Instructional learning of threat-related attentional capture is modulated by state anxiety.

ABSTRACT: The present study aimed to determine whether persistent threat-related attentional capture can result from instructional learning, when participants acquire knowledge of the aversive qualities of a stimulus through verbal instruction. Fifty-four nonclinical adults first performed a visual search task in which a green or red circle was presented as a target. They were instructed that one of these two colors might be paired with an electric shock if they responded slowly or inaccurately, whereas the other color was never associated with shock. However, no shocks were actually delivered. In a subsequent test phase, in which participants were explicitly informed that shocks were no longer possible, former-target-color stimuli were presented as distractors in a visual search task for a shape-de

SUBMITTER: Gregoire L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10902188 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature