ABCT 2012, Neurocognitive Therapies/ Translational Research SIG
The Effect of Information on Attentional Bias in Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Diana G. Valencia, Sara L. Conley & Nader Amir
San Diego State University
Past research indicates that individuals who suffer from Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
exhibit an attentional bias toward threatening information (Mogg & Bradley, 2005) that may play
a critical role in the maintenance of this disorder (Amir et al., 2009). In the current study,
participants who met diagnostic criteria for GAD (N = 74) completed two versions of the posnercuing paradigm. In both versions, participants were presented with a cue (e.g., +), in the center
of the screen, and two rectangles on either side of the cue. After the cue disappeared, a word
(positive, threat or neutral) appeared in the left or right rectangle, followed by an arrow that
appeared either in the same rectangle as the word, or in the opposite rectangle. Participants
were instructed to indicate whether the arrow was facing up or down. All participants completed
both versions of the task. During the informed version, the color of the cue (red or green)
indicated whether the arrow would appear in the same or opposite location as the word. During
the uninformed version, the cue was always white and thus participants were not informed of
the arrow’s location. Results indicated that when participants received information about the
stimuli’s location, attentional bias (measured by response accuracy, but not reaction time) and
anxiety were significantly correlated, but only for threat words. This correlation was not present
in the uninformed task. Findings suggest that an attentional bias for threat is only related to
anxiety when participants receive information about the stimuli’s location.