Department of Experimental-Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.
Emotion. 2013 Jun;13(3):587-98. doi: 10.1037/a0027204. Epub 2012 Feb 6.
Numerous studies have shown that attention is biased toward threatening events. More recent evidence has also found attentional biases for stimuli that are relevant to the current and temporary goals of an individual. We examined whether goal-relevant information still evokes an attentional bias when this information competes with threatening events. In three experiments, participants performed a dot probe task combined with a separate task that induced a temporary goal. The results of Experiment 1 showed that attention was oriented to goal-relevant pictures in the dot probe task when these pictures were simultaneously presented with neutral or threatening pictures. Whether goal-relevant pictures themselves were threatening or neutral did not influence the results. Experiment 2 replicated these findings in a sample of highly trait-anxious participants. Experiment 3 showed that attention was automatically deployed to stimuli relevant to a temporary goal even in the presence of stimuli that signal imminent and genuine threat (i.e., a colored patch signaling the presentation of an aversive noise). These findings further corroborate the conclusion that an individual's current and temporary goals guide early attentional processes.
许多研究表明，注意力偏向于威胁性事件。最近的证据还发现，对于与个体当前和临时目标相关的刺激，也存在注意力偏差。我们研究了当这种信息与威胁性事件竞争时，目标相关信息是否仍然会引起注意力偏差。在三个实验中，参与者执行了一个点探测任务，同时结合了一个诱导临时目标的单独任务。实验 1 的结果表明，当目标相关的图片与中性或威胁性图片同时呈现时，注意力会指向点探测任务中的目标相关图片。目标相关图片本身是否具有威胁性或中性并不影响结果。实验 2 在高度特质焦虑的参与者样本中复制了这些发现。实验 3 表明，即使存在预示着即将到来和真正威胁的刺激（即，一个彩色补丁表示呈现令人不快的噪音），注意力也会自动分配给与临时目标相关的刺激。这些发现进一步证实了个体当前和临时目标指导早期注意力过程的结论。
