PRIMING OF PERCEIVED CONTROL IN YOUNG-CHILDREN AS A BUFFER AGAINST FEAR-INDUCING EVENTS

Young children (aged 5 and 6) watched videotaped fairy tales that acte d to prime child control versus adult control over frightening events. Subsequently, they watched an ambiguous videotape of a child having a medical exam; tapes were varied for presence or absence of fear cues (facial expressions shown by actors). We predicted that children prime d for child control versus adult control would show information-proces sing error patterns that paralleled those previously found for childre n who were dispositionally high or low in perceived control. As expect ed, children primed for child control showed processing enhancement wh ereas those primed for adult control showed processing deficits after witnessing fear cues. Attentional disengagement was found to mediate p rocessing errors. Perceived control-dispositional or temporary-was int erpreted as an important organizer of attention to and processing of p otentially threatening events.