Some animal specific fears are more specific than others: Evidence from attention and emotion measures

被引:55
|
作者
Soares, Sandra C. [1 ,2 ,3 ]
Esteves, Francisco [4 ]
Lundqvist, Daniel [3 ]
Oehman, Arne [3 ,5 ,6 ]
机构
[1] Univ Aveiro, Dept Educ Sci, P-3810193 Aveiro, Portugal
[2] Super Inst Leiria, Leiria, Portugal
[3] Karolinska Inst, Dept Clin Neurosci, Psychol Sect, Stockholm, Sweden
[4] Lisbon Univ Inst, ISCTE, Ctr Social Res & Intervent, Lisbon, Portugal
[5] Stockholm Brain Inst, Stockholm, Sweden
[6] Univ Florida, Ctr Study Emot & Attent, Gainesville, FL USA
关键词
Animal fear; Visual search; Emotional ratings; Perceptual load; VISUAL-SEARCH; SELECTIVE ATTENTION; RESPONSES; RELEVANT; ANXIETY; THREAT; SNAKE; MOTIVATION; DISGUST; FACE;
D O I
10.1016/j.brat.2009.07.022
中图分类号
B849 [应用心理学];
学科分类号
040203 ;
摘要
Using a visual search methodology we investigated the effect of feared animal stimuli on attention. Our results confirmed the important role of emotion on attention. All participants detected fear-relevant stimuli (snakes and spiders) faster than neutral (mushrooms) ones against a background of fruits. In addition, spider fearful participants were sensitized specifically to detect their feared stimulus (spiders), compared to their fear-relevant but non-feared (snakes) and neutral stimuli. However, for participants fearful of snakes there was no significant difference in detection latencies between the feared (snakes) and the fear-relevant but non-feared animal stimuli (spiders). The results from the attention task were mirrored in the emotional ratings, which showed that spider fear was highly specific, whereas snake fear was associated with a more generalized enhanced evaluation of all negative stimuli. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd, All rights reserved,
引用
收藏
页码:1032 / 1042
页数:11
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