Attentional bias of different trait anxious individuals to the negative words

Abstract

Objective To investigate the attentional bias for negative words in subjects with different trait anxiety.Methods The subjects with different trait anxiety (high anxiety:n =21,normal:n =20,low anxiety:n =21)participated in a dot-probe task.By compareing the reaction time and attentional bias under the probes replacing the words stimulus in different conditions,the subjects' attentional bias for negative word was examined.Results When the stimulus was negative-neutral words,the subjects all showed attentional bias and there was a significant difference to 0 value[D1=(14.44±26.22)ms,t =2.401;D2=(12.05±19.89)ms,t =2.571;D3=(-13.14±24.07)ms,t =2.379;P <0.05]. When the stimulus is negative-positive words,only the high- and low-anxiety groups show attentional bias and there was a significant difference to 0 value[D4 =(21.07±32.91)ms,t =2.791;D6=(-8.98±18.04)ms,t =2.170;P <0.05].Conclusion High trait anxious participants showed attentional bias to negative words,and low trait anxious participants showed attentional avoidance to negative words. Key words: Anxiety; Dot probe task; Attentional bias; Negative words