EFFECT OF STATE ANXIETY ON ATTENTION AND VIGILANCE USING ANTI-VEA TASK

Abstract

Anxiety differently affects attentional functions and vigilance. But these two were not measured together previously. That’s why the current experimental study aimed to measure the effect of state anxiety on executive and arousal vigilance and different attentional functions in a single task. The on-campus participants were initially screened with STAI-T by Spielberger to know their level of trait anxiety. The participants with a moderate level of trait anxiety were requested to participate in the experiment. They were divided into two groups and were randomly assigned to each group. The positive and negative mood was induced through video clips. The ABA experimental design was used and the mood was checked with PANAS by Watson, Clark, and Tellegen, and state and trait anxiety was checked with STAI before and after mood induction. The two experimental groups performed the task of ANTI-Vea by Luna and his colleagues to check their attention. The results showed that executive and orienting control of the positively mood-induced group was less efficient. There was a significant difference in the accuracy and reaction time of both groups. But, executive and arousal vigilance remain the same. The current study provides future evidence for both vigilance and attention. Keywords: attention, state anxiety, executive vigilance, arousal vigilance, attentional network test.