Submission Type
Poster
Abstract
Attention bias (AB) is a characteristic seen in individuals with anxiety, in which they attend to threatening or negative stimuli more frequently than neutral stimuli (Bar-Haim et al., 2007). To our knowledge, prior research investigating AB in social situations have not conducted experiments in true real-world situations, making results difficult to generalize to the real world. The present study adapted methods from Kirchbaum et al. (1993) Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) model and assessed participant attentiveness to positive and negative stimuli in a stressful situation. The TSST consists of participants completing a brief speaking task in front of a panel. For this study, participants will wear PupilCore mobile eye tracking technology that monitors visual fixations throughout the experiment. A pretest activity will be conducted to acclimate participants to the novel social environment. This will then be followed by the TSST, posttest activity, and debrief consecutively. Data from the pre/post test and the TSST will be analyzed for fixations between two confederates, one of which presents as attentive and affirmative (positive) and, the other disengaged (negative). It is hypothesized that more anxious individuals will attend to the negative stimuli more frequently throughout the study, but that this AB will be most significant during the TSST.
Recommended Citation
Nuttle, Madison, "093-Ecological Assessment of Attention and Emotion" (2024). GREAT Day Posters. 24.
https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/great-day-symposium/great-day-2024/posters-2024/24
093-Ecological Assessment of Attention and Emotion
Attention bias (AB) is a characteristic seen in individuals with anxiety, in which they attend to threatening or negative stimuli more frequently than neutral stimuli (Bar-Haim et al., 2007). To our knowledge, prior research investigating AB in social situations have not conducted experiments in true real-world situations, making results difficult to generalize to the real world. The present study adapted methods from Kirchbaum et al. (1993) Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) model and assessed participant attentiveness to positive and negative stimuli in a stressful situation. The TSST consists of participants completing a brief speaking task in front of a panel. For this study, participants will wear PupilCore mobile eye tracking technology that monitors visual fixations throughout the experiment. A pretest activity will be conducted to acclimate participants to the novel social environment. This will then be followed by the TSST, posttest activity, and debrief consecutively. Data from the pre/post test and the TSST will be analyzed for fixations between two confederates, one of which presents as attentive and affirmative (positive) and, the other disengaged (negative). It is hypothesized that more anxious individuals will attend to the negative stimuli more frequently throughout the study, but that this AB will be most significant during the TSST.