ATTENTIONAL BIAS TO THREAT - ROLES OF TRAIT ANXIETY, STRESSFUL EVENTS, AND AWARENESS

Attentional biases for threat stimuli were assessed in high and low tr ait anxious subjects (n = 66) using a probe detection task. To examine the effects of trait anxiety and situational stressors, each subject was tested three times: Under no stress, laboratory-induced stress, an d examination-induced stress. To evaluate the role of awareness, half the word stimuli were presented very briefly (14 msec) and masked, and the other half were presented for 500 msec without a mask. Results sh owed that high trait anxious subjects under exam stress showed an atte ntional bias towards unmasked threat stimuli compared with low trait s ubjects. This effect was not found under lab-induced stress, suggestin g that the attentional bias for unmasked threat in high trait subjects may be a function of a prolonged stressor, rather than a transient in crease in state anxiety. The results from the masked exposure conditio n were not predicted; high trait anxious subjects shifted attention to wards the spatial location of threat words despite lack of awareness o f their lexical content, but this bias was only apparent in the no-str ess condition. The results are discussed in relation to recent cogniti ve theories of anxiety.