Positive Attentional Bias Research Articles

Naive Realism and Its Relationship to Self-Awareness

The current research targets naive realism among university students, self-awareness among university students, and the relationship between naive realism and self-awareness among university students. The researcher suggests the following studies: Like the current research on other samples such as (employees in senior positions, professors, returnees, and displaced persons), and addressing other demographic variables such as (age, education, culture, and social status). It addresses the relationship of naive realism with a number of psychological variables such as (positive work, joint rumination, confirmation bias, cognitive biases, and attentional bias). It addresses the relationship of self-awareness and its relationship with a number of psychological variables such as (reflective thinking, emotional creativity, psychological adjustment, cognitive styles, and parental treatment styles).

Adolescents' trait mindfulness and psychological stress: The mediating role of attention.

Based on the Combined Cognitive Biases Hypothesis, the current study via two parallel studies aims to explore the potential mediating role of attention biases and attention control regarding the link between trait mindfulness and psychological stress in adolescents. For Study 1, we collected self-reported data from 2123 Chinese adolescents (mean age = 15.6 years, SD = 2.37; 52.8% female) in four schools. The participants completed measures of trait mindfulness, perceived stress, and attention bias. Mediation analysis was employed to investigate the potential mediating effect of attention bias. In Study 2, 123 participants (mean age = 17.7 years, SD = 2.68; 41.46% female) completed the attention network task after inducing attention bias. Then, trait mindfulness and perceived stress were measured. Mediation analysis was employed to investigate the potential mediating effect of attention control (alerting, orienting, and conflict monitoring) under attention bias. Study 1 demonstrated a significant mediating effect of negative attention bias ([-0.13, -0.07], p < .05) but not positive attention bias in the relationship between trait mindfulness and psychological stress. Study 2 revealed that conflict monitoring in negative attention bias ([-0.41, -0.16], p < .05), rather than alerting and orienting in negative attention bias, showed a significant mediating effect on the association between trait mindfulness and psychological stress. Findings from the two studies suggest that conflict monitoring during negative attention bias may be the underlying mechanism through which trait mindfulness helps mitigate psychological stress in adolescents.

Attention and Interpretation Bias Modification Transfers to Memory Bias: Testing the Combined Cognitive Bias Hypothesis

PurposeThis study delves into the combined cognitive bias hypothesis in depression, exploring the interaction between negative attention, interpretation and memory biases. We aimed to assess whether modifying attention and interpretation bias would lead to congruent changes in memory bias, and to what extend and depth this causal effect can be.MethodNinety-nine undergraduates underwent either a positive (PT) or negative (NT) four-day attention and interpretation bias training. A set of well-established post-training assessments including free recall, recognition, autobiographic memory, and self-reference encoding tasks were used to evaluate memory bias. Affective states were measured pre- and post-training.ResultsCompared to PT, participants in NT correctly retrieved more negative trained stimuli, and falsely recognized more negative synonyms of trained terms. NT also exhibited an enhanced retrieval of negative autobiographical memory. No significant differences were found between NT and PT in self-referential encoding and retrieval bias, or affective states.DiscussionThe results suggested an extensive and strong transfer effect from attention and interpretation bias modification to different facets of memory bias, being found in retrieving trained emotional stimuli, in memory intrusion of negative synonyms, and in autobiographic memory recall. The findings underscored the causality between three biases, supporting the combined cognitive bias hypothesis. It might also suggest an effective new approach to modify memory bias via attention and interpretation bias training.

Deployment of attention to facial expressions varies as a function of emotional quality-but not in alexithymic individuals.

Alexithymia is a risk factor for emotional disorders and is characterized by differences in automatic and controlled emotion processing. The multi-stimulus free-viewing task has been used to detect increased negative and reduced positive attentional biases in depression and anxiety. In the present eye-tracking study, we examined whether lexical emotional priming directs attention toward emotion-congruent facial expressions and whether alexithymia is related to impairments in lexical priming and spontaneous attention deployment during multiple face perception. A free-viewing task with happy, fearful, angry, and neutral faces shown simultaneously was administered to 32 alexithymic and 46 non-alexithymic individuals along with measures of negative affect and intelligence. Face presentation was preceded by masked emotion words. Indices of initial orienting and maintenance of attention were analyzed as a function of prime or target category and study group. Time to first fixation was not affected by prime category or study group. Analysis of fixation duration yielded a three-way interaction. Alexithymic individuals exhibited no prime or target category effect, whereas non-alexithymic individuals showed a main effect of target condition, fixating happy faces longer than neutral and angry faces and fearful faces longer than angry faces. Our results show evidence of attentional biases for positive and fearful social information in non-alexithymic individuals, but not in alexithymic individuals. The lack of spontaneous attentional preference for these social stimuli in alexithymia might contribute to a vulnerability for developing emotional disorders. Our data also suggest that briefly presented emotion words may not facilitate gaze orientation toward emotion-congruent stimuli.

Negative and positive attention bias in anhedonia and anxious arousal: Can depression and anxiety be distinguished by patterns of engagement and disengagement bias?

Negative and positive attention bias in anhedonia and anxious arousal: Can depression and anxiety be distinguished by patterns of engagement and disengagement bias?

Association of Daily Stress With Daily Anxiety and Depression

Abstract: Background: As stress continues to mount in everyday life, there is a corresponding uptick in emotional distress, notably anxiety and depression. Aims: The present research, grounded in the theory of resilience-boosting strategies, explored how daily perceived stress affects anxiety and depression, highlighting the critical moderating role of self-affirmation in cognitive pathways, and the significance of positive attention bias in improving stress resilience. Methods: Using a diary methodology, data was collected from 241 participants over 14 consecutive days and was analyzed using a multilevel linear model. Results: Daily positive attention bias mediated the relationship between perceived stress and anxiety/depression, while self-affirmation acted as a cross-level moderator, affecting the relationship between daily perceived stress and daily positive attention bias and its mediation effect. Specifically, for those with high self-affirmation, daily perceived stress has a weaker negative correlation with daily positive attention bias, which coincides with a decreased intensification of anxiety and depression. Limitations: The study’s limitations include a narrow demographic focus on young Chinese participants, a potential overlook of specific bias components by the self-report scale for positive attentional bias, subjective bias from self-reported stress and emotion measures, and an inability to draw causal conclusions from the diary method. Conclusions: These findings suggest that positive attentional bias and self-affirmation, as a mediating mechanism and cross-level moderator, respectively, are associated with diminishing the effect of perceived stress and the subsequent feelings of anxiety/depression, highlighting their potential protective roles in daily stress.

The influence of emotional feedback material type on attentional capture at different presentation times.

This study aimed to explore the influence of emotional feedback materials on attentional capture at different presentation times and to investigate the mechanisms of positive and negative attentional biases. Two experiments were conducted. Experiment 1 recruited 47 participants, and Experiment 2 recruited 46 participants. Emotional facial images and emotional words were used as feedback materials. A learning-testing paradigm was employed to explore the effect of emotional feedback materials on attentional capture at different presentation times (1000 ms/100 ms). We compared the accuracy and reaction times of participants under emotional and neutral conditions at both presentation times. Experiment 1 revealed that participants exhibited a stable positive attentional bias towards emotional facial images. Additionally, under the 100 ms feedback condition, emotional interference on judgment task accuracy was greater than under the 1000 ms feedback condition. Experiment 2 found that under the 100 ms feedback condition, emotional interference on reaction time was greater than under the 1000 ms feedback condition. Comparing the data from both experiments revealed that the processing time for emotional facial images was longer than for emotional words. (1) Emotional facial images are more effective than emotional words in capturing attention. (2) When positive and negative information with equal arousal levels alternates over a period of time, individuals exhibit a stable positive attentional bias. (3) When there is intense competition for attention and cognitive resources, emotional information is prioritized for processing.

Patterns of attentional biases in children and emotional symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic: a two-wave longitudinal study

BackgroundIt is unknown how the patterns of negative and positive attentional biases in children predict fear of COVID-19, anxiety symptoms, and depression symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study identified profiles of negative and positive attentional biases in children and examined their association with emotional symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic.Method264 children (girls: 53.8% and boys: 46.2%) of 9–10 years born in Hong Kong or mainland China from a primary school in Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China were involved in a two-wave longitudinal study. Children completed the COVID-19 Fear Scale, the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale, and the Attention to Positive and Negative Information Scale to measure fear of COVID-19, anxiety and depression symptoms, and negative and positive attentional biases in classrooms. After six months, they completed the second assessment of fear of COVID-19, anxiety symptoms, and depression symptoms in classrooms. Latent profile analysis was conducted to reveal distinct profiles of attentional biases in children. A series of repeated MANOVA was performed to examine the association of profiles of attentional biases to fear of COVID-19, anxiety symptoms, and depression symptoms across 6 months.ResultsThree profiles of negative and positive attentional biases were revealed in children. Children with a “moderate positive and high negative attentional biases” profile had significantly higher fear of the COVID-19 pandemic, anxiety symptoms, and depression symptoms than children with a “high positive and moderate negative attentional biases” profile. Children with a “low positive and negative attentional biases” profile were not significantly different in fear of COVID-19, anxiety symptoms, and depression symptoms than those with the other two profiles.ConclusionsPatterns of negative and positive attentional biases were related to emotional symptoms during the COVID-19 pandemic. It might be important to consider children's overall patterns of negative and positive attentional biases to identify children at risk of higher emotional symptoms.

Afek Positif Sebagai Mediator dalam Hubungan antara Efikasi Diri dan Bias Atensi Emosional pada Remaja

Emotional attention bias is an unconscious cognitive process that affects the processing of information. Individuals with positive emotional attention bias tend to have high self-efficacy. In adolescents, high self-efficacy helps them to get through difficult situations. This study seeks to find out the relationship between self-efficacy and emotional attention bias in adolescents by assuming there is a mediating role of positive affect. This is because the behavior and thoughts of adolescents are strongly influenced by affect. The purpose of this study was to examine positive affect as a mediator in the relationship between self-efficacy and emotional attention bias towards happiness and threats related words in adolescents. A total of 87 adolescent participants who were also high school students (M= 16.5) participated in this study. Self-efficacy was measured using the General Self-Efficacy Scale and positive affect was measured using the positive affect dimensions of the Positive Affect and Negative Affect Scale. Meanwhile, emotional attention bias was measured using the emotional Stroop task. The results using Jamovi's mediation showed that the relationship between self-efficacy and emotional attention bias towards happiness and threats related words was fully mediated by positive affect. This study succeeded in explaining the role of automatic and unconscious cognitive processes in the relationship between self-efficacy and emotional attention bias in adolescents.

Positive attentional bias mediates the relationship between trait emotional intelligence and trait affect

Emotional intelligence and, in particular, the component emotion regulation may increase well-being and improve mood and coping with negative emotions. In the present eye-tracking study, we examined whether attention allocation to positive stimuli mediates the relationship between emotion regulation abilities and trait affect. Gaze behavior of 104 healthy adults was analyzed in a free-viewing task, in which happy, sad, angry, and neutral faces were shown simultaneously for ten seconds. Dwell time on facial expressions was used as indicator of attention allocation. Trait emotional intelligence was assessed using the Self-Rated Emotional Intelligence Scale. Self-report measures of state and trait positive and negative affect, trait anxiety, and depression were administered. In general, participants viewed longer at happy than at negative or neutral faces. The results of mediation analyses indicated that intrapersonal and interpersonal emotion regulation abilities were indirectly related to trait positive affect through attention to happy faces. Moreover, dwell time on happy faces had a mediating effect on the relationship between interpersonal emotion regulation ability and trait anxiety. Preference for positive social signals might form one attentional pathway through which emotion regulation abilities promote positive mood and buffer the development of anxiety reactions in everyday life.

Positive Attention Bias Trained during the Rethink Therapeutic Online Game and Related Improvements in Children and Adolescents’ Mental Health

Attentional bias towards positive stimuli is considered a resilience factor for mental health and well-being. The aim of the present study was to analyze the effects of an attentional bias training for positive faces in a preventive therapeutic game for children and adolescents. The sample of 54, which consisted of children and adolescents aged between 10-16 years, played the REThink game, which included an attentional bias training level based on the visual search paradigm, where children had the task to quickly find the happy face among other angry faces. We measured mental health, and positive and negative emotions and analyzed their associations between changes in attention bias. Attentional bias indicators demonstrated acceptable reliability and results showed that increases in attentional bias towards positive faces were associated with improvements in children and adolescents' conduct problems, hyperactivity, and peer relationship problems. Overall, our results support the protective role of training attentional bias towards positive faces as part of a preventive therapeutic game for children and adolescents.

Positive attention bias in high socially anxious individuals: Evidence from an ERP study

The Bivalent Fear of Evaluation (BFEO) model posits that the fear of positive evaluation (FPE) is a core feature of social anxiety. As such, high socially anxious individuals may show attention bias when faced with positive stimuli. However, most of the previous studies focused on the negative attention bias of social anxiety, and less on the attention bias of positive stimuli. Meanwhile, the effect of stimulus presentation time on the attention bias pattern was unclear. In order to investigate this question, we used a dot-probe paradigm with facial expressions (happy, fearful, angry, neutral) presented for 100 ms and 500 ms. The ERP results showed: (1) For high socially anxious group, happy faces elicited a larger N1 for valid than for invalid cued probes, whereas for healthy control group, angry faces elicited a larger N1 for valid than for invalid cued probes. (2) When valid cues following happy faces presented for 500 ms, the N1 amplitude was larger than that of invalid cues. However, when valid cues following angry and fear faces presented for 100 ms, the N1 amplitude was larger than that of invalid cues. The results showed difficulty in attention disengagement of high socially anxious individuals from positive stimuli, as reflected by N1, illustrating the positive attention bias in social anxiety. These results prove that FPE may contribute to maintaining social anxiety.

The causal relationship of trait anxiety to positive and negative attentional bias in children: the moderation effect of gender

The causal relationship of trait anxiety to positive and negative attentional bias in children: the moderation effect of gender

Depressive Symptoms Account for Loss of Positive Attention Bias in ADHD Patients: An Eye-Tracking Study

Objectives: Depression and ADHD often co-occur and are both characterized by altered attentional processing. Differences and overlap in the profile of attention to emotional information may help explain the co-occurence. We examined negative attention bias in ADHD as neurocognitive marker for comorbid depression. Methods: Patients with depression (n = 63), ADHD (n = 43), ADHD and depression (n = 25), and non-psychiatric controls (n = 68) were compared on attention allocation toward emotional faces. The following eye-tracking indices were used: gaze duration, number of revisits, and location and duration of first fixation. Results: Controls revisited the happy faces more than the other facial expressions. Both the depression and the comorbid group showed significantly less revisits of the happy faces compared to the ADHD and the control group. Interestingly, after controlling for depressive symptoms, the groups no longer differed on the number of revisits. Conclusion: ADHD patients show a relative positive attention bias, while negative attention bias in ADHD likely indicates (sub)clinical comorbid depression.

The remediating effect of Attention Bias Modification on aggression in young offenders with antisocial tendency: A randomized controlled trial

Background and objectivesAn attention bias toward hostile stimuli is associated with an increased risk of aggressive behavior. Thus, reducing hostile attention bias may help to reduce aggression in young offenders. We evaluated the remediating effects of Attention Bias Modification (ABM) on hostile attention bias and aggressive behavior in Chinese male young offenders with antisocial tendencies. MethodsInstitutionalized male young offenders (ages 16–18) were recruited and randomly assigned to ABM (n = 28), placebo (n = 28), or waiting list (n = 28). The ABM group received four weeks of training using visual search of emotional faces; the placebo group underwent similar training using visual search of neutral objects. Before and after treatment, aggressive behavior, attention bias toward positive stimuli and hostile stimuli were assessed. ResultsLinear mixed models and hierarchical multiple regression analyses showed that the intervention effect of ABM was moderated by participants’ initial attention bias. Young offenders with a high level of initial hostile attention bias, or with a low level of initial positive attention bias, benefitted most from ABM. LimitationsThe small sample size impedes investigation of the mechanism of the intervention's effects. Further research can determine whether the current results can be extrapolated to the population of female young offenders. ConclusionThe results of the present study suggest that ABM is helpful for young offenders who show the greatest bias toward hostile stimuli and away from positive stimuli. These findings highlight the importance of matching the intervention and the participant. Trial registrationosf.io/vj5rk;

Effects of the Gratitude Letter and Positive Attention Bias Modification on Attentional Deployment and Emotional States

Much research testing positive psychological interventions (PPIs) has focused primarily on emotional states, while research testing the effects of positive attention bias modification (PABM) has tended to focus primarily on attentional deployment. Evidence is sparse and inconsistent on attentional deployment (i.e., a process of emotion regulation) in PPIs, changes in emotional states (i.e., an outcome of emotion regulation) in PABM programs, and the combined effects of the two types of interventions on attentional deployment and emotional states. In the current study, we found that the gratitude letter increased positive affect immediately after completion and the PABM biased attention immediately after completion; however, the effects of the gratitude letter on affect were only maintained throughout the study when paired together with the PABM program. Further, we found evidence that the gratitude letter and the gratitude letter with the PABM program increases initial viewing away and late viewing towards emotional stimuli. Thus, the gratitude letter may produce positive effects on affect by increasing the salience of emotional stimuli, potentially helping individuals notice positive sitmuli in their enviroment to maintain their mood and negative stimuli in their enviornment to reduce emotional avoidance. The results suggest that combining the gratitude letter with a PABM program can produce strong effects on both attentional deployment and emotional states. We discuss the implications for clinical practice and future research.

Relationships between hope and mental health among women in prison.

Previous research with non-offenders has linked a higher dispositional cognition of hope to lower levels of psychological symptoms and demonstrated mediating effects of attentional biases on the relationship between hope and psychological symptoms, but this has not been explored among offenders. Our aim was to investigate associations between a dispositional cognition of hope and habitual attentional processing styles and distress among women in prison. We hypothesised that higher levels of hope would be associated with more attention to positive information and less to negative information in the surroundings and, in turn, lower levels of depression, anxiety and stress symptoms in women in prison. In a cross-sectional study, we recruited consenting women serving a prison sentence who had been referred to psychological services. Participants completed a set of self-rating inventories individually, which scaled their levels of hope, attention to positive and negative information and symptoms of anxiety, stress and depression. Two hundred and three women participated. Their average age was 35.68 years (range 21-67 years). Over half were recidivists (170, 58%). Overall, the higher the level of hope they had, the lower were the ratings of their psychological symptoms. Positive attentional bias was associated with higher hope and lower psychological distress. In contrast, negative attentional bias was related to lower hope and higher psychological distress ratings. In statistical models, both attentional biases appeared to be partial mediators of the relationship between hope and psychological distress. Our findings among women in prison were consistent with those in non-forensic populations and not previously studied among prisoners. They suggest that it would be worth evaluating interventions to modify attentional styles as they may have value in increasing hope and reducing psychological symptoms and perhaps also harmful behaviours in this vulnerable population.

Positive attentional biases moderate the link between attentional bias for threat and anxiety

Attentional bias for threat (ABT) has been implicated as a central mechanism underpinning anxiety. However, documented inconsistencies in the link between ABT and anxiety do not support a purely psychopathological view of ABT. While ABT is thought to be concomitant with the tendency to be less attentive to positive stimuli, neuroimaging evidence for the functional independence of positive and negative information-processing systems suggests this need not be the case. This may hold important implications for understanding the inconsistently observed ABT-anxiety link. To this end, the current study examined whether qualitative differences in positive attentional biases captured on a dot probe task would moderate the association between ABT and anxiety (N = 232). Findings indicated that ABT (indexed within the same task) was associated with self-reported anxiety only among persons characterised by an attentional bias away from positive stimuli, but not those characterised by an attentional bias towards positive stimuli. However, positive attentional biases did not independently predict anxiety, suggesting this selective association occurred against a backdrop of individuals experiencing similar levels of anxiety. Present findings hold implications for the design of behavioural training programs which target anxiety though the reduction of ABT, and emphasise the complex origins of anxiety.

Single session positive attention bias modification training enhances reward-related electrocortical responses in females

Positive affect is linked to greater mental and physiological well-being. Conversely, negative affect is linked to depressive symptoms such as anhedonia. Relative biases in attention to positive or negative emotional information are thought to underlie individual difference in positive and negative affective traits, respectively. Attention bias modification (ABM) increases positive affect by training attention away from negative, or toward positive, stimuli. ABM training to reduce bias to negative information modulates electrocortical activity (i.e., P2, N2, & P3 ERP amplitudes), and this effect is moderated by participant sex. The extent to which ABM training to positive stimuli alters electrocortical activity and the extent to which such changes are moderated by participant sex is unknown. Here, participants completed attend positive ABM (or control) training followed by assessments of attentional bias, mood, and reward-related electrocortical activity. The results provide evidence of greater attentional bias to positive information following ABM. Transfer of these training effects to electrocortical measures was found for the P2 ERP component and moderated by participant sex. Females displayed a larger P2 amplitude for positive outcomes following ABM training. The reward positivity (RewP) and P3 ERPs were not directly affected by training, but the relationship between ERPs was linked to training such that following ABM training, the P2 and RewP components were strongly correlated, while following control training, the P3 and RewP were moderately correlated. Thus, ABM training to positive information enhanced electrocortical measures of reward processing in females and increased the relationship between reward-related ERPs.

Do Animals Engage Greater Social Attention in Autism? An Eye Tracking Analysis.

BackgroundVisual atypicalities in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are a well documented phenomenon, beginning as early as 2–6 months of age and manifesting in a significantly decreased attention to the eyes, direct gaze and socially salient information. Early emerging neurobiological deficits in perceiving social stimuli as rewarding or its active avoidance due to the anxiety it entails have been widely purported as potential reasons for this atypicality. Parallel research evidence also points to the significant benefits of animal presence for reducing social anxiety and enhancing social interaction in children with autism. While atypicality in social attention in ASD has been widely substantiated, whether this atypicality persists equally across species types or is confined to humans has not been a key focus of research insofar.MethodsWe attempted a comprehensive examination of the differences in visual attention to static images of human and animal faces (40 images; 20 human faces and 20 animal faces) among children with ASD using an eye tracking paradigm. 44 children (ASD n = 21; TD n = 23) participated in the study (10,362 valid observations) across five regions of interest (left eye, right eye, eye region, face and screen).ResultsResults obtained revealed significantly greater social attention across human and animal stimuli in typical controls when compared to children with ASD. However in children with ASD, a significantly greater attention allocation was seen to animal faces and eye region and lesser attention to the animal mouth when compared to human faces, indicative of a clear attentional preference to socially salient regions of animal stimuli. The positive attentional bias toward animals was also seen in terms of a significantly greater visual attention to direct gaze in animal images.ConclusionOur results suggest the possibility that atypicalities in social attention in ASD may not be uniform across species. It adds to the current neural and biomarker evidence base of the potentially greater social reward processing and lesser social anxiety underlying animal stimuli as compared to human stimuli in children with ASD.