Attentional bias to pictures of fear-relevant animals in a dot probe task.

Attentional bias to fear-relevant animals was assessed in 69 participants not preselected on self-reported anxiety with the use of a dot probe task showing pictures of snakes, spiders, mushrooms, and flowers. Probes that replaced the fear-relevant stimuli (snakes and spiders) were found faster than probes that replaced the non-fear-relevant stimuli, indicating an attentional bias in the entire sample. The bias was not correlated with self-reported state or trait anxiety or with general fearfulness. Participants reporting higher levels of spider fear showed an enhanced bias to spiders, but the bias remained significant in low scorers. The bias to snake pictures was not related to snake fear and was significant in high and low scorers. These results indicate preferential processing of fear-relevant stimuli in an unselected sample. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recognizing masked threat: Fear betrays, but disgust you can trust.

If emotions guide consciousness, people may recognize degraded objects in center view more accurately if they either fear the objects or are disgusted by them. Therefore, we studied whether recognition of spiders and snakes correlates with individual differences in spider fear, snake fear, and disgust sensitivity. Female students performed a recognition task with pictures of spiders, snakes, flowers, and mushrooms as well as blanks. Pictures were backward masked to reduce picture visibility. Signal detection analyses showed that recognition of spiders and snakes was correlated with disgust sensitivity but not with fear of spiders or snakes. Further, spider fear correlated with the tendency to misinterpret blanks as threatening (response bias). These findings suggest that effects on recognition and response biases to emotional pictures vary for different emotions and emotional traits. Whereas fear may induce response biases, disgust may facilitate recognition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Snakes and Cats in the Flower Bed: Fast Detection Is Not Specific to Pictures of Fear-Relevant Animals.

The observation that snakes and spiders are found faster among flowers and mushrooms than vice versa and that this search advantage is independent of set size supports the notion that fear-relevant stimuli are processed preferentially in a dedicated fear module. Experiment 1 replicated the faster identification of snakes and spiders but also found a set size effect in a blocked, but not in a mixed-trial, sequence. Experiment 2 failed to find faster identification of snake and spider deviants relative to other animals among flowers and mushrooms and provided evidence for a search advantage for pictures of animals, irrespective of their fear relevance. These findings suggest that results from the present visual search task cannot support the notion of preferential processing of fear relevance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Unconscious anxiety": Phobic responses to masked stimuli.

Tested the hypothesis that an unconscious preattentive perceptual analysis of phobic stimuli is sufficient to elicit human fear responses. Selected snake- and spider-fearful Ss, as well as normal controls, were exposed to pictures of snakes, spiders, flowers, and mushrooms. A separate forced-choice recognition experiment established backward masking conditions that effectively precluded recognition of experimental stimuli both for fearful and nonfearful Ss. In the main experiment, these conditions were used to compare skin conductance responses (SCRs) to masked and nonmasked phobic and control pictures among fearful and nonfearful Ss. In support of the hypotheses, snake- and spider-fearful Ss showed elevated SCRs to snake and spider pictures as compared with neutral pictures and with responses of the nonfearful Ss under both masking conditions. Ratings of valence, arousal, and dominance indicated that the fearful Ss felt more negative, more aroused, and less dominant in relation to both masked and nonmasked phobic stimuli. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of fear and expectancies in capture of covert attention by spiders.

Fear-related stimuli are often prioritized during visual selection but it remains unclear whether capture by salient objects is more likely to occur when individuals fear those objects. In this study, participants with high and low fear of spiders searched for a circle while on some trials a completely irrelevant fear-related (spider) or neutral distractor (butterfly/leaf) was presented simultaneously in the display. Our results show that when you fear spiders and you are not sure whether a spider is going to be present, then any salient distractor (i.e., a butterfly) grabs your attention, suggesting that mere expectation of a spider triggered compulsory monitoring of all irrelevant stimuli. However, neutral stimuli did not grab attention when high spider fearful people knew that a spider could not be present during a block of trials, treating the neutral stimuli just as the low spider fearful people do. Our results show that people that fear spiders inspect potential spider-containing locations in a compulsory fashion even though directing attention to this location is completely irrelevant for the task. Reduction of capture can only be accomplished when people that fear spiders do not expect a spider to be present. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Visual search with biological threat stimuli: Accuracy, reaction times, and heart rate changes.

Twenty-four participants were given a visual search task of deciding whether all the pictures in 3×3 search arrays contained a target picture from a deviant category, and heart rate was measured. The categories were snakes, spiders, flowers, and mushrooms. Shorter reaction times (RTs) were observed for fear-relevant (snake and spider) targets rather than for fear-irrelevant/neutral (flower and mushroom) targets. This difference was most pronounced for the participants presented with a gray-scale version of the search arrays. The 1st interbeat interval (IBI), after the search array onset, showed an effect of the target, whereas the 2nd IBI also showed an effect of the distractors. The results suggest that controlled processing of the task operates together with automatic processing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

From fear to love: Individual differences in implicit spider associations.

The Implicit Association Test (IAT) was used to investigate automatic fear associations in fear of spiders. Fear associations toward spiders were measured among spider fearful and nonfearful participants (Experiment 1) as well as among nonfearfuls and spider enthusiasts (Experiment 2). It was shown that the IAT is sensitive to personal automatic fear associations and therefore distinguishes between high-fearful, nonfearful, and enthusiastic participants. Moreover, implicit spider associations measured by the IAT predicted avoidance behavior beyond self-reports. The results of Experiment 2 provide additional support for the argument that implicit spider associations are different from general stereotypes or knowledge about spiders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Automatic processing in spider phobia: Implicit fear associations over the course of treatment.

This study evaluates the cognitive model of anxiety by investigating treatment-related changes in automatic associations to evaluate schematic processing. Spider-phobic participants (n=31) and healthy controls (n=30) completed fear-based Implicit Association Tests (IATs), which are reaction-time measures that tap implicit associations without requiring conscious introspection. The specific tasks involved classifying pictures of snakes and spiders along with semantic categorizations (good vs. bad, afraid vs. unafraid, danger vs. safety, and disgusting vs. appealing). Phobic individuals were assessed before and after group-based exposure treatment and 2 months later; controls were assessed at matched time points. Results supported clinical applications for implicit fear associations, including prediction of phobic avoidance, and treatment sensitivity of the fear- and disgust-specific automatic associations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fear-relevant illusory correlations: What types of associations promote judgmental bias?

A. J. Tomarken, S. Mineka, and M. Cook (see record 1990-11527-001) found that high-fear individuals markedly overestimated the covariation between fear-relevant stimuli and aversive outcomes. The authors assessed what features of stimulus–outcome associations promote illusory correlations. In Experiment 1, participants with high snake fear exhibited significant covariation bias for slides of snakes and shocks, but not for slides of damaged electric outlets (DEOs) and shocks. In Experiment 2, individuals with high and low snake fear rated DEOs and shocks as belonging together better than snakes and shocks. However, the shapes of high-fear individuals' affective response profiles to snakes and shocks were more similar than their profile shapes involving other pairings. In addition, their affective responses to snakes and snake–shock profile similarity predicted snake–shock belongingness ratings. These results suggest the importance of emotional responses and emotional profile similarity in mediating illusory correlations involving fear-relevant stimuli. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Of snakes and flowers: Does preferential detection of pictures of fear-relevant animals in visual search reflect on fear-relevance?

Previous research in visual search indicates that animal fear-relevant deviants, snakes/spiders, are found faster among non fear-relevant backgrounds, flowers/mushrooms, than vice versa. Moreover, deviant absence was indicated faster among snakes/spiders and detection time for flower/mushroom deviants, but not for snake/spider deviants, increased in larger arrays. The current research indicates that the latter 2 results do not reflect on fear-relevance, but are found only with flower/mushroom controls. These findings may reflect on factors such as background homogeneity, deviant homogeneity, or background-deviant similarity. The current research removes contradictions between previous studies that used animal and social fear-relevant stimuli and indicates that apparent search advantages for fear-relevant deviants seem likely to reflect on delayed attentional disengagement from fear-relevance on control trials. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cerebral correlates of anticipated fear: a PET study of specific phobia

Cerebral correlates of anticipatory anxiety was studied in 14 women with specific snake or spider phobia, and in 6 nonphobic controls. Videofilms with neutral scenes were shown during positron emission tomographic measurements of regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF). The phobics, but not the controls, anticipated scenes with spiders or snakes to appear in the videofilms. This was reflected in higher anxiety ratings in the phobics. The primary visual cortex rCBF was lower in phobics than controls, while no rCBF differences were found in the other brain regions investigated. The results are suggested to indicate inhibition of corticogeniculate pathways, in turn representing a neurophysiological correlate of avoidant anticipatory coping.     

Variation in the serotonin transporter gene modulates selective attention to threat.

The 5-HTTLPR is an insertion/deletion polymorphism in the promoter region of the serotonin transporter gene. Prior research has revealed associations between the short-allele variant of this polymorphism, enhanced self-reported negative emotionality, and hypersensitivity of fear relevant neural circuits. In a sample of 50 healthy women we examined the role of 5-HTTLPR for cognitive-affective processing of phylogenetical fear-relevant stimuli (spiders) in a dot probe task. In contrast to homozygote long-allele carriers (ll), participants carrying at least 1 short allele (ss and sl) selectively shifted attention toward pictures of spiders, when these were presented for a duration of 2,000 ms. These results argue for an involvement of 5-HTTLPR in cognitive processing of threatening stimuli and thus, underpin its general role for individual differences in negative affect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fear and autonomic arousal.

32 female undergraduates were classified as having high fear (HF) or low fear (LF) of spiders. After reduction of orienting responses to pictures of neutral animals, experimental Ss were shown pictures of a spider, and control Ss were shown pictures of a snake. Using the response to the last neutral stimulus as a base line, HF experimental Ss when 1st shown a spider yielded greater GSRs than other groups. This increase in GSR responding for HF experimental Ss was, for 2 more trials, maintained relative to control Ss. HF experimental Ss also yielded GSRs of greater duration than all other groups when 1st shown the spider stimulus. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pathological changes in yearly protocol liver biopsy specimens from healthy pediatric liver recipients

Fear of spiders, disgust sensitivity, and spiders' disgust-evoking status were assessed in a group of spider phobic girls (n = 22) who applied for treatment, in a group of non-phobic girls (n = 21), and in the parents of both groups of children. The phobic girls were tested both before and after behavioural treatment which consisted of 1.5 hr eye movement desensitization and reprocessing and 1.5 hr exposure in vivo. Findings support the idea that disgust is an important aspect of spider phobia: (a) spider phobic girls exhibited higher levels of disgust sensitivity and considered spiders per se as more disgusting than non-phobic girls; (b) there was a parallel decline of spider fear and spiders' disgust-evoking status as a result of treatment; and (c) spiders' disgust-evoking status was relatively strong in mothers of spider phobic girls. The latter finding may indicate, that the acquisition of spider fear is facilitated by specific parental disgust reactions when confronted with spiders.     

Phobia-relevant illusory correlations: The role of phobic responsivity.

The authors investigated the role of phobic responsivity in the generation of phobia-relevant illusory correlations. As a means of disentangling the contributions of prior fear and elicited fear responses, half of a group of phobic women received 1 mg alprazolam (n?=?21), and half received a placebo (n?=?22). A group of nonfearful women (n?=?24) was included to control for prior fear per se. Participants were exposed to slides of spiders, weapons, and flowers that were randomly paired with a shock, a siren, or nothing. Postexperimental covariation estimates and on-line outcome expectancies were assessed. Irrespective of both prior and elicited fear, participants postexperimentally overassociated spiders and shock. Yet, only women with spider phobia displayed a persisting fear-confirming expectancy bias. This bias was similar for the placebo and alprazolam groups. Thus, the bias appeared to be due to preexisting phobogenic beliefs, whereas phobic responsivity played a negligible role. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The detection of fear-relevant stimuli: Are guns noticed as quickly as snakes?

Potentially dangerous stimuli are important contenders for the capture of visual-spatial attention, and it has been suggested that an evolved fear module is preferentially activated by stimuli that are fear relevant in a phylogenetic sense (e.g., snakes, spiders, angry faces). In this study, a visual search task was used to test this hypothesis by directly contrasting phylogenetically (snakes) and ontogenetically (guns) fear-relevant stimuli. Results showed that the modern threat was detected as efficiently as the more ancient threat. Thus, both guns and snakes attracted attention more effectively than neutral stimuli (flowers, mushrooms, and toasters). These results support a threat superiority effect but not one that is preferentially accessed by threat-related stimuli of phylogenetic origin. The results are consistent with the view that faster detection of threat in visual search tasks may be more accurately characterized as relevance superiority effects rather than as threat superiority effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Strategies within hypnosis for reducing phobic behavior.

Compared 3 methods for reducing fear of snakes using approach behavior and self-report anxiety measures of 36 adult female snake phobics. The methods, all involving hypnosis, were: (a) relaxation while recalling fearful snake-related events, (b) fear arousal during similar recall, and (c) posthypnotic suggestion about the disappearance of the snake phobia. All methods led to a significant decrease in fear as measured by overt behavior and self-report instruments, while notreatment controls showed little change. Because fear arousal within treatment had no advantage over methods, some doubt it cast on abreaction as essential to therapy of fears. Hypnotizability was positively related to degree of final approach behavior, and S's self-report of depth of hypnosis was positively related to degree of improvement. No S had ever experienced a harmful contact with snakes; the role of cognitive elaborations in the development of persistent fears is noted. (36 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Disgust and disgust sensitivity in blood-injection-injury and spider phobia

Blood-injection-injury (BII) phobics and spider phobics show markedly different cognitive, psychophysiological, and motoric reactions to activating stimuli. These observations have led theorists to question whether the emotion of fear mediates both phobias. The present study examined the role of disgust and disgust sensitivity in these subtypes of specific phobia. BII phobics, spider phobics, and nonphobics completed questionnaires and rated pictures of specific objects on fear and disgust scales. Questionnaire data indicated that phobic participants were higher than nonphobics on fear, and also on disgust sensitivity. The reaction of BII phobics to pictures of medical stimuli was one of disgust, rather than fear. The reaction of spider phobics to pictures of spiders was a combination of fear and disgust, though fear appeared to predominate. Results are discussed in view of current theories of emotional factors in specific phobia.     

Effects of divided attention on implicit and explicit memory performance following severe closed head injury.

This study investigated the relation between attentional limitations and memory impairments in patients with closed head injuries (CHI). Twenty-seven CHI participants ( > 1 year postinjury) and 27 matched controls rated their liking of target words under conditions of full and divided attention. Participants then completed an implicit test of tachistoscopic identification (TI) and an explicit test of recognition for the target words As expected, the results revealed impaired explicit memory but preserved perceptually driven implicit memory performance following a CHI. Contrary to what was hypothesized, a reduction in attention available at encoding did not disproportionately impair the recognition performance of the CHI patients. Finally, unlike controls, the CHI participants' priming scores on the TI task were significantly affected by dividing attention at encoding. However, this finding interacted with CHI participants perceptual processing rates, suggesting that nonmemory cognitive factors may influence measured performances on implicit memory tests. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)