Visual search with animal fear-relevant stimuli: A tale of two procedures

The present study assessed preferential attentional processing of animal fear-relevant stimuli in two procedures, Search and Interference tasks, which have been suggested to reflect on attentional capture due to the fear-relevance of the stimuli presented. In the Search task, participants (N = 154)...

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Main Authors: Waters, A., Lipp, Ottmar, Randhawa, R.
Format: Journal Article
Published: 2011
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/17876
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author Waters, A.
Lipp, Ottmar
Randhawa, R.
author_facet Waters, A.
Lipp, Ottmar
Randhawa, R.
author_sort Waters, A.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description The present study assessed preferential attentional processing of animal fear-relevant stimuli in two procedures, Search and Interference tasks, which have been suggested to reflect on attentional capture due to the fear-relevance of the stimuli presented. In the Search task, participants (N = 154) searched fear-relevant (i. e., snakes and spiders) and non fear-relevant (i. e., fish and birds) backgrounds to determine the presence or absence of a deviant animal from the opposite category. In the Interference task, the same participants searched for the presence or absence of a neutral target (a cat) when either a snake, spider or no distracter were embedded amongst backgrounds of other animal stimuli. Replicating previous findings, preferential attentional processing of animal fear-relevant stimuli was evident in both procedures and participants who specifically feared one animal but not the other showed enhanced preferential processing of their feared fear-relevant animal. However, across the entire sample, there was no relationship between self-reported levels of animal fear and preferential processing which may reflect on the fact that substantial preferential attentional processing of fear-relevant animals was evident in the entire sample. Also, preferential attentional processing as assessed in the two tasks was not related. Delayed disengagement from fear-relevant stimuli appeared to underlie performance in the search task but not in the interference task. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-178762017-09-13T15:42:21Z Visual search with animal fear-relevant stimuli: A tale of two procedures Waters, A. Lipp, Ottmar Randhawa, R. The present study assessed preferential attentional processing of animal fear-relevant stimuli in two procedures, Search and Interference tasks, which have been suggested to reflect on attentional capture due to the fear-relevance of the stimuli presented. In the Search task, participants (N = 154) searched fear-relevant (i. e., snakes and spiders) and non fear-relevant (i. e., fish and birds) backgrounds to determine the presence or absence of a deviant animal from the opposite category. In the Interference task, the same participants searched for the presence or absence of a neutral target (a cat) when either a snake, spider or no distracter were embedded amongst backgrounds of other animal stimuli. Replicating previous findings, preferential attentional processing of animal fear-relevant stimuli was evident in both procedures and participants who specifically feared one animal but not the other showed enhanced preferential processing of their feared fear-relevant animal. However, across the entire sample, there was no relationship between self-reported levels of animal fear and preferential processing which may reflect on the fact that substantial preferential attentional processing of fear-relevant animals was evident in the entire sample. Also, preferential attentional processing as assessed in the two tasks was not related. Delayed disengagement from fear-relevant stimuli appeared to underlie performance in the search task but not in the interference task. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. 2011 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/17876 10.1007/s11031-010-9191-8 restricted
spellingShingle Waters, A.
Lipp, Ottmar
Randhawa, R.
Visual search with animal fear-relevant stimuli: A tale of two procedures
title Visual search with animal fear-relevant stimuli: A tale of two procedures
title_full Visual search with animal fear-relevant stimuli: A tale of two procedures
title_fullStr Visual search with animal fear-relevant stimuli: A tale of two procedures
title_full_unstemmed Visual search with animal fear-relevant stimuli: A tale of two procedures
title_short Visual search with animal fear-relevant stimuli: A tale of two procedures
title_sort visual search with animal fear-relevant stimuli: a tale of two procedures
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/17876