Attentional Bias Among Adolescents Who Stutter: Evidence for a Vigilance–Avoidance Effect

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (10) ◽  
pp. 3349-3363
Author(s):  
Naomi H. Rodgers ◽  
Jennifer Y. F. Lau ◽  
Patricia M. Zebrowski
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Attentional Bias ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Cutoff Score ◽  
Attentional Disengagement ◽  
Social Stimuli ◽  
Facial Stimuli ◽  
The Social ◽  
Attentional Engagement ◽  
High Social Anxiety

Purpose The purpose of this study was to examine group and individual differences in attentional bias toward and away from socially threatening facial stimuli among adolescents who stutter and age- and sex-matched typically fluent controls. Method Participants included 86 adolescents (43 stuttering, 43 controls) ranging in age from 13 to 19 years. They completed a computerized dot-probe task, which was modified to allow for separate measurement of attentional engagement with and attentional disengagement from facial stimuli (angry, fearful, neutral expressions). Their response time on this task was the dependent variable. Participants also completed the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SAS-A) and provided a speech sample for analysis of stuttering-like behaviors. Results The adolescents who stutter were more likely to engage quickly with threatening faces than to maintain attention on neutral faces, and they were also more likely to disengage quickly from threatening faces than to maintain attention on those faces. The typically fluent controls did not show any attentional preference for the threatening faces over the neutral faces in either the engagement or disengagement conditions. The two groups demonstrated equivalent levels of social anxiety that were both, on average, very close to the clinical cutoff score for high social anxiety, although degree of social anxiety did not influence performance in either condition. Stuttering severity did not influence performance among the adolescents who stutter. Conclusion This study provides preliminary evidence for a vigilance–avoidance pattern of attentional allocation to threatening social stimuli among adolescents who stutter.

Time-Course of Attentional Bias for Positive Social Words in Individuals with High and Low Social Anxiety

2013 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 479-490 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongyu Yu ◽  
Songwei Li ◽  
Mingyi Qian ◽  
Peng Yang ◽  
Xiaoling Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Attentional Bias ◽  
Time Course ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Response Latencies ◽  
Main Effect ◽  
High Social Anxiety ◽  
Different Response ◽  
Positive Stimuli ◽  
Social Words

Background: Although accumulating research demonstrates the association between attentional bias and social anxiety, the bias for positive stimuli has so far not been adequately studied. Aims: The aim is to investigate the time-course of attentional bias for positive social words in participants with high and low social anxiety. Method: In a modified dot-probe task, word-pairs of neutral and positive social words were randomly presented for 100, 500, and 1250 milliseconds in a nonclinical sample of students to test their attentional bias. Results: Non-significant interaction of Group × Exposure Duration was found. However, there was a significant main effect of group, with significantly different response latencies between the high social anxiety (HSA) and low social anxiety (LSA) groups in the 100 ms condition, without for 500 or 1250 ms. With respect to attentional bias, the LSA group showed enhanced preferential attention for positive social words to which the HSA group showed avoidance in the 100 ms condition. In the 500 ms condition, preferential attention to positive social words was at trend in the LSA group, relative to the HSA group. Neither group showed attentional bias in the 1250 ms condition. Conclusions: These findings extend recent research about the attention training program and add to the empirical literature suggesting that the initial avoidance of positive stimuli may contribute to maintaining social anxiety.

Social Anxiety and Social Surrogacy in College Roommate Relationships

2017 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 63-84 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eliane M. Boucher ◽  
Jorden A. Cummings
Keyword(s):  
Retrospective Study ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
European Association ◽  
Preliminary Evidence ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Personality Psychology ◽  
The Social ◽  
College Roommates ◽  
Social Surrogacy

The social surrogate hypothesis proposes that people with higher social anxiety (HSA) recruit others to accompany them into social situations. We tested this hypothesis with college roommates using both hypothetical (Study 1) and retrospective (Study 2) measures, while assessing roommate's perceptions of recruitment and how social surrogacy might influence liking between roommates. Across two studies, we found that HSA participants were less likely to enter social situations alone (i.e. higher conditional entry); however, HSA was related to recruitment only when participants considered hypothetical scenarios, not when recruitment was assessed globally or retrospectively. There was little evidence that HSA participants’ roommates were aware of these behaviours, although there was preliminary evidence that less social anxiety might increase liking when roommates perceived more conditional entry. We also found preliminary evidence that social anxiety may be negatively related to liking when participants were less likely to recruit an alternate surrogate if their roommate was unavailable. Taken together, these preliminary findings emphasize the importance of studying the surrogacy process from an interpersonal/dyadic perspective and using methods that will differentiate between anticipated (which may be assessed by hypothetical scenarios) and enacted recruitment behaviours. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology

Do Higher Self-Reports of Social Anxiety Translate to Greater Occurrence of Social Anxiety Disorder in Asian Americans Compared to Caucasian Americans?

2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 287-302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Betty Horng ◽  
Meredith E. Coles
Keyword(s):  
Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Social Anxiety Disorder ◽  
Asian Americans ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Cutoff Score ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Caucasian Americans ◽  
Self Reports ◽  
High Social Anxiety

This study was designed to clarify the discrepancy between data showing higher self-reported levels of social anxiety in Asian Americans (Horng, 2004; Okazaki, 1997, 2000, 2002) but lower lifetime prevalence rates of social anxiety disorder (SAD) in Asian Americans compared to Caucasian Americans (Hwu, Yeh, & Chang, 1989; Lee et al., 1990b; Takeuchi et al., 1998). Results revealed that based on responses on the self-report Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN), Asian Americans endorsed higher levels of social anxiety symptoms and were more likely to meet a threshold for “high social anxiety,” using the diagnostic cutoff score of 19 or higher on the SPIN. However, when clinician-formulated diagnoses were assigned, there was no evidence for significant differences in the prevalence of SAD in Asian Americans versus Caucasian Americans. Explanation of the results, their implications, limitations, and future directions are discussed.

scholarly journals Neural responses associated with attentional engagement and disengagement from threat in high socially anxious children: Evidence from temporal-spatial PCA

PLoS ONE ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. e0261172
Author(s):  
Erika Wauthia ◽  
Fabien D’Hondt ◽  
Wivine Blekic ◽  
Laurent Lefebvre ◽  
Laurence Ris ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Reaction Times ◽  
Event Related Potential ◽  
Attentional Disengagement ◽  
Processing Efficiency ◽  
Socially Anxious ◽  
Attentional Processing ◽  
Electrophysiological Data ◽  
Attentional Engagement ◽  
Engagement And Disengagement

Background Cognitive models indicated that social anxiety disorder (SAD) would be caused and maintained by a biased attentional processing of threatening information. This study investigates whether socially anxious children may present impaired attentional engagement and disengagement from negative emotional faces, as well as their underlying event-related potential responses. Methods and findings Fifteen children with high levels of social anxiety (HSA; 9 boys; mean age = 9.99y; SD = 1.14) and twenty low socially anxious children (LSA; 16 boys; mean age = 10.47y; SD = 1.17) participated in a spatial cueing task in which they had to detect targets following neutral/disgusted faces in a valid or invalid location. No group effect was reported on reaction times [p>.05]. However, electrophysiological data showed lower P3a amplitude in HSA children compared with the LSA group when processing facial stimuli. They also reported larger N2 amplitudes for valid-disgusted targets and a larger P3a amplitude for the invalid-disgusted ones. Conclusion In terms of electrophysiological data, our results validated, the hypothesis of attentional disengagement difficulties in SAD children. We also confirm the idea that high levels of social anxiety are associated with cognitive control impairments and have a greater impact on the processing efficiency than on the performance effectiveness.

scholarly journals Effect of social anxiety on self-esteem of special need university students in the war-affected region

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 12
Author(s):  
S. Mudasser Shah ◽  
Nadia Hameed ◽  
Fatima Afsar ◽  
Summiya Ahmad ◽  
Tauseef Ahmad
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
University Students ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Negative Relationship ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Female Students ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Male Students ◽  
The Social ◽  
High Social Anxiety

This study aimed to investigate the correlation between social anxiety and self-esteem among the special need university students from Peshawar city, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The sample size was comprised of 100 disable university students aged 18-30 years, out of which 50 were male and 50 were female. A correlational study was designed. The social anxiety levels of the recruited subjects were determined through Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale. The level of self-esteem was determined through the standard self-report mechanism by applying the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale. The data collected were tabulated, analyzed and interpreted through SPSS software, Version 23, for windows, by using means, percentages, Pearson’s product-moment correlation coefficient (r) and Independent sample t-test.  On average, the students with high social anxiety and low levels of self-esteem were found (r = -620), social anxiety of female students was high (M=78.14, SD=14.67) as compared to male students (M=59.34, SD=14.41). However, the self-esteem of female students (M=16.08, SD=1.77) was the same as compared with male students (M=16.38, SD= 1.86). There was a significant negative relationship found between social anxiety and self-esteem. The social anxiety of female disable university students was high, however, the male and female disable university students have the same self-esteem. Further studies are recommended on a large scale to explore certain other issues that are related to the given variables.

scholarly journals A Promising Candidate to Reliably Index Attentional Bias Toward Alcohol Cues–An Adapted Odd-One-Out Visual Search Task

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Janika Heitmann ◽  
Nienke C. Jonker ◽  
Peter J. de Jong
Keyword(s):  
Substance Use ◽  
Attentional Bias ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Attentional Disengagement ◽  
Promising Candidate ◽  
Alcohol Cues ◽  
Attentional Engagement ◽  
Relevant Context ◽  
Use Behavior ◽  
Engagement And Disengagement

Attentional bias (AB) has been suggested to contribute to the persistence of substance use behavior. However, the empirical evidence for its proposed role in addiction is inconsistent. This might be due to the inability of commonly used measures to differentiate between attentional engagement and attentional disengagement. Attesting to the importance of differentiating between both components of AB, a recent study using the odd-one-out task (OOOT) showed that substance use was differentially related to engagement and disengagement bias. However, the AB measures derived from the OOOT showed insufficient reliability to be used as a solid measure of individual differences. Therefore, the current study aimed to improve the reliability of the AB measures derived from the OOOT by using more distinct contrast stimuli, adding practice trials, increasing the number of trials, and by having participants perform the task in an alcohol-relevant context. We contrasted the original OOOT with the adapted OOOT (i.e., OOOT-adapt) and assessed AB in low- and high-drinking individuals. Participants were 245 undergraduate students who typically tend to drink either low or high amounts of alcohol. In one condition, AB was measured with the original OOOT in a typical laboratory context, whereas in the other condition, AB was measured with the OOOT-adapt in a bar (i.e., alcohol-relevant) context. The OOOT-adapt showed superior internal consistency, especially for the high-drinking group. Further, specifically the OOOT-adapt differentiated between low- and high-drinking participants showing that high drinkers engaged faster with alcohol cues than did low drinkers. Thus, the OOOT-adapt was found to be a promising candidate to reliably index AB in the context of alcohol use. The OOOT-adapt further showed superior criterion validity as it could differentiate between low- and high-drinking individuals, thereby adding to the evidence that AB might be involved in substance use behavior.

scholarly journals Human body motion captures visual attention and elicits pupillary arousal

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elin H Williams ◽  
Filipe Cristino ◽  
Emily S. Cross
Keyword(s):  
Visual Attention ◽  
Human Body ◽  
Social Motivation ◽  
Human Motion ◽  
Body Motion ◽  
Autonomic Arousal ◽  
Attentional Disengagement ◽  
Pupillary Responses ◽  
The Social ◽  
Attentional Engagement

The social motivation theory proposes that individuals naturally orient their attention to the social world. Here, we used complementary eye tracking measures to investigate how social motion cues affect attention and arousal. Specifically, we examined whether viewing the human body moving naturally versus mechanically leads to greater attentional engagement and changes in autonomic arousal (as assessed by pupil size measures). This question is based on previous research documenting the rewarding value of biological motion to typically developed individuals. Participants completed an attentional disengagement task in two independent experiments, while pupillary responses were recorded. We found that natural, human-like motion produced greater increases in attention and arousal than mechanical motion, whether the moving agent was human or not. These findings contribute an important piece to our understanding of social motivation by demonstrating that human motion is a key social stimulus that engages visual attention and induces autonomic arousal in the viewer.

scholarly journals Investigation of social anxiety level of migrated and not migrated secondary school student

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 623-644
Author(s):  
Binnaz Kıran ◽  
Binaz Bozkur ◽  
Alim Kaya
Keyword(s):  
Social Anxiety ◽  
Secondary School ◽  
Personal Information ◽  
Secondary School Student ◽  
Child Labour ◽  
Negative Evaluation ◽  
School Students ◽  
Economic Level ◽  
The Social ◽  
High Social Anxiety

It is thought that children whose family migrated may have a high social anxiety due to being not acepted by public and being exposed to negative evaluation. This study examines the social anxiety of migrated and nonmigrated children in terms of gender, socio-economic level and prevalence of child labour. The study group included 727 migrated and nomigrated secondary school students in Mersin. Data were collected with the Social Anxiety Scale for Children and the Personal Information Sheet. As a result, it is found that social anxiety differs depending on migration, gender, working situation and their reasons for migration. Child labour and low socio-economic level are more prevalent in the immigrant group. In this contex, it can be asserted that immigration constitutes to be a risk factor for experiencing social anxiety problems. Considering that migration is a continuing phenomenon, it would be necessary for some institutions such as the Ministry of Family and Social Policies, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Health, to carry out preventive studies collaboratively to ensure the children from migrant families are less affected by social anxiety and similar psychological difficulties.

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