Clauss Kate, Gorday Julia Y, Bardeen Joseph R
Auburn University, Department of Psychological Sciences, United States of America.
Auburn University, Department of Psychological Sciences, United States of America.
Clin Psychol Rev. 2022 Apr;93:102142. doi: 10.1016/j.cpr.2022.102142. Epub 2022 Mar 7.
Cognitive theories of anxiety- and fear-related pathology suggest that individuals with these forms of pathology (versus those without) exhibit greater threat-related attentional bias (AB). However, there are a multitude of mixed and null findings in this area of research. Unlike other commonly used measures of AB, eye-tracking indices of AB exhibit acceptable reliability, and thus, may help clarify the relationship between AB and anxiety- and fear-related symptoms.
The purpose of this study was to conduct a meta-analysis, to determine whether there is evidence of a relationship between anxiety and fear-related symptoms and expressions of threat-related AB (i.e., reflexive orienting and maintenance) measured via free-viewing eye- tracking tasks.
A total of 40 articles were retained for this meta-analysis. Significant relations were observed between anxiety and fear-related symptoms and both reflexive orienting toward threat (r = 0.13, 95% CI: 0.03, 0.22) and maintenance of attention on threat (r = 0.15, 95% CI: 0.05, 0.25).
Results from the present study suggests that it may be important to develop attention bias modification interventions that target AB at both early (bottom-up) and later (top-down) stages of information processing to reduce anxiety- and fear-related pathology.
焦虑和恐惧相关病理学的认知理论表明，患有这些病理学形式的个体（相对于未患的个体）表现出更大的威胁相关注意偏向（AB）。然而，该研究领域存在大量混合和无效的研究结果。与其他常用的AB测量方法不同，AB的眼动追踪指标具有可接受的可靠性，因此，可能有助于阐明AB与焦虑和恐惧相关症状之间的关系。
本研究的目的是进行一项荟萃分析，以确定是否有证据表明焦虑和恐惧相关症状与通过自由观看眼动追踪任务测量的威胁相关AB的表现（即反射性定向和维持）之间存在关系。
本荟萃分析共纳入40篇文章。观察到焦虑和恐惧相关症状与对威胁的反射性定向（r = 0.13，95%CI：0.03，0.22）以及对威胁的注意力维持（r = 0.15，95%CI：0.05，0.25）之间存在显著关系。
本研究结果表明，开发针对信息处理早期（自下而上）和后期（自上而下）阶段的AB的注意偏向矫正干预措施，对于减少焦虑和恐惧相关病理学可能很重要。
