Gaze cuing of attention in snake phobic women: the influence of facial expression
Only a few studies investigated whether animal phobics exhibit attentional biases in contexts where no phobic stimuli are present. Among these, recent studies provided evidence for a bias toward facial expressions of fear and disgust in animal phobics. Such findings may be due to the fact that these...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2015-04-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00454/full |
| _version_ | 1818203199618678784 |
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| author | Carolina ePletti Mario eDalmaso Michela eSarlo Michela eSarlo Giovanni eGalfano Giovanni eGalfano |
| author_facet | Carolina ePletti Mario eDalmaso Michela eSarlo Michela eSarlo Giovanni eGalfano Giovanni eGalfano |
| author_sort | Carolina ePletti |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Only a few studies investigated whether animal phobics exhibit attentional biases in contexts where no phobic stimuli are present. Among these, recent studies provided evidence for a bias toward facial expressions of fear and disgust in animal phobics. Such findings may be due to the fact that these expressions could signal the presence of a phobic object in the surroundings. To test this hypothesis and further investigate attentional biases for emotional faces in animal phobics, we conducted an experiment using a gaze-cuing paradigm in which participants’ attention was driven by the task-irrelevant gaze of a centrally presented face. We employed dynamic negative facial expressions of disgust, fear and anger and found an enhanced gaze-cuing effect in snake phobics as compared to controls, irrespective of facial expression. These results provide evidence of a general hypervigilance in animal phobics in the absence of phobic stimuli, and indicate that research on specific phobias should not be limited to symptom provocation paradigms. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-12T03:21:33Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-7d7f53728ee545b58ce1ea0d31b5c105 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-12T03:21:33Z |
| publishDate | 2015-04-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-7d7f53728ee545b58ce1ea0d31b5c1052022-12-22T00:40:09ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782015-04-01610.3389/fpsyg.2015.00454131703Gaze cuing of attention in snake phobic women: the influence of facial expressionCarolina ePletti0Mario eDalmaso1Michela eSarlo2Michela eSarlo3Giovanni eGalfano4Giovanni eGalfano5University of PadovaUniversity of PadovaUniversity of PadovaUniversity of PadovaUniversity of PadovaUniversity of PadovaOnly a few studies investigated whether animal phobics exhibit attentional biases in contexts where no phobic stimuli are present. Among these, recent studies provided evidence for a bias toward facial expressions of fear and disgust in animal phobics. Such findings may be due to the fact that these expressions could signal the presence of a phobic object in the surroundings. To test this hypothesis and further investigate attentional biases for emotional faces in animal phobics, we conducted an experiment using a gaze-cuing paradigm in which participants’ attention was driven by the task-irrelevant gaze of a centrally presented face. We employed dynamic negative facial expressions of disgust, fear and anger and found an enhanced gaze-cuing effect in snake phobics as compared to controls, irrespective of facial expression. These results provide evidence of a general hypervigilance in animal phobics in the absence of phobic stimuli, and indicate that research on specific phobias should not be limited to symptom provocation paradigms.http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00454/fullemotionFacial Expressionspatial attentiongaze cuingsnake phobia |
| spellingShingle | Carolina ePletti Mario eDalmaso Michela eSarlo Michela eSarlo Giovanni eGalfano Giovanni eGalfano Gaze cuing of attention in snake phobic women: the influence of facial expression Frontiers in Psychology emotion Facial Expression spatial attention gaze cuing snake phobia |
| title | Gaze cuing of attention in snake phobic women: the influence of facial expression |
| title_full | Gaze cuing of attention in snake phobic women: the influence of facial expression |
| title_fullStr | Gaze cuing of attention in snake phobic women: the influence of facial expression |
| title_full_unstemmed | Gaze cuing of attention in snake phobic women: the influence of facial expression |
| title_short | Gaze cuing of attention in snake phobic women: the influence of facial expression |
| title_sort | gaze cuing of attention in snake phobic women the influence of facial expression |
| topic | emotion Facial Expression spatial attention gaze cuing snake phobia |
| url | http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00454/full |
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