Selective Attention in the Dot-probe Paradigm and Difficulty to Disengage Attention among High Anxious People

Abstract

Many studies using dot-probe task revealed that high anxious individuals show selective attention to threatening information. A previous study using neutral stimulus trials found that the dot probe effect was at least partially due to a disengagement effect. The current study compared high anxious group with low group, in order to determine whether the difficulty to disengage attention was found only for the high group. The current study also manipulated SOAs (stimulus onset asynchrony) in order to determine whether the difficulty to disengage attention persisted or not. Results indicated that high anxious individuals showed difficulty to disengage attention only under 0 ms SOA condition.View full abstract