variability in its relationship with anxiety.
The present study examined the underlying role of attention control and response time variability in explaining the relationship between anxiety and two commonly computed measures of attention bias variability: 'moving average' and 'trial-level bias score' measures. Participants (final n = 195) completed measures of anxiety symptomatology, antisaccade performance (attention control), a stand-alone measure of response-time variability, and a probe task measure of attention bias. Average bias and moving average bias variability measures both recorded significant, but low split-half reliability. Both attention bias variability measures and average attention bias were associated with anxiety, and attention control. Both attention bias variability measures correlated with response time variability. Neither attention bias variability measure correlated with average attention bias. Attention control was the single significant mediator of the relationship between anxiety and the trial-level bias score measure of attention bias variability. Neither response time variability nor attention control significantly mediated the relationship between anxiety and the moving average measure of attention bias variability. No evidence was found for the mediating role of response time variability. The present findings suggest that the relationships observed between anxiety and the trial-level bias score measure of attention bias variability in particular may be attributable to the over-arching role of attention control.
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2019
Basanovic J, Dean L, Riskind JH, MacLeod C (2019). High Spider-Fearful and Low Spider-Fearful Individuals Differentially Perceive the Speed of Approaching, but not Receding, Spider Stimuli.
COGNITIVE THERAPY AND RESEARCH,
43(2), 514-521.
Author URL.
2018
Basanovic J, Notebaert L, Clarke PJF, MacLeod C, Jawinski P, Chen NTM (2018). Inhibitory attentional control in anxiety: Manipulating cognitive load in an antisaccade task.
PLoS One,
13(10).
Abstract:
Inhibitory attentional control in anxiety: Manipulating cognitive load in an antisaccade task.
Theorists have proposed that heightened anxiety vulnerability is characterised by reduced attentional control performance and have made the prediction in turn that elevating cognitive load will adversely impact attentional control performance for high anxious individuals to a greater degree than low anxious individuals. Critically however, existing attempts to test this prediction have been limited in their methodology and have presented inconsistent findings. Using a methodology capable of overcoming the limitations of previous research, the present study sought to investigate the effect of manipulating cognitive load on inhibitory attentional control performance of high anxious and low anxious individuals. High and low trait anxious participants completed an antisaccade task, requiring the execution of prosaccades towards, or antisaccades away from, emotionally toned stimuli while eye movements were recorded. Participants completed the antisaccade task under conditions that concurrently imposed a lesser cognitive load, or greater cognitive load. Analysis of participants' saccade latencies revealed high trait anxious participants demonstrated generally poorer inhibitory attentional control performance as compared to low trait anxious participants. Furthermore, conditions imposing greater cognitive load, as compared to lesser cognitive load, resulted in enhanced inhibitory attentional control performance across participants generally. Crucially however, analyses did not reveal an effect of cognitive load condition on anxiety-linked differences in inhibitory attentional control performance, indicating that elevating cognitive load did not adversely impact attentional control performance for high anxious individuals to a greater degree than low anxious individuals. Hence, the present findings are inconsistent with predictions made by some theorists and are in contrast to the findings of earlier investigations. These findings further highlight the need for research into the relationship between anxiety, attentional control, and cognitive load.
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2017
Chen NTM, Basanovic J, Notebaert L, MacLeod C, Clarke PJF (2017). Attentional bias mediates the effect of neurostimulation on emotional vulnerability.
J Psychiatr Res,
93, 12-19.
Abstract:
Attentional bias mediates the effect of neurostimulation on emotional vulnerability.
Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is a neuromodulatory technique which has garnered recent interest in the potential treatment for emotion-based psychopathology. While accumulating evidence suggests that tDCS may attenuate emotional vulnerability, critically, little is known about underlying mechanisms of this effect. The present study sought to clarify this by examining the possibility that tDCS may affect emotional vulnerability via its capacity to modulate attentional bias towards threatening information. Fifty healthy participants were randomly assigned to receive either anodal tDCS (2 mA/min) stimulation to the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), or sham. Participants were then eye tracked during a dual-video stressor task designed to elicit emotional reactivity, while providing a concurrent in-vivo measure of attentional bias. Greater attentional bias towards threatening information was associated with greater emotional reactivity to the stressor task. Furthermore, the active tDCS group showed reduced attentional bias to threat, compared to the sham group. Importantly, attentional bias was found to statistically mediate the effect of tDCS on emotional reactivity, while no direct effect of tDCS on emotional reactivity was observed. The findings are consistent with the notion that the effect of tDCS on emotional vulnerability may be mediated by changes in attentional bias, holding implications for the application of tDCS in emotion-based psychopathology. The findings also highlight the utility of in-vivo eye tracking measures in the examination of the mechanisms associated with DLPFC neuromodulation in emotional vulnerability.
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Basanovic J, Notebaert L, Grafton B, Hirsch CR, Clarke PJF (2017). Attentional control predicts change in bias in response to attentional bias modification.
Behav Res Ther,
99, 47-56.
Abstract:
Attentional control predicts change in bias in response to attentional bias modification.
Procedures that effectively modify attentional bias to negative information have been examined for their potential to be a source of therapeutic change in emotional vulnerability. However, the degree to which these procedures modify attentional bias is subject to individual differences. This generates the need to understand the mechanisms that influence attentional bias change across individuals. The present study investigated the association between individual differences in attentional control and individual differences in the magnitude of bias change evoked by an attentional bias modification procedure. The findings demonstrate that individual differences in two facets of attentional control, control of attentional inhibition and control of attentional selectivity, were positively associated with individual differences in the magnitude of attentional bias change. The present findings inform upon the cognitive mechanisms underpinning change in attentional bias, and identify a target cognitive process for research seeking to enhance the therapeutic effectiveness of attentional bias modification procedures.
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Basanovic J, Dean L, Riskind JH, MacLeod C (2017). Direction of stimulus movement alters fear-linked individual differences in attentional vigilance to spider stimuli.
Behav Res Ther,
99, 117-123.
Abstract:
Direction of stimulus movement alters fear-linked individual differences in attentional vigilance to spider stimuli.
Researchers have proposed that high spider-fearful individuals are characterised by heightened attentional vigilance to spider stimuli, as compared to low spider-fearful individuals. However, these findings have arisen from methodologies that have uniformly employed only static stimuli. Such findings do not inform upon the patterns of fear-linked attentional selectivity that occur in the face of moving feared stimuli. Hence, the present study developed a novel methodology designed to examine the influence of stimulus movement on attentional vigilance to spider and non-spider stimuli. Eighty participants who varied in level of spider-fear completed an attentional-probe task that presented stimuli under two conditions. One condition presented stimuli that displayed an approaching movement, while the other condition presented stimuli that displayed a receding movement. Fear-linked heightened attentional vigilance was observed exclusively under the latter condition. These findings suggest that fear-linked attentional vigilance to spider stimuli does not represent a uniform characteristic of heightened spider-fear, but rather is influenced by stimulus context. The means by which these findings inform understanding of attentional mechanisms that characterise heightened spider-fear, and avenues for future research, are discussed.
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Basanovic J, MacLeod C (2017). Does anxiety-linked attentional bias to threatening information reflect bias in the setting of attentional goals, or bias in the execution of attentional goals?.
Cogn Emot,
31(3), 538-551.
Abstract:
Does anxiety-linked attentional bias to threatening information reflect bias in the setting of attentional goals, or bias in the execution of attentional goals?
Heightened anxiety vulnerability is characterised by an attentional bias that favours the processing of negative information. However, this anxiety-linked attentional bias is amenable to two quite different explanations. One possibility is that it reflects anxiety-linked bias in the setting of attentional goals that favours setting the goal of attending towards negative information over the alternative goal of attending away from such information. Another possibility is that it reflects anxiety-linked bias in the execution of attentional goals that enhances the execution of the former attentional goal compared to the latter. The present study introduces a novel methodology designed to discriminate the validity of these competing hypotheses, by examining anxiety-linked attentional bias under two conditions. One condition left attentional goals unconstrained. The other condition imposed the attentional goal of either attending towards more negative or more benign emotional stimuli. The finding that anxiety-linked attentional bias was observed only under the former condition supported the hypothesis that anxiety is characterised by a bias favouring the setting attentional goals involving vigilance rather than avoidance of negative information, while giving no support to the hypothesis that anxiety is characterised by a bias reflecting enhanced execution of the former attentional goal compared to the latter.
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2014
Rudaizky D, Basanovic J, MacLeod C (2014). Biased attentional engagement with, and disengagement from, negative information: Independent cognitive pathways to anxiety vulnerability? (vol 28, pg 245, 2014).
COGNITION & EMOTION,
28(2), 384-385.
Author URL.
Rudaizky D, Basanovic J, MacLeod C (2014). Biased attentional engagement with, and disengagement from, negative information: independent cognitive pathways to anxiety vulnerability?.
Cogn Emot,
28(2), 245-259.
Abstract:
Biased attentional engagement with, and disengagement from, negative information: independent cognitive pathways to anxiety vulnerability?
Cognitive models of anxiety propose that selective attention to negative information plays a causal role in heightened anxiety vulnerability and dysfunction. However, there has been theoretical disagreement concerning whether anxiety-linked attentional biases reflect enhanced attentional engagement with, or impaired attentional disengagement from, negative information. We contend that previous methodologies have not been optimal in terms of their capacity to differentiate both types of bias. The present study introduces a refined methodology, in which the conventional dot-probe task is modified in a novel manner to enable the independent assessment of these components of attention. The findings demonstrate that facilitated attentional engagement and impaired attentional disengagement are both characteristic of elevated levels of anxiety vulnerability. Moreover, these prove to be unrelated facets of attentional selectivity that independently contribute to variation in anxiety vulnerability. We discuss the possibility that these two types of attentional bias may represent independent pathways to anxiety vulnerability.
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