Emotion and anxiety interact to bias spatial attention.
Helena P. Bachmann, Shruti Japee, Elisha P. Merriam, Tina T. Liu
Abstract
= 36.46 years). We found that happy faces capture attention more quickly than angry faces during the visual search experiment and found delayed disengagement from both angry and happy faces over neutral faces during the spatial cueing experiment. We also show that anxiety has a distinct impact on both attentional capture and disengagement of emotional faces. Together, our findings highlight the role of positively valenced stimuli in attracting and holding attention and suggest that anxiety is a critical factor in modulating spatial attention to emotional stimuli. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).
Topics & Concepts
Disengagement theoryPsychologyAttentional biasAnxietyPsycINFOSocial anxietyValence (chemistry)Emotional valenceFacial expressionEmotional contagionCognitive psychologyDevelopmental psychologyCognitionSocial psychologyMEDLINECommunicationMedicinePolitical sciencePhysicsPsychiatryQuantum mechanicsGerontologyNeuroscienceLawSpatial Cognition and NavigationCategorization, perception, and languageColor perception and design