The Psychometric Properties of the Dot-Probe Paradigm When Used in Pain-Related Attentional Bias Research

Objective: After the COVID-19 outbreak, corona anxiety has become prevalent all over the world. To understand and treat this type of anxiety, researchers have examined its relationship with attentional bias, a phenomenon closely associated with other types of anxiety. The dot-probe task is a common instrument used for the evaluation of attentional bias. However, the psychometric properties of this instrument, when used for the assessment of attentional bias towards corona-related stimuli, are unknown. This study aimed to evaluate the psychometric properties of the COVID-19 dot-probe task to see whether its application in COVID-19 studies is justified. Methods: A total of 362 Iranian adults completed the COVID-19 dot-probe task and Corona Anxiety Disease Scale (CADS), 146 of whom repeated this procedure after two weeks to provide test-retest data. Split-half reliability, the Cronbach α, intraclass correlation coefficient of test-retest scores, and associations between COVID-19 dot-probe task and CADS were calculated using SPSS v. 26. Results: The study results indicated that the standard version of the COVID-19 dot-probe task lacks internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and criterion validity, whereas the response-based version of the instrument promotes all of these psychometric properties to an acceptable level. Conclusion: COVID-19 dot-probe task is a psychometrically sound instrument for evaluating corona-related attentional bias and investigating its role in the mechanism of corona anxiety, only if the response-based method of computation is used for calculating the measures of attentional bias.

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Time Course of Attentional Bias for Emotional Faces. Evidence From Inhibition of Return in the Dot-Probe Paradigm

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e512682013-260 ◽

2007 ◽

Author(s):

Dariusz Asanowicz

Keyword(s):

Attentional Bias ◽

Time Course ◽

Inhibition Of Return ◽

Dot Probe ◽

Emotional Faces

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Beyond attentional bias: A perceptual bias in a dot-probe task.

Emotion ◽

10.1037/a0028415 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 12 (6) ◽

pp. 1362-1366 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Bruno R. Bocanegra ◽

Jorg Huijding ◽

René Zeelenberg

Keyword(s):

Attentional Bias ◽

Perceptual Bias ◽

Dot Probe ◽

Probe Task

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Attentional bias in MDD: ERP components analysis and classification using a dot-probe task

Computer Methods and Programs in Biomedicine ◽

10.1016/j.cmpb.2018.07.003 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 164 ◽

pp. 169-179 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Xiaowei Li ◽

Jianxiu Li ◽

Bin Hu ◽

Jing Zhu ◽

Xuemin Zhang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Attentional Bias ◽

Dot Probe ◽

Probe Task ◽

Components Analysis

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Facial expression movement enhances the measurement of temporal dynamics of attentional bias in the dot-probe task

Behaviour Research and Therapy ◽

10.1016/j.brat.2017.05.003 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 95 ◽

pp. 58-70 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Corrado Caudek ◽

Francesco Ceccarini ◽

Claudio Sica

Keyword(s):

Facial Expression ◽

Attentional Bias ◽

Temporal Dynamics ◽

Dot Probe ◽

Probe Task

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Attentional Bias to Direct Gaze in a Dot-Probe Paradigm

Perceptual and Motor Skills ◽

10.2466/21.07.24.pms.114.3.1007-1022 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 114 (3) ◽

pp. 1007-1022 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Yuki Miyazaki ◽

Hiromi Wake ◽

Shigeru Ichihara ◽

Tenji Wake

Keyword(s):

Attentional Bias ◽

Dot Probe ◽

Direct Gaze

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Improved reliability of attentional bias measurement by means of a modified version of the dot-probe task

PsycEXTRA Dataset ◽

10.1037/e676392012-175 ◽

2011 ◽

Author(s):

B. Paulewicz

Keyword(s):

Attentional Bias ◽

Dot Probe ◽

Probe Task

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On the relative sensitivity of spatial and non-spatial measures of attentional bias: Emotion-induced blindness, the dot probe, and gradations in ratings of negative pictures

10.31234/osf.io/jw7z6 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Sandersan Onie ◽

Steven Most

Keyword(s):

Emotional Disorders ◽

Attentional Bias ◽

Strong Evidence ◽

Spatial Relationship ◽

Relative Sensitivity ◽

Attentional Biases ◽

Dot Probe ◽

Attention Task ◽

Emotional Pictures ◽

Valence And Arousal

Attentional biases towards negative information are implicated in various emotional disorders. The literature probing this relationship relies on assumptions that the tasks used to measure attentional biases are sensitive to the negative emotional qualities of stimuli, but are such assumptions justified? We assessed the degree to which two widely used tasks – the dot probe and emotion-induced blindness – displayed sensitivity to gradations in valence and arousal ratings for negative emotional pictures. For emotion-induced blindness (the failure to see a target the follows an emotional distractor in a rapidly presented sequence of items), there was strong evidence of sensitivity to gradations in both valence and arousal. For the dot probe (a spatial attention task where latency to respond to a target depends on whether it appears at or away from the location of an emotional stimulus), there was moderate evidence of sensitivity to emotional vs. neutral stimuli, but there was also moderate to strong evidence that the task was insensitive to gradations in valence and arousal. That said, in the dot probe, response latency regardless of spatial relationship between the target and the emotional image appeared sensitive to gradations in stimulus emotionality; suggesting that such sensitivity may be characteristic of non-spatial, rather than spatial, aspects of attention. Implications for attentional bias studies are discussed. Notably, the finding that emotion-induced blindness was sensitive to gradations in ratings of emotional pictures supports claims that the effect arises due to stimulus emotionality rather than simply differences in visual features of pictures (e.g., color, brightness, complexity).

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