Effects of anxiety states on attention towards irrelevant emotional distractors
Autor(a) principal: | |
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Data de Publicação: | 2021 |
Tipo de documento: | Dissertação |
Idioma: | eng |
Título da fonte: | Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) |
Texto Completo: | http://hdl.handle.net/10773/32897 |
Resumo: | The adaptative function of anxiety is essential for the organism’s survival, given that the faster detection of threatening stimuli provides an advantage. In spite of that, anxiety can become pathological when ceases it to be adaptative, that is, when the danger is not real or when the level of activation and duration is disproportionate to the real situation. Thus, an attentional bias to threat has been usually associated, in several cognitive models, with the genesis and maintenance of anxiety. Although this is known in trait-anxiety, little is known about the influence of state anxiety on attentional bias in emotion-irrelevant tasks. Therefore, the present study aimed to understand how feeling anxious might have similar or different effects, compared with trait anxiety, on the magnitude of the attentional bias towards threatening stimuli when these are task-irrelevant. To investigate this, participants completed a task where they had to identify a deviant letter among several letters, all of which where displayed over emotional (angry or happy) and neutral faces. They completed this task while under threat (possible screaming sounds at any time) or under neutral conditions (no sounds). Contrary to what was hypothesized, results showed lower response times when deviant letters were over happy faces, compared to angry or neutral faces. As predicted, however, results showed that angry faces, compared with neutral and happy faces, seem to increase response times when they were presented as distractors. In addition, results also show that under threat blocks, participants experienced an increased attentional bias for angry over happy faces, compared to neutral blocks. These results may have implications towards the understanding of transitory anxiety states, highlighting how these states bias our attention towards threat-related stimuli. |
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Effects of anxiety states on attention towards irrelevant emotional distractorsState anxietyVisual searchThreatEmotionDistractorsResponse timeAttentional biasThe adaptative function of anxiety is essential for the organism’s survival, given that the faster detection of threatening stimuli provides an advantage. In spite of that, anxiety can become pathological when ceases it to be adaptative, that is, when the danger is not real or when the level of activation and duration is disproportionate to the real situation. Thus, an attentional bias to threat has been usually associated, in several cognitive models, with the genesis and maintenance of anxiety. Although this is known in trait-anxiety, little is known about the influence of state anxiety on attentional bias in emotion-irrelevant tasks. Therefore, the present study aimed to understand how feeling anxious might have similar or different effects, compared with trait anxiety, on the magnitude of the attentional bias towards threatening stimuli when these are task-irrelevant. To investigate this, participants completed a task where they had to identify a deviant letter among several letters, all of which where displayed over emotional (angry or happy) and neutral faces. They completed this task while under threat (possible screaming sounds at any time) or under neutral conditions (no sounds). Contrary to what was hypothesized, results showed lower response times when deviant letters were over happy faces, compared to angry or neutral faces. As predicted, however, results showed that angry faces, compared with neutral and happy faces, seem to increase response times when they were presented as distractors. In addition, results also show that under threat blocks, participants experienced an increased attentional bias for angry over happy faces, compared to neutral blocks. These results may have implications towards the understanding of transitory anxiety states, highlighting how these states bias our attention towards threat-related stimuli.A função adaptativa da ansiedade é essencial para a sobrevivência do organismo, visto que a deteção mais rápida de estímulos ameaçadores proporciona uma vantagem. No entanto, a ansiedade pode tornar-se patológica quando deixa de ter um carácter adaptativo, isto é, quando o perigo não é real ou quando o nível e duração da ativação é desproporcional à situação real. Deste modo, um viés atencional para a ameaça está frequentemente associado, em diversos modelos cognitivos, à génese e manutenção da ansiedade. Embora isso seja conhecido na ansiedade-traço, pouco se sabe sobre a influência da ansiedade-estado no viés atencional nas tarefas em que a emoção é irrelevante. Assim, o presente estudo teve como objetivo compreender como a ansiedade-estado pode ter efeitos semelhantes ou diferentes, em comparação com a ansiedade-traço, na magnitude do viés atencional para estímulos ameaçadores quando estes são irrelevantes para a tarefa. Para isso, os participantes realizaram uma tarefa em que tiveram de identificar a letra discrepante entre letras sobrepostas no centro de faces emocionais (raiva e alegria) e neutras. Eles completaram a tarefa sob ameaça (possível som de grito a qualquer momento) ou sob condições neutras (nenhum som). Ao contrário do que foi hipotetizado, os resultados mostraram tempos de reação inferiores quando as letras discrepantes estavam sobre faces felizes, em comparação com estímulos de raiva ou neutros. No entanto, de acordo com o previsto, os resultados evidenciaram que faces de raiva, em comparação com expressões faciais de alegria e neutras, parecem aumentar o tempo de reação quando são apresentadas como distratores. Ademais, os resultados mostraram igualmente que nos blocos de ameaça, os participantes experienciaram um aumento do viés atencional para faces de raiva sobre faces de alegria, comparativamente aos blocos neutros. Estes resultados podem ter implicações na compreensão dos estados transitórios de ansiedade, destacando como estes estados enviesam a atenção para estímulos relacionados com ameaças.2023-11-30T00:00:00Z2021-11-24T00:00:00Z2021-11-24info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersioninfo:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesisapplication/pdfhttp://hdl.handle.net/10773/32897engFonseca, Tânia Freitasinfo:eu-repo/semantics/embargoedAccessreponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)instname:Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãoinstacron:RCAAP2024-02-22T12:03:22Zoai:ria.ua.pt:10773/32897Portal AgregadorONGhttps://www.rcaap.pt/oai/openaireopendoar:71602024-03-20T03:04:26.501441Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informaçãofalse |
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv |
Effects of anxiety states on attention towards irrelevant emotional distractors |
title |
Effects of anxiety states on attention towards irrelevant emotional distractors |
spellingShingle |
Effects of anxiety states on attention towards irrelevant emotional distractors Fonseca, Tânia Freitas State anxiety Visual search Threat Emotion Distractors Response time Attentional bias |
title_short |
Effects of anxiety states on attention towards irrelevant emotional distractors |
title_full |
Effects of anxiety states on attention towards irrelevant emotional distractors |
title_fullStr |
Effects of anxiety states on attention towards irrelevant emotional distractors |
title_full_unstemmed |
Effects of anxiety states on attention towards irrelevant emotional distractors |
title_sort |
Effects of anxiety states on attention towards irrelevant emotional distractors |
author |
Fonseca, Tânia Freitas |
author_facet |
Fonseca, Tânia Freitas |
author_role |
author |
dc.contributor.author.fl_str_mv |
Fonseca, Tânia Freitas |
dc.subject.por.fl_str_mv |
State anxiety Visual search Threat Emotion Distractors Response time Attentional bias |
topic |
State anxiety Visual search Threat Emotion Distractors Response time Attentional bias |
description |
The adaptative function of anxiety is essential for the organism’s survival, given that the faster detection of threatening stimuli provides an advantage. In spite of that, anxiety can become pathological when ceases it to be adaptative, that is, when the danger is not real or when the level of activation and duration is disproportionate to the real situation. Thus, an attentional bias to threat has been usually associated, in several cognitive models, with the genesis and maintenance of anxiety. Although this is known in trait-anxiety, little is known about the influence of state anxiety on attentional bias in emotion-irrelevant tasks. Therefore, the present study aimed to understand how feeling anxious might have similar or different effects, compared with trait anxiety, on the magnitude of the attentional bias towards threatening stimuli when these are task-irrelevant. To investigate this, participants completed a task where they had to identify a deviant letter among several letters, all of which where displayed over emotional (angry or happy) and neutral faces. They completed this task while under threat (possible screaming sounds at any time) or under neutral conditions (no sounds). Contrary to what was hypothesized, results showed lower response times when deviant letters were over happy faces, compared to angry or neutral faces. As predicted, however, results showed that angry faces, compared with neutral and happy faces, seem to increase response times when they were presented as distractors. In addition, results also show that under threat blocks, participants experienced an increased attentional bias for angry over happy faces, compared to neutral blocks. These results may have implications towards the understanding of transitory anxiety states, highlighting how these states bias our attention towards threat-related stimuli. |
publishDate |
2021 |
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv |
2021-11-24T00:00:00Z 2021-11-24 2023-11-30T00:00:00Z |
dc.type.status.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion |
dc.type.driver.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/masterThesis |
format |
masterThesis |
status_str |
publishedVersion |
dc.identifier.uri.fl_str_mv |
http://hdl.handle.net/10773/32897 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10773/32897 |
dc.language.iso.fl_str_mv |
eng |
language |
eng |
dc.rights.driver.fl_str_mv |
info:eu-repo/semantics/embargoedAccess |
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embargoedAccess |
dc.format.none.fl_str_mv |
application/pdf |
dc.source.none.fl_str_mv |
reponame:Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) instname:Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação instacron:RCAAP |
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Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação |
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RCAAP |
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RCAAP |
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Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) |
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Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) |
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Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos) - Agência para a Sociedade do Conhecimento (UMIC) - FCT - Sociedade da Informação |
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