TY - JOUR
T1 - Speeded detection and increased distraction in fear of spiders: evidence from eye movements.
AU - Rinck, M.K.
AU - Reinecke, A.
AU - Ellwart, T.
AU - Heuer, K.
AU - Becker, E.S.
PY - 2005/1/1
Y1 - 2005/1/1
N2 - Anxiety patients exhibit attentional biases toward threat, which have often been demonstrated as increased distractibility by threatening stimuli. In contrast, speeded detection of threat has rarely been shown. Therefore, the authors studied both phenomena in 3 versions of a visual search task while eye movements were recorded continuously. Spider-fearful individuals and nonanxious control participants participated in a target search task, an odd-one-out search task, and a category search task. Evidence for disorder-specific increased distraction by threat was found in all tasks, whereas speeded threat detection did not occur in the target search task. The implications of these findings for cognitive theories of anxiety are discussed, particularly in relation to the concept of disengagement from threat.
AB - Anxiety patients exhibit attentional biases toward threat, which have often been demonstrated as increased distractibility by threatening stimuli. In contrast, speeded detection of threat has rarely been shown. Therefore, the authors studied both phenomena in 3 versions of a visual search task while eye movements were recorded continuously. Spider-fearful individuals and nonanxious control participants participated in a target search task, an odd-one-out search task, and a category search task. Evidence for disorder-specific increased distraction by threat was found in all tasks, whereas speeded threat detection did not occur in the target search task. The implications of these findings for cognitive theories of anxiety are discussed, particularly in relation to the concept of disengagement from threat.
U2 - 10.1037/0021-843X.114.2.235
DO - 10.1037/0021-843X.114.2.235
M3 - Article
C2 - 15869354
SN - 0021-843X
VL - 114
SP - 235
EP - 248
JO - Journal of Abnormal Psychology
JF - Journal of Abnormal Psychology
IS - 2
ER -