Attentional Bias for Affective Stimuli: Evaluation of Disengagement in Persons with and without Self-reported Generalized Anxiety Disorder

Abstract

A core feature of GAD, excessive and uncontrollable worry, may be indicative of poor attentional control and difficulty disengaging attention from threatening or emotional information (e.g., Fox, 2004; Mathews, Fox, Yiend, & Calder, 2003; Yiend & Mathews 2001). The current study examined the performance of college students with and without self-reported GAD (N = 63) on measures of attentional control and a spatial cueing task designed to assess engagement-disengagement processes from emotionally valenced (aversive, pleasant) and neutral picture stimuli. Attentional control abilities were examined using the Stroop Color-Word Association Test (SCW Test) and Trail-Making Test (TMT). Separate analyses of variance (ANOVAs) demonstrated that GAD participants performed more poorly on the Stroop Color subtest and the TMT: Part B than non-GAD participants. Mixed ANOVAs of response times measured during the spatial cueing task revealed significant main effects for Cue Valence and Cue Validity, as well as several significant interactions of these variables with GAD status. The significant Cue Valence x Cue Validity x GAD status interaction indicated that GAD participants were slower to disengage their attention from aversive stimuli, relative to pleasant or neutral stimuli, than non-GAD participants who did not exhibit this bias. This interaction effect, however, did not remain significant upon covarying for depression. Together, these findings suggest that individuals with GAD evidence poorer attentional control and demonstrate difficulties disengaging from threatening stimuli compared to persons without the disorder. Impairment in these attentional processes may, therefore, contribute to the etiology and maintenance of GAD.