Abstract
Background
Individuals with heightened anxiety vulnerability demonstrate a bias favouring attention to negative information, and it has been argued that this reflects a difficulty to disengage from negative information. Methods to manipulate attentional bias have demonstrated inconsistent effectiveness, however such methods have not targeted biases in attentional disengagement specifically. A recently developed approach to attentional bias modification, labelled Emotion-in-Motion, has been proposed to result in facilitated attentional disengagement from information. Thus, the present study empirically investigated whether the Emotion-in-Motion task modifies biased attentional disengagement from negative information using eye-movement recordings.
Methods
Forty-four participants completed the Emotion-in-Motion attention manipulation task under conditions designed to enhance attention (Attend Negative) or attenuate attention (Avoid Negative) to negative information. Biased attentional engagement with, and attentional disengagement from, negative information was examined subsequently.
Results
Participants in the Avoid Negative condition demonstrated lower levels of biased attentional disengagement from negative information as compared to participants in the Attend Negative condition. No difference in biased attentional engagement with negative information was observed.
Conclusions
It is concluded that the Emotion-in-Motion task serves to independently manipulate selective attentional disengagement from negative information and may be useful in investigating the specific role of biased attentional disengagement in emotional vulnerability.
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Acknowledgements
The research reported in this manuscript was supported by an Australian Research Council Laureate Grant (FL170100167).
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Julian Basanovic, Lies Notebaert, Patrick J. F. Clarke and Colin MacLeod declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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The methodology for this study was approved by the Human Research Ethics committee of the University of Western Australia under the principles set out in the Australian National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research.
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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
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Basanovic, J., Notebaert, L., Clarke, P.J.F. et al. Emotion-in-Motion: An ABM Approach that Modifies Attentional Disengagement from, Rather than Attentional Engagement with, Negative Information. Cogn Ther Res 45, 90–98 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-020-10178-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-020-10178-1