School of Psychology, Fairleigh Dickinson University, Teaneck, NJ 07666, USA.
Cogn Emot. 2012;26(5):927-33. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2011.625399. Epub 2011 Dec 2.
Research suggests that attention is attracted to evolutionary threats (e.g., snakes) due to an evolved "fear-module" that automatically detects biological threats to survival. However, recent evidence indicates that non-evolutionary threats (e.g., guns) capture and hold attention as well, suggesting a more general "threat-relevance" mechanism that directs attentional resources toward any potential danger in the environment. The current research measured how selective attentional resources were influenced both by the type of threat (e.g., snake vs. gun) and by the context in which the threat was encountered. Participants were primed with either natural or human-made environments to assess how these contexts influence attention to evolutionary and non-evolutionary threats, as measured by a spatial-cueing task. The results indicate that whether biological or non-biological threats receive greater attentional processing is determined by the context in which they are encountered.
研究表明，由于进化出的“恐惧模块”自动检测对生存的生物威胁，因此会引起对进化威胁（例如蛇）的注意。但是，最近的证据表明，非进化威胁（例如枪支）也会吸引和保持注意力，这表明存在一种更普遍的“威胁相关性”机制，该机制将注意力资源引导到环境中的任何潜在危险上。当前的研究通过空间引导任务来衡量威胁类型（例如蛇与枪）和遇到威胁的情境如何影响选择性注意资源，以此来测量如何影响选择性注意资源。结果表明，生物或非生物威胁受到更多注意力处理的程度取决于它们所处的情境。
