6: Attention and Emotional Disorders

Question 1

What is an attentional bias?

Answer 1

When there is a discrete change in the direction in which a person’s attention is focussed, making them more aware of that aspect of their environment.

Question 2

Are attentional biases voluntary or involuntary?

Answer 2

Often perceived as involuntary, but can operate voluntarily.

Question 3

What is a perceptual bias?

Answer 3

Tuning in more quickly and extracting more information from the environment.

Question 4

What is a response bias?

Answer 4

Output mechanisms are biased to respond to a wide variety of stimuli with the concern-related word.

Question 5

What is selective attention?

Answer 5

Greater priority is given to some material.

Question 6

What is attentional orienting?

Answer 6

The process of moving attention from one location to another.

Question 7

Describe the posterior attentional system.

Answer 7

Reactive symmetry that orients the attentional spotlight from one location to another.

Question 8

Describe the anterior attentional system.

Answer 8

Executive system that carries out more voluntary attentional functions.

Question 9

What is attentional control?

Answer 9

The self-regulatory capacity to control attention in relation to positive and negative reactions.

Question 10

Attentional control is a (posterior/anterior) attentional system.

Answer 10

Anterior.

Question 11

What is excitation?

Answer 11

Enhancing availability of selected information.

Question 12

What is inhibition?

Answer 12

Suppressing irrelevant or to-be-ignored information.

Question 13

What is the dual process in attenting?

Answer 13

Facilitation of responses to selected informations and slowing of responses to irrelevant information.

Question 14

The more interference a distractor causes…

Answer 14

…the more inhibition is required.

Question 15

Describe selective attention in anxiety.

Answer 15

Well understood in GAD as speeded engagement with threat.

Question 16

Describe attentional orienting in anxiety.

Answer 16

Not well understood and mostly from subclinical groups, challenged ignoring negative information.

Question 17

Give 3 paradigms that measure attentional bias in anxiety.

Answer 17

Emotional Stroop task, dot probe task and spatial orienting task.

Question 18

Describe the main attentional bias in anxiety.

Answer 18

Selective early processing of threat.

Question 19

Give 4 consequence of attentional biases in depression.

Answer 19

Impaired social and work functioning, challenged engaging with psychotherapy, challenges taking medication, and poor affect regulation.

Question 20

Give 4 paradigms that measure attentional bias in depression.

Answer 20

Event related potentials measured by EEG, eye tracking, attentional switching performance, and Emotional Stroop tasks.

Question 21

What is P300

Answer 21

An ERP component which measures attention to negative words.

Question 22

Using the oddball task and EEG recording, what did Illardi et al., 2007 find,

Answer 22

Enhanced attention in depressed people for negative word stimuli, and no difference between previously and never depressed people, suggesting a state effect.

Question 23

Using eye tracking, what did Sanchez et al., 2013 find?

Answer 23

People with MDD has difficulties disengaging with sad faces, but no other problems.

Question 24

What is set switching?

Answer 24

The executive function ability to withdraw focus on current task demands add allocate focus to new demands based on environmental changes.

Question 25

What 2 processes support set switching?

Answer 25

Non-inhibitory processing to develop representation of new task demands and backward inhibition to limit effects of previous trials.

Question 26

Give 2 broad individual differences affecting attention and depression.

Answer 26

Rumination and motivation.