How do social fears in adolescence develop? Fear conditioning shapes attention orienting to social threat cues

Social fears emerging in adolescence can have negative effects on emotional well-being. Yet the mechanisms by which these risks occur are unknown. One possibility is that associative learning results in fears to previously neutral social stimuli. Such conditioned responses may alter subsequent processing of social stimuli. We used a novel conditioning task to examine how associative processes influence social fear and attention orienting in adolescents. Neutral photographs were paired with socially rewarding or aversive stimuli during conditioning; a dot-probe task then assessed biases in attention orienting. The social conditioning task modified subjective ratings of the neutral stimuli. Moreover, for the neutral stimulus that was paired with the aversive stimulus, the strength of conditioning showed a relationship with subsequent attentional vigilance. The findings elucidate mechanisms by which negative peer experiences during adolescence may affect emotional processing.     

How do social fears in adolescence develop? Fear conditioning shapes attention orienting to social threat cues

Social fears emerging in adolescence can have negative effects on emotional well-being. Yet the mechanisms by which these risks occur are unknown. One possibility is that associative learning results in fears to previously neutral social stimuli. Such conditioned responses may alter subsequent processing of social stimuli. We used a novel conditioning task to examine how associative processes influence social fear and attention orienting in adolescents. Neutral photographs were paired with socially rewarding or aversive stimuli during conditioning; a dot-probe task then assessed biases in attention orienting. The social conditioning task modified subjective ratings of the neutral stimuli. Moreover, for the neutral stimulus that was paired with the aversive stimulus, the strength of conditioning showed a relationship with subsequent attentional vigilance. The findings elucidate mechanisms by which negative peer experiences during adolescence may affect emotional processing.     

Attentional bias in anxiety: selective search or defective filtering?

Two experimental tasks were used to investigate the nature of a previously documented bias in attention associated with anxiety. Results from the first task failed to reveal any differences between anxious and nonanxious subjects, either in attention focusing or selective search for letters. The second task, with words as targets and distractors, suggested that selective search was less efficient in anxious subjects when distractors were present. Currently anxious subjects were slower than controls when required to search for the target among distractors of any type, whereas both currently anxious and recovered subjects were slower when the distractors were threatening words. It was therefore suggested that a bias favoring threat cues during perceptual search is an enduring feature of individuals vulnerable to anxiety, rather than a transient consequence of current mood state alone.     

Body image in social anxiety disorder,obsessive–compulsive disorder,and panic disorder

Body dysmorphic disorder falls under the category of obsessive–compulsive and related disorders, yet research has suggested it may also be highly associated with social anxiety disorder. The current study examined body image variables among 68 outpatients with primary obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD; n = 22), social anxiety disorder (SAD; n = 25), and panic disorder (PD; n = 21). Participants filled out self-report measures of body image disturbance, attitudes toward one's appearance, and anxiety. Body image disturbance and attitudes toward appearance did not significantly differ between the groups. However, SAD symptoms predicted body image disturbance, Appearance Evaluation and Body Areas Satisfaction, and OCD symptoms predicted Appearance Orientation. These findings suggest that SAD and OCD may be associated with different facets of body image. Implications for the treatment of anxiety disorders and for future research are discussed.     

Listening back in time: Does attention to memory facilitate word-in-noise identification?

The ephemeral nature of spoken words creates a challenge for oral communications where incoming speech sounds must be processed in relation to representations of just-perceived sounds stored in short-term memory. This can be particularly taxing in noisy environments where perception of speech is often impaired or initially incorrect. Usage of prior contextual information (e.g., a semantically related word) has been shown to improve speech in noise identification. In three experiments, we demonstrate a comparable effect of a semantically related cue word placed after an energetically masked target word in improving accuracy of target-word identification. This effect persisted irrespective of cue modality (visual or auditory cue word) and, in the case of cues after the target, lasted even when the cue word was presented up to 4 seconds after the target. The results are framed in the context of an attention to memory model that seeks to explain the cognitive and neural mechanisms behind processing of items in auditory memory.     

Non‐specific encoding of threat in social phobia and panic disorder

This study employs a release of proactive interference technique to explore encoding‐related processes in social phobia. Twenty‐six individuals with social phobia and 24 individuals with panic disorder participated in the memory task. Significant release of proactive interference was found when neutral and threat dimensions were encoded, but not when social and physical threat dimensions, or when positive and threat dimensions were presented. Threat was therefore differently encoded depending on the active encoding context in which semantic processing occurred. Individuals with social phobia or panic disorder did not differ in the release of proactive interference. The present experiment consequently yields little support for the specificity hypothesis in memory of anxious individuals. Instead, the findings generally demonstrate that threat encoding is similar for people with social phobia and those with panic disorder.     

Attentional spreading in object-based attention: The roles of target–object integration and target presentation time

What is the best account to explain the object-based attentional benefit—that is, the spread of attention within an attended object or prioritization of search across possible target locations within an attended object? Using a task in which the location of the target was known with certainty, in the present study we systematically manipulated the type (letters or bites) and the presentation time (long or short) of the target and flankers in order to test the effects of target–object integration and target presentation time on object-based attention. The results showed that an object-based effect could appear when the target was a bite, no matter whether the target presentation time was long or short; but when the target was a letter, an object-based effect was only observed when the target presentation time was short enough. These findings provide additional evidence supporting the argument of attentional spreading in object-based attention. However, this spreading is moderated jointly by target–object integration and the target presentation time.     

Social anxiety and attentional biases: A top-down contribution?

Selective attention toward threatening facial expressions has been found to precipitate and maintain symptoms of social anxiety. However, the automaticity of this bias is under debate. In the present study, we aimed to test whether top-down (controlled) engagement and disengagement of attention toward threatening faces is associated with social anxiety. This was examined by testing the impact of a secondary working memory (WM) load on attentional biases. In a variation of the dot-probe task, participants’ attention was initially cued to the left or right of fixation before an upright face paired with an inverted face was presented (displaying a disgust or neutral expression), and participants responded to a subsequently presented probe. The task was performed under no-load, low-load (one-digit memory task), and high-load (six-digit memory task) conditions. Social anxiety was not found to be associated with delayed disengagement from threat. However, surprisingly, high social anxiety was associated with an engagement bias away from threat, whereas low social anxiety was associated with a bias toward threat. These results were unaffected by the WM load manipulation. This indicates that engagement with threatening facial expressions has minimal contributions from top-down mechanisms, since it is likely that orienting to facial expressions occurs relatively automatically.     

Whom do children copy? Model-based biases in social learning

This review investigates the presence of young children’s model-based cultural transmission biases in social learning, arguing that such biases are adaptive and flexible. Section 1 offers five propositions regarding the presence and direction of model-based transmission biases in young children’s copying of a model. Section 2 discusses the cognitive abilities required for differing model-based biases and tracks their development in early childhood. Section 3 suggests future areas of research including considering the social aspect of model-based biases and understanding their use within a comparative perspective.     

Action or attention in social inhibition of return?

Psychological Research - When two individuals alternate reaching responses to targets located in a visual display, reaction times are longer when responses are directed to where the co-actor just...     

Revision in memories of relationship development: Do biases persist over time?

Partners often recall that their relationship satisfaction has improved over the recent past, even when their satisfaction has actually declined, and such perceptions appear to contribute to optimism about the future. But what happens to memories as the recent past recedes into the distant past? To address this question, data were examined from a U.S. sample of 53 newlywed couples. Every 6 months, spouses reported their memories of relationship change. After 2½ years, they again reported their memories of change over these time periods. Initially, spouses recalled significant improvements over each interval, even though no improvements were observed. By the end of 2½ years, however, they had revised their memories, recalling improvements only in the recent past. Such revisions have implications for research relying on self‐reported relationship change and suggest a way for spouses to benefit from the perception of recent improvement while maintaining a generally accurate view of the course of the relationship overall.     

Gender-related biases in evaluations of sex discrimination allegations: is perceived threat the key?

Hypotheses derived from defensive attribution theory and social identity theory were tested in 3 laboratory experiments examining the effects of plaintiff and observer gender on perceived threat, plaintiff identification, and sex discrimination. In Study 1, women differentiated plaintiffs on the basis of gender, whereas men did not. Study 2 showed that this bias occurred because employment discrimination was personally threatening to women but not to men. In Study 3, the bias was reversed in a child custody context. As predicted, men found this context to be significantly more threatening than did women and subsequently exhibited a similarity bias. Mediation analyses suggested that responsibility attributions explained most of the variance in discrimination judgments associated with the plaintiff gender by observer gender interactions.     

School in our memory: do we remember our time in middle and high school differently?

ABSTRACT

The present study investigated autobiographical memories of school. While previous works have shown that most memories relating to school are social as opposed to academic, there are still strong theoretical arguments for the presumed prevalence of educationally oriented memories from at least some parts of the school period. The goal of the study was to replicate previous studies while addressing some of their limitations. In our study, only memories of high school were more socially and less educationally oriented. Also, memories of high school were more positive and emotionally intense. We discuss the further implications of these effects.     

Time-course of attention to negative stimuli: Negative affectivity, anxiety, or dysphoria?

Although biased attention to emotional stimuli is considered a vulnerability factor for anxiety and dysphoria, research has infrequently related such attentional biases to dimensional models of vulnerability for anxiety and mood disorders. In two studies (Study 1, n = 64; Study 2, n = 168), we evaluate the differential associations of general negative affectivity, anxiety, and dysphoria with biases in selective attention among nonclinical participants selected to vary in both anxiety and dysphoria. Across both studies, preferential processing of angry faces at a 300-ms exposure duration was associated with a general tendency to experience a range of negative affect, rather than being specific to symptoms of either anxiety or dysphoria. In the second study, we found evidence of a suppressor relationship between anxiety and dysphoria in the prediction of delayed attentional biases (1,000 ms) for sad faces. In particular, dysphoria was specifically associated with biased attention toward sad cues, but only after statistically accounting for anxiety; by contrast, anxiety was specifically associated with attentional avoidance of sad cues, but only after statistically accounting for dysphoria. These results suggest that the specificity of relationships between components of negative affectivity and attention to emotional stimuli varies as a function of the time course at which attentional biases are assessed, highlighting the importance of evaluating both anxiety and dysphoria in research on attentional processing of emotional stimuli. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Terror salience and punishment: Does terror salience induce threat to social order?

In recent times, international terrorism has become one of the most serious concerns of the modern Western world. As a consequence, the risk and fear of terrorism is more salient in people’s minds (i.e. terror salience), which is supposed to affect behavioral responses in our society. The present research suggests that increased punishment of violations of criminal laws is one societal reaction to increased terror salience. It was consistently shown that increased terror salience, induced by either varying the temporal distance from the London terrorist attacks of July 7, 2005 (Study 1), by vignettes in the form of newspaper articles manipulating the expected terror risk (Study 2), or by pictures of recent terrorist attacks (Studies 3 and 4), significantly increased the punishment assigned to a violation of criminal laws that was completely unrelated to terror (i.e. car theft and rape). Finally, Study 4 revealed that (a) the effect of terror salience on punishment is indeed due to increased perception of threat to social order and (b) that this effect cannot be explained by the general negative nature of the stimulus material employed in this study.     

Perception of threat cues in post-traumatic stress disorder: Semantic processing without awareness?

Research suggests that anxiety-disordered patients semantically process, without awareness, threat cues occurring in unattended prose passages during dichotic listening (Mathews, 1984). In the present study, we attempted to demonstrate unaware semantic processing of threat cues in Vietnam combat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Control Ss included alcoholic and normal veterans, all without combat experience. To provide a rigorous test of the hypothesis, we employed a dichotic listening procedure that strictly controlled the S's attentional resources and prevented momentary attention shifts from producing results spuriously suggesting semantic processing without awareness. The processing measures included skin conductance responses and shadowing errors following presentation of threat words related to Vietnam, phonetically similar words, words threatening for other anxiety-disorder groups and neutral words. The results were inconsistent with the semantic processing without awareness hypothesis, suggesting that previous data adduced as evidence for the phenomenon may have stemmed from prose shadowing procedures that permitted momentary awareness of threat cues on the unattended channel.     

Social anxiety in children: social skills deficit, or cognitive distortion?

BACKGROUND: Treatments for childhood social anxiety have traditionally employed social skills training, based on the assumption that effected children have social skills deficits. Recent conceptualisations of social anxiety in adults have questioned this assumption, and have suggested that socially anxious individuals merely believe that they have skill deficits. A recent study using children provided preliminary confirmation of this for younger populations, and also suggested that beliefs about appearing nervous are of particular importance. METHODS: Two groups of children, aged 10-11 years (analogue high social anxiety/low social anxiety), participated in a conversation with an unfamiliar adult. They then rated their performance in a number of domains, after which independent observers also rated their performances. RESULTS: Independent observers were unable to distinguish between the low and high social anxiety groups. However, high socially anxious children rated themselves as appearing significantly less skilled than their low socially anxious counterparts. Notably, high socially anxious children rated themselves particularly poorly in terms of how nervous they looked. CONCLUSIONS: Socially anxious children may not necessarily display social skill deficits. However, they may believe that they appear nervous during social encounters. Clinicians should consider using CBT techniques to address these concerns, rather than relying on social skill remediation.