Trait anxiety and the dynamics of attentional control.

According to recent theoretical approaches dispositional anxiety is fundamentally linked to neural mechanisms of cognitive control (Braver et al., 2007; Eysenck et al., 2007). The present study was conducted to further investigate this topic by focusing on the relation between trait anxiety, conflict-processing and dynamic adjustments in attentional allocation. Participants completed a modified version of the face-word Stroop task while an electroencephalogram was recorded. We analyzed behavioral and electrophysiological correlates of conflict processing and conflict-driven modulations in target and distractor processing. Anxiety was not related to general conflict-sensitivity but to individual differences in conflict-driven adjustments in attentional allocation: following a high level of stimulus-response conflict, highly anxious participants allocated more attentional resources to the processing of predominantly task-relevant information and withdrew attention from the processing of predominantly task-irrelevant information. Thus, trait anxiety appears to be closely related to individual differences in dynamic adjustments of attentional control.