Attentional bias for threat in older adults: moderation of the positivity bias by trait anxiety and stimulus modality.

Socioemotional selectivity theory suggests that emotion regulation goals motivate older adults to preferentially allocate attention to positive stimuli and away from negative stimuli. This study examined whether anxiety moderates the effect of the positivity bias on attention for threat. The authors employed the dot probe task to compare subliminal and supraliminal attention for threat in 103 young and 44 older adults. Regardless of anxiety, older but not young adults demonstrated a vigilant-avoidant response to angry faces. Anxiety influenced older adults' attention such that anxious individuals demonstrated a vigilant-avoidant reaction to sad faces but an avoidant-vigilant reaction to negative words.