Examination of vigilance and disengagement of threat in social anxiety with a probe detection task

Abstract

Selective attention for threat faces in social anxiety is commonly measured with a probe detection task. Various studies that have used this task show socially anxious individuals exhibit selective attention for threat faces (Mogg & Bradley, 2002; Mogg, Philippot, & Bradley, 2004b; Pishyar, Harris, & Menzies, 2004). Selective attention for threat when measured with a probe detection task is interpreted as an attentional shift toward threat ("vigilance"). Yet, there is data that show socially anxious individuals may have difficulty in shifting their attention away from threat ("disengagement"; Amir, Elias, Klumpp, & Przeworski, 2003). A step toward clarifying the extent to which selective attention for threat comprises vigilance or disengagement effects is described by Koster, Crombez, Verschuere, and de Houwer (2004). We adapted their modified probe detection task to examine vigilance and disengagement effects for threat and happy faces in individuals with and without social anxiety. The results indicate that socially anxious individuals exhibit vigilance for threat faces, but not for happy faces, compared to individuals without social anxiety. Our study is consistent with cognitive theories of anxiety that propose vigilance for threat may contribute to the maintenance of anxiety disorders.

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