The Effects of Social Anxiety and State Anxiety on Visual Attention: Testing the Vigilance–Avoidance Hypothesis

A growing theoretical and research literature suggests that trait and state social anxiety can predict attentional patterns in the presence of emotional stimuli. The current study adds to this literature by examining the effects of state anxiety on visual attention and testing the vigilance–avoidance hypothesis, using a method of continuous visual attentional assessment. Participants were 91 undergraduate college students with high or low trait fear of negative evaluation (FNE), a core aspect of social anxiety, who were randomly assigned to either a high or low state anxiety condition. Participants engaged in a free view task in which pairs of emotional facial stimuli were presented and eye movements were continuously monitored. Overall, participants with high FNE avoided angry stimuli and participants with high state anxiety attended to positive stimuli. Participants with high state anxiety and high FNE were avoidant of angry faces, whereas participants with low state and low FNE exhibited a bias toward angry faces. The study provided partial support for the vigilance–avoidance hypothesis. The findings add to the mixed results in the literature that suggest that both positive and negative emotional stimuli may be important in understanding the complex attention patterns associated with social anxiety. Clinical implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Sleep and theology: ‘An half adieu to the world’

The study of sleep has become a field of widespread interest. It engages many disciplines from neuroscience to sociology, philosophy to evolutionary biology. It features in the lifestyle sections of newspapers and websites often because of its connections with mental and physical wellbeing. Yet theology has, in the most part, remained silent on the subject, despite many Biblical references to sleep in both the Old and New Testaments. There is a theological story to be told about sleep ? as a gift, and not an affliction ? despite the unfortunate occasional conflation of sleep with sloth. It is a state of grace and not of sin. It refreshes and renews yet can never be earned; all we can do is to be in a posture of receptivity so that it falls upon us. Sleep is profoundly precarious and sometimes frustratingly elusive and is suggestive of the fragility and vulnerability of human existence. When it comes to us, sleep transforms our experience of waking life. The eschatological character of sleep points us to reflect on mortality and resurrection. This article argues that it is possible to speak of a ‘theology of sleep’, but that it is not to be found in a coherent body of teaching or theological exploration. Rather, a theology of sleep is found articulated in Christian practices such as the Office of Compline, the keeping of vigils and the Examen of Consciousness, and in evening hymnody and prayers before bed. The author will suggest that the word theosomnia encapsulates this understanding of sleep.     

Continuity and discontinuity in memory for threat

Using a paradigm that allows a quasi-continuous tracking of memory performance over time, two experiments were designed to test the hypotheses that (a) persons with a cognitively avoidant style of coping with threat manifest a dissociation between (intact) short-term and (reduced) long-term retrieval of aversive information and (b) persons with a vigilant coping style recall aversive information particularly well after long retention intervals, provided they are free to think about aversive events. Study 1 (N?=?75) showed that avoiders manifest a poor memory for aversive pictures after long retention intervals only. Study 2 (N?=?95) replicated this finding. In addition, manipulation of the cognitive load during the retention interval influenced vigilants’ recall of aversive information in the predicted way. Results indicate that processes occurring during the retention interval are essential for individual difference in memory for aversive information and require similar attention as encoding, appraisal, and retrieval processes.     

社交焦虑注意偏向的动态变化

注意偏向是社交焦虑障碍(Social Anxiety Disorder, SAD)个体症状维持的重要因素, 其中注意警觉、注意回避、注意脱离困难三种注意模式得到了研究者最广泛的研究与讨论。随着研究深入, 有研究者提出SAD个体的注意模式不是单一、静态模式, 更有可能在不同注意模式间切换, 表现为动态的过程。目前, 依据相关研究结果和理论假设, 证据均指向SAD个体的注意偏向具有随着焦虑水平提高和注意控制能力受损而动态变化的倾向, 从注意警觉过渡到注意回避与注意脱离困难均如此。此观点还需研究进一步证实, 并且基于研究结果提出更具有针对性的干预方式。     

Reinforcement of human observing behavior by a stimulue correlated with extinction or increased effort

Young men pulled a plunger on mixed and multiple schedules in which periods of variable-interval monetary reinforcement alternated irregularly with periods of extinction (Experiment 1), or in which reinforcement was contingent on different degrees of effort in the two alternating components (Experiment 2). In the baseline conditions, the pair of stimuli correlated with the schedule components could be obtained intermittently by pressing either of two observing keys. In the main conditions, pressing one of the keys continued to produce both discriminative stimuli as appropriate. Pressing the other key produced only the stimulus correlated with variable-interval reinforcement or reduced effort; presses on this key were ineffective during periods of extinction or increased effort. In both experiments, key presses producing both stimuli occurred at higher rates than key presses producing only one, demonstrating enhancement of observing behavior by a stimulus correlated with the less favorable of two contingencies. A control experiment showed that stimulus change alone was not an important factor in the maintenance of the behavior. These findings suggest that negative as well as positive stimuli may play a role in the conditioned reinforcement of human behavior.     

四字成语语境中汉字信号监测的警觉研究

成语中某一字出错作为应检测信号,正确成语作为噪音,实验时间为１００分钟,分成五个相等的时间段。结果发现,（１）四种音形条件下平均正检率在第一时间段明显上升然后保持平稳,反应时随时间变化不显著但音异形假在第一阶段与音同形异在第五阶段的反应时间明显长于其余时间阶段。（２）四种音形条件下正检率有差异,从高到低依次为：音同形似、音同形异、音异形似、音异形假．（３）音形与时间段在正确率上无交互作用,在反应时间上存在交互作用。     

Eye Metrics: An Alternative Vigilance Detector for Military Operators

Military operators in various environments such as cyber, remotely piloted aircraft, and image analysis are required to use sustained attention or vigilance for long periods. During this time they encounter lapses in attention attributable to the monotonous nature of their tasks. Mistakes during these tasks can have serious consequences. The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of an eye-tracker to detect changes in vigilance performance during a simulated cyber operator task. Twenty participants performed 4 sessions of a 40-min vigilance task while wearing an eye-tracker. Blink frequency, blink duration, PERCLOS (percentage of eye closure), pupil diameter, pupil eccentricity, pupil velocity, and signal detection all had a significant change over time (p < .05) during the task. The significant change of oculometric measurements indicates oculometrics could be used to detect changes in vigilance for military operators. Future research is needed to assess real-time effects of these oculometrics on performance, especially in a real-world setting.     

The Vigilance,Orienting, and Executive Attention Networks in 4-Year-Old Children

The present study examined the development of lower and higher order forms of attention during the preschool years. Lower forms of attention were assessed with tasks that primarily engaged the attention functions of vigilance and orienting. Higher, executive forms of attention were assessed with tasks that involved inhibition and working memory. The findings revealed that performance improved significantly with age on measures of inhibition and orienting. Results are discussed in the context of the development of attentional networks.     

Rest improves performance,nature improves happiness: Assessment of break periods on the abbreviated vigilance task

The abbreviated vigilance task can quickly generate vigilance decrements, which has been argued is due to depletion of cognitive resources needed to sustain performance. Researchers suggest inclusion of rest breaks within vigilance tasks improve overall performance (Helton & Russell, 2015; Ross, Russell, & Helton, 2014), while different types of breaks demonstrate different effects. Some literature suggests exposure to natural movements/stimuli helps restore attention (Herzog, Black, Fountaine, & Knotts, 1997; Kaplan, 1995). Participants were randomly assigned to one experimental condition: dog video breaks, robot video breaks, countdown breaks or continuous vigilance. We assessed task performance and subjective reports of stress/workload. The continuous group displayed worst performance, suggesting breaks help restore attention. The dog videos did not affect performance, however, decreased reports of distress. These results support the importance of rest breaks and acknowledge the benefit of natural stimuli for promoting wellbeing/stress relief, overall suggesting performance and wellbeing may be independent, which warrants future studies.     

Anxiety sensitivity, body vigilance and fear of pain

The aim of the present study was to investigate the role of anxiety sensitivity (AS) as a factor relevant to pain and pain persistence. Two studies were conducted to examine the relationship between AS, body vigilance and the experience of pain in non-clinical samples. Study 1 investigated the relationship between AS and body vigilance that was operationalized by the detection latency for innocuous electrical stimuli; trait anxiety and neuroticism were also included as covariates. Results indicated that the high AS group (N=69) presented shorter detection latency than the low AS group (N=70); neuroticism and trait anxiety did not have significant effects on detection latency. Using another sample, Study 2 investigated the relationship between AS, body vigilance, pain tolerance, catastrophizing, and self-reported distress and pain during a cold pressor task. Neuroticism, trait anxiety and fear of pain were included as covariates. Results showed significant differences between high- (N=66) and low- (N=69) AS groups in body vigilance, catastrophizing and tolerance. The covariates neuroticism, trait anxiety and fear of pain did not have any significant effects. No significant differences were found in pain and distress ratings. Results from both studies support the importance of AS in body vigilance and the experience of pain. The theoretical, preventive and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.