The effects of trait and state anxiety on attention to emotional images: An eye-tracking study

Abstract

Attentional biases for threatening stimuli have been implicated in the development of anxiety disorders. However, little is known about the relative influences of trait and state anxiety on attentional biases. This study examined the effects of trait and state anxiety on attention to emotional images. Low, mid, and high trait anxious participants completed two trial blocks of an eye-tracking task. Participants viewed image pairs consisting of one emotional (threatening or positive) and one neutral image while their eye movements were recorded. Between trial blocks, participants underwent an anxiety induction. Primary analyses examined the effects of trait and state anxiety on the proportion of viewing time on emotional versus neutral images. State anxiety was associated with increased attention to threatening images for participants, regardless of trait anxiety. Furthermore, when in a state of anxiety, relative to a baseline condition, durations of initial gaze and average fixation were longer on threat versus neutral images. These findings were specific to the threatening images; no anxiety-related differences in attention were found with the positive images. The implications of these results for future research, models of anxiety-related information processing, and clinical interventions for anxiety are discussed.

Keywords:

• Trait anxiety
• State anxiety
• Attentional bias
• Eye tracking
• Time course
• Threat

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Erik Woody for his help with portions of the data analysis and for his helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript, and Ira Grover for her help with data collection.

Notes

¹These STAI cut-off values represent the bottom and top third of the distribution of STAI scores in a large undergraduate sample (> 1000).

²IAPS image pairs used in the study: (Threatening–Neutral) 2683–7496, 2811–2512, 3500–2595, 3530–2397, 6212–8460, 6242–4100, 6312–2396, 6313–8050, 6315–2485, 6350–2372, 6510–6250.2, 6560–4605, 6570–6570.2, 9423–2560, 6243–2221, 6360–4631, 6830–2487, 6213–2749, 6244–2200, 6571–2580; (Positive–Neutral) 8380–8060, 8180–8160, 2340–2383, 2070–2250, 2080–9070, 530–2850, 2209–2480, 2165–2214, 2304–2271, 8461–2870, 2311–2312, 2550–2516, 2370–2570, 7325–2840, 8496–9700, 8120–8010, 2030–2830, 2091–2440, 8200–8465, 2391–2280.

³The default settings use thresholds for acceleration and velocity of 8000° per second and 30° per second, respectively, to identify a saccade. A fixation was defined as gaze behaviour that did not qualify as a saccade, given the noted acceleration and velocity thresholds.

⁴Full details of the mood-induction procedure and musical selections can be found at: http://www.psych.ubc.ca/~ennslab/Vision_Lab/Mood_Induction_Procedures.html.

⁵One participant did not complete the affect grid or STICSA at T1 and was removed from analyses.

⁶Image pairs removed: (Threatening–Neutral) 6360–4631, 6560–4605, 6570–6570.2, 6571–2580, 9423–2560.