Attention, automaticity, and affective disorder

This article reviews possible mechanisms for attentional bias in affective disorders and anxiety. Attentional bias is sometimes conceptualized as automatic in nature. However, there are methodological difficulties with studies purporting to demonstrate automaticity, and empirical and simulation evidence suggest that bias may be predominantly strategic. Bias in the voluntary control of attention may be driven by coping strategies, which in turn depend on appraisal of external demands, metacognitions of mental function, access of self-relevant knowledge in long-term memory, and self-focus of attention. The Self-Regulatory Executive Function (S-REF) model of emotion and attention specifies how these processes interact to influence attentional control. Clinical disorder is associated with loss of dynamic adaptability and a syndrome of perseverative rumination and worry that directs attention toward monitoring for threat and away from restructuring of maladaptive self-knowledge. Implications of the S-REF model for therapeutic interventions directed toward attentional control are discussed.