Mediating and moderating effects of attentional control on the relationship between personality traits and attentional bias among Chinese medical students

This study utilizes empirical research method to compile the questionnaire for the motivation of Chinese medical students coming to China. The survey was conducted on 653 medical students from 55 origin countries and 8 universities in China. In addition to motivation research, we also analyzes the relationship between the factors such as university, educational background, gender and origin of students and the motivation. The results show that safe and stable social environment, profound history and culture, and a large number of universities are the most important motives for foreign students to study medicine in China. There are significant differences in the motivations of international medical students from different genders, universities, and educational background to study abroad, and but there were no significant differences among students from different countries of origin.

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Time course of attentional bias to painful facial expressions and the moderating role of attentional control: an eye-tracking study

British Journal of Pain ◽

10.1177/2049463719866877 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 204946371986687 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Mahdi Mazidi ◽

Mohsen Dehghani ◽

Louise Sharpe ◽

Behrooz Dolatshahi ◽

Seyran Ranjbar ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Chronic Pain ◽

Attentional Bias ◽

Facial Expressions ◽

Attentional Control ◽

Time Course ◽

Pain Catastrophizing ◽

Moderation Effect ◽

Significant Difference ◽

The Relationship ◽

Pain Patients

Introduction: This study investigated the time course of attention to pain and examined the moderating effect of attentional control in the relationship between pain catastrophizing and attentional bias in chronic pain patients. Methods: A total of 28 patients with chronic pain and 29 pain-free individuals observed pictures of pain, happy and neutral facial expressions while their gaze behaviour was recorded. Pain intensity and duration, anxiety, depression, stress, attentional control and pain catastrophizing were assessed by questionnaires. Results: In all subjects, the pattern of attention for pain faces was characterized by initial vigilance, followed by avoidance. No significant difference was found between the two groups in terms of orientation towards the stimuli, the duration of first fixation, the average duration of fixation or number of fixations on the pain stimuli. Attentional control moderated the relationship between catastrophizing and overall dwell time for happy faces in pain patients, indicating that those with high attentional control and high catastrophizing focused more on happy faces, whereas the reverse was true for those with low attentional control. Conclusion: This study supported the vigilance–avoidance pattern of attention to painful facial expressions and a moderation effect of attentional control in the association between pain catastrophizing and attentional bias to happy faces among pain patients.

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