Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Phenomenological Characteristics of Attentional Biases Towards Threat: A Critical Review

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Cognitive Therapy and Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

An Erratum to this article was published on 02 September 2009

Abstract

Although research has consistently revealed the presence of a general attentional bias towards threat, empirical and theoretical ambiguity exists in determining whether attentional biases are comprised of facilitated attention to threat, difficulty in disengagement from threat, or both, as well as whether attentional biases reflect automatic or strategic processes. This paper reviews empirical investigations across four common assessment tasks: the Stroop (masked and unmasked), dot probe, visual search, and the Posner tasks. Although the review finds inconsistencies both within and between assessment tasks, the evidence suggests that attentional biases towards threat are comprised of each of the phenomenological characteristics addressed in this paper. Contemporary theoretical models of attentional biases in anxiety are summarized and critically reviewed in light of the current evidence. Suggestions for future research are addressed, including a need to investigate the psychometric properties of the assessment tasks, to utilize consistent theoretically driven operationalizations of attentional biases, and to provide a temporal description of the characteristics of attentional biases towards threat.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Lipp and Waters (2007) did not also test for facilitated attention. Therefore, their results do only demonstrate difficulty in disengagement but they do not rule out facilitated attention.

  2. Flykt and Caldara (2006) did not also test for difficulty in disengagement. Therefore, their results do only demonstrate facilitated attention but they do not rule out difficulty in disengagement.

References

  • Algom, D., Chajut, E., & Lev, S. (2004). A rational look at the emotional Stroop paradigm: A generic slowdown, not a Stroop effect. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 133, 323–338.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Amir, N., McNally, R. J., Riemann, B. C., Burns, J., Lorenz, M., & Mullen, J. T. (1996). Suppression of the emotional Stroop effect by increased anxiety in patients with social phobia. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 11, 945–948.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Anderson, A. K., & Phelps, E. A. (2001). Lesions of the human amygdala impair enhanced perception of emotionally salient events. Nature, 411, 305–309.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Amir, N., Elias, J., Klumpp, H., & Przeworski, A. (2003). Attentional bias to threat in social phobia: Facilitated processing of threat or difficulty disengaging attention from threat? Behaviour Research and Therapy, 41, 1325–1335.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bar-Haim, Y., Lamy, D., Pergamin, L., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. H., & van IJzendoorn, M. H. (2007). Threat-related attentional bias in anxious and non-anxious individuals: A meta-analytic study. Psychological Bulletin, 133, 1–24.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Beck, A. T., & Clark, D. A. (1997). An information processing model of anxiety: Automatic and strategic processes. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 35, 49–58.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bradley, B. P., Mogg, K., Falla, S. J., & Hamilton, L. R. (1998). Attentional bias for threatening facial expressions in anxiety: Manipulation of stimulus duration. Cognition & Emotion, 12, 737–753.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bradley, B. P., Mogg, K., Millar, N., & White, J. (1995). Selective processing of negative information: Effects of clinical anxiety, concurrent depression, and awareness. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 104, 532–536.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bradley, B. P., Mogg, K., White, J., Groom, C., & de Bono, J. (1999). Attentional bias for emotional faces in generalized anxiety disorder. The British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 38, 267–278.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Buckley, T. C., Blanchard, E. B., & Hickling, E. J. (2002). Automatic and strategic processing of threat stimuli: A comparison between PTSD, panic disorder, and non-anxiety controls. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 26, 97–115.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bundesen, C., Habekost, T., & Kyllingsbaek, S. (2005). A neural theory of visual attention: Bridging cognition and neuroscience. Psychological Review, 112, 291–328.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Byrne, A., & Eysenck, M. W. (1995). Trait anxiety, anxious mood, and threat detection. Cognition and Emotion, 9, 549–562.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen, Y. P., Ehlers, A., Clark, D. M., & Mansell, W. (2002). Patients with generalized social phobia direct their attention away from faces. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 40, 677–687.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Constans, J. I., Vasterling, J. J., McCloskey, M. S., & Brailey, K. (2004). Suppression of attentional bias in PTSD. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 113, 315–323.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dalgleish, T., Taghavi, R., Neshat-Doost, H., Moradi, A., Canterbury, R., & Yule, W. (2003). Patterns of processing bias for emotional information across clinical disorders: A comparison of attention, memory, and prospective cognition in children and adolescents with depression, generalized anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 32, 10–21.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Devineni, T., Blanchard, E. B., Hickling, E. J., & Buckley, T. C. (2004). Effect of psychological treatment on cognitive bias in motor vehicle accident-related posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 18, 211–231.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Eide, P., Kemp, A., Silberstein, R. B., & Nathan, P. J. (2002). Test-retest reliability of the emotional Stroop task: Examining the paradox of measurement change. The Journal of Psychology, 136, 514–520.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Flykt, A., & Caldara, R. (2006). Tracking fear in snake and spider fearful participants during visual search: A multi-response domain study. Cognition and Emotion, 20, 1075–1091.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fox, E. (2004). Maintenance or capture of attention in anxiety-related biases? In J. Yiend (Ed.), Cognition, emotion, and psychopathology: Theoretical, empirical and clinical directions (pp 86–105). New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fox, E., Russo, R., & Dutton, K. (2002). Attentional bias for threat: Evidence for delayed disengagement from emotional faces. Cognition and Emotion, 16, 355–379.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Fox, E., Russo, R., Bowles, R., & Dutton, K. (2001). Do threatening stimuli draw or hold visual attention in subclinical anxiety? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 130, 681–700.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Garner, M., Mogg, K., & Bradley, B. P. (2006). Orienting and maintenance of gaze to facial expressions in social anxiety. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 115, 760–770.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Gilboa-Schechtman, E., Foa, E. B., & Amir, N. (1999). Attentional biases for facial expressions in social phobia: The face-in-the-crowd paradigm. Cognition and Emotion, 13, 305–318.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gotlib, I. H., Kasch, K. L., Traill, S., Joormann, J., Arnow, B. A., & Johnson, S. L. (2004). Coherence and specificity of information-processing biases in depression and social phobia. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 386–398.

  • Harvey, A. G., Bryant, R. A., & Rapee, R. M. (1996). Preconscious processing of threat in posttraumatic stress disorder. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 20, 613–623.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Juth, P., Lundqvist, D., Karlsson, A., & Öhman, A. (2005). Looking for foes and friends: Perceptual and emotional factors when finding a face in the crowd. Emotion, 5, 379–395.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kindt, M., Bierman, D., & Brosschot, J. F. (1996). Stroop versus Stroop: Comparison of a card format and a single-trial format of the standard color-word Stroop task and emotional Stroop task. Personality and Individual Differences, 21, 653–661.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koster, E. H., Crombez, G., Verschuere, B., & De Houwer, J. (2004). Selective attention to threat in the dot probe paradigm: Differentiating vigilance and difficulty to disengage. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 42, 1183–1192.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Koster, E. H. W., Crombez, G., Vershuere, B., Van Damme, S., & Wiersema, J. R. (2006). Components of attentional bias to threat in high trait anxiety: Facilitated engagement, impaired disengagement, and attentional avoidance. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 44, 1757–1771.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Koster, E. H. W., Crombez, G., Van Damme, S., Verschuere, B., & De Houwer, J. (2004). Does imminent threat capture and hold attention? Emotion, 4, 312–317.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Koster, E. H. W., Crombez, G., Van Damme, S., Verschuere, B., & De Houwer, J. (2005). Signals for threat modulate attentional capture and holding: Fear-conditioning and extinction during the exogenous cueing task. Cognition and Emotion, 19, 771–780.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koster, E. H. W., Verschuere, B., Crombez, G., & Van Damme, S. (2005). Time-course of attention for threatening pictures in high and low trait anxiety. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 43, 1087–1098.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Koster, E. H. W., Crombez, G., Verschuere, B., & De Houwer, J. (2006). Attention to threat in anxiety-prone individuals: Mechanisms underlying attentional bias. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 30, 635–643.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kyrios, M., & Iob M. A. (1998). Automatic and strategic processing in obsessive-compulsive disorder: Attentional bias, cognitive avoidance, or more complex phenomena? Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 12, 271–292.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Lipp, O. V., & Waters, A. M. (2007). When danger lurks in the background: Attentional capture by animal fear-relevant distracters is specific and selectively enhanced by animal fear. Emotion, 7, 192–200.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • MacLeod, C., & Hagan, R. (1992). Individual differences in the selective processing of threatening information, and emotional responses to a stressful life event. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 30, 151–161.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • MacLeod, C., & Mathews, A. (1988). Anxiety and the allocation of attention to threat. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 40, 653–670.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • MacLeod, C., Mathews, A., & Tata, P. (1986). Attentional bias in the emotional disorders. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 95, 15–20.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • MacLeod, C., Rutherford, E., Campbell, L., Ebsworthy, G., & Holker, L. (2002). Selective attention and emotional vulnerability: Assessing the causal basis of their association through the experimental manipulation of attentional bias. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 111, 107–123.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mathews, A., & Mackintosh, B. (1998). A cognitive model of selective processing in anxiety. Cognition and Anxiety, 22, 539–560.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mathews, A., & MacLeod, C. (2002). Induced processing biases have causal effects on anxiety. Cognition and Emotion, 16, 331–354.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mathews, A., & MacLeod, C. (2005). Cognitive vulnerability to emotional disorders. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 1, 167–195.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • McNally, R. J. (1995). Automaticity and the anxiety disorders. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 33, 747–754.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Miltner, W. H. R., Krieschel, S., Hecht, H., Trippe, R., & Weiss, T. (2004). Eye movements and behavioral responses to threatening and nonthreatening stimuli during visual search in phobic and nonphobic subjects. Emotion, 4, 323–339.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mogg, K., & Bradley, B. P. (1998). A cognitive-motivational analysis of anxiety. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 36, 809–848.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mogg, K., & Bradley, B. P. (1999). Some methodological issues in assessing attentional biases for threatening faces in anxiety: A replication study using a modified version of the probe detection task. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 37, 595–604.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mogg, K., & Bradley, B. P. (2004). A cognitive-motivational perspective on the processing of threat information and anxiety In J. Yiend (Ed.), Cognition, emotion, and psychopathology: Theoretical, empirical and clinical directions (pp. 68–85). New York: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mogg, K., & Bradley, B. P. (2005). Attentional bias in generalized anxiety disorder versus depressive disorder. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 29, 29–45.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mogg, K., Bradley, B. P., & Hallowell, N. (1994). Attentional bias to threat: Roles of trait anxiety, stressful events, and awareness. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology A: Human Experimental Psychology, 47, 841–864.

    PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mogg, K., Bradley, B. P., Williams, R., & Mathews, A. (1993). Subliminal processing of emotional information in anxiety and depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 102, 304–311.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mogg, K., Bradley, B. P., Bono, J. D., & Painter, M. (1997). Time course of attentional bias for threat information in non-clinical anxiety. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 35, 297–303.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mogg, K., Bradley, B. P., Miles, F., & Dixon, C. (2004). Time course of attentional bias for threat scenes: Testing the vigilance-avoidance hypothesis. Cognition and Emotion, 18, 689–700.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mogg, K., Bradley, B. P., Millar, N., & White, J. (1995). A follow-up study of cognitive bias in generalized anxiety disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 33, 927–935.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Mogg, K., Bradley, B. P., Dixon, C., Fisher, H. T., & McWilliams, A. (2000). Trait anxiety, defensiveness and selective processing of threat: An investigation using two measures of attentional bias. Personality and Individual Differences, 28, 1063–1077.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mogg, K., Bradley, B. P., & Williams, R. (1995). Attentional bias in anxiety and depression: The role of awareness. British Journal of Clinical Psychology, 34, 17–36.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Monk, C. S., Nelson, E. E., Woldehawariat, G., Montgomery, L. A., Zarahn, E., McClure, E. B., et al. (2004). Experience-dependent plasticity for attention to threat: Behavioral and neurophysiological evidence in humans. Biological Psychiatry, 56, 607–610.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Moritz, S., Jacobsen, D., Kloss, M., Fricke, S., Rufer, M., & Hand, I. (2004). Examination of emotional strop interference in obsessive-compulsive disorder. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 42, 671–682.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Nay, W. T., Thorpe, G. L., Roberson-Nay, R., Hecker, J. E., & Sigmon, S. T. (2004). Attentional bias to threat and emotional response to biological challenge. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 18, 609–627.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Norman, D. A. (1968). Toward a theory of memory and attention. Psychological Review, 75, 522–536.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Öhman, A. (2005). The role of the amygdala in human fear: Automatic detection of threat. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 30, 953–958.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Öhman, A., & Wiens, S. (2005). The concept of an evolved fear module and cognitive theories of anxiety. Feelings and emotions: The Amsterdam symposium (pp. 58–80).

  • Öhman, A., Flykt, A., & Esteves, F. (2001). Emotion drives attention: Detecting the snake in the grass. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 130, 466–478.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pflugshaupt, T., Mosimann, U. P., von Wartburg, R., Schmitt, W., Nyffeler, T., & Muri, R. M. (2005). Hypervigilance-avoidance pattern in spider phobia. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 19, 105–116.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Phelps, E. A., & LeDoux, J. E. (2005). Contributions of the amygdala to emotion processing: From animal models to human behavior. Neuron, 48, 175–187.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Pishyar, R., Harris, L. M., & Menzies, R. G. (2004). Attentional bias for words and faces in social anxiety. Anxiety, Stress and Coping, 17, 23–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Posner, M. I., (1980). Orienting of attention. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 32, 3–25.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rinck, M., Becker, E. S., Kellermann, J., & Roth, W. T. (2003). Selective attention in anxiety: Distraction and enhancement in visual search. Depression and Anxiety, 18, 18–28.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Rinck, M., Reinecke, A., Ellwart, T., Heuer, K., & Becker, E. S. (2005). Speeded detection and increased distraction in fear of spiders: Evidence from eye movements. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 114, 235–248.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Salemink, E., van den Hout, M. A., & Kindt, M. (2007). Selective attention and threat: Quick orienting versus slow disengagement and two versions of the dot probe task. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 45, 607–615.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sawchuk, C. N., Lohr, J. M., Lee, T. C., & Tolin, D. F. (1999). Exposure to disgust-evoking imagery and information processing biases in blood-injection-injury phobia. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 37, 249–257.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Schmukle, S. C. (2005). Unreliability of the dot probe task. European Journal of Personality, 19, 595–605.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Siegrist, M. (1997). Test-retest reliability of different versions of the Stroop test. The Journal of Psychology, 131, 299–306.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, S. D., Most, S. B., Newsome, L. A., & Zald, D. H. (2006). An emotion-induced attentional blink elicited by aversively conditioned stimuli. Emotion, 6, 523–527.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stroop, J. R. (1935). Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 18, 643–662. (Reprinted in 1992 in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 121, 15–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thorpe, S. J., & Salkovskis, P. M. (1997). Information processing in spider phobics: The Stroop colour naming task may indicate strategic but not automatic attentional bias. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 35, 131–144.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Van Damme, S., Crombez, G., Hermans, D., Koster, E. H. W., & Eccleston C. (2006). The role of extinction and reinstatement in attentional bias to threat: A conditioning approach. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 44, 1555–1563.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • van den Hout, M., Tenney, N., Huygens, K., Merckelbach, H., & Kindt, M. (1995). Responding to subliminal threat cues is related to trait anxiety and emotional vulnerability: a successful replication of MacLeod and Hagan (1992). Behaviour Research and Therapy, 33, 451–454.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • van den Hout, M., Tenney, N., Huygens, K., & de Jong, P. (1997). Preconscious processing of bias in specific phobia. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 35, 29–34.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • van Honk, J., Tuiten, A., van den Hout, M., Putman, P., de Haan, E., & Stam, H. (2001). Selective attention to unmasked and masked threatening words: Relationships to trait anger and anxiety. Personality and Individual Differences, 30, 711–720.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wikström, J., Lundh, L., Westerlund, J., Hogman, L. (2004). Preattentive bias for snake words in snake phobia? Behaviour Research and Therapy, 42, 949–970.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, J. M. G, Mathews, A., & MacLeod, C. (1996). The emotional Stroop task and psychopathology. Psychological Bulletin, 120, 3–24.

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, J. M. G., Watts, F. N., MacLeod, C., & Mathews, A. (1988). Cognitive psychology and emotional disorders. Chichester: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Williams, J. M. G., Watts, F. N., MacLeod, C., & Mathews, A. (1997). Cognitive psychology and emotional disorders (2nd ed.). Chistester: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilson, E., & MacLeod, M. (2003). Contrasting two accounts of anxiety-linked attentional bias: selective attention to varying levels of stimulus threat intensity. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 112, 212–218.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yiend, J., & Mathews, A. (2001). Anxiety and attention to threatening pictures. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 54A, 665–681.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Arkansas, 216 Memorial Hall, Fayetteville, AR, 72701, USA

    Josh M. Cisler, Amy K. Bacon & Nathan L. Williams

Authors
  1. Josh M. Cisler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Amy K. Bacon
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Nathan L. Williams
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Josh M. Cisler.

Additional information

An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10608-009-9266-6

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Cisler, J.M., Bacon, A.K. & Williams, N.L. Phenomenological Characteristics of Attentional Biases Towards Threat: A Critical Review. Cogn Ther Res 33, 221–234 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-007-9161-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-007-9161-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation