Do attentional and interpretive biases interact or work independently in vulnerability to emotional stress?

当前的心理学理论强调人们思考的方式在焦虑、抑郁和焦虑等常见心理状况的发展中所起的作用。人们认为，焦虑或抑郁的人有偏见的思维方式，这意味着与普通人群相比，他们倾向于以与威胁相关或消极的方式自动处理信息。焦虑症患者的反应与正常人、焦虑症患者和抑郁症患者不同。情绪障碍中有两种偏见：注意力偏见，即注意力自动转移到与危险或不快乐相关的项目上，以及解释偏见，即个人自动感知模糊信息中的情感厌恶含义。旨在扭转这些偏见的基于计算机的干预措施（称为认知偏见修正（CBM））已被证明可以显着缓解焦虑和情绪低落，证明偏见思维在精神疾病中的因果作用，同时为开发个人可以在自己的家用电脑上访问的非专业干预措施提供了一个潜在的平台。然而，到目前为止，所有的研究都集中在一个单一的思维偏见上（注意力或解释）。此外，对参与者的测试往往是与高度社交焦虑的参与者或那些在日常生活中没有因焦虑而遇到困难的人一起进行的。解释偏差修正程序通常训练个体以更积极的方式解释信息，并评估从训练前到训练后的解释偏差的影响，沿着情绪的任何变化。类似地，注意力偏差修正程序训练参与者远离不愉快的刺激，并测量前后注意力偏差之间的差异，沿着情绪变化。很少有研究考虑到一种偏见的减少是否也会导致另一种偏见的减少，以及不同的情绪状态如何与不同程度的偏见相互作用。为了在理解情绪问题的机制方面取得进一步的进展，需要做的工作是找出已识别的注意和解释过程如何相互作用，以及如何与不同程度的痛苦相互作用，以诱导并随后维持个体不同程度的焦虑。这项研究的目的是首先找出这些偏见是共同作用还是独立作用。基于这些发现，第二个目标将是研究为焦虑和/或抑郁水平升高的个体以及精力旺盛的个体提供培训的最佳条件。本研究的发现将为认知心理学中情感条件理论的发展提供信息。随着对大脑产生偏见思维的条件的更好理解，可以开发更精确的认知偏见修正干预措施，以针对焦虑，抑郁和焦虑中的问题思维。

Current psychological theories emphasise the role that the way in which people think plays in the development of common psychological conditions like anxiety, depression and elation. It is thought that people with anxiety or depression have biased thinking styles which mean that they tend to automatically process information in a threat-related or negative way compared with the general population. Those with elation react differently from those that are normal and those with anxiety and depression. Two kinds of biased thinking have been identified in emotional disorders: attention bias, where attention is automatically diverted towards items associated with danger or unhappiness, and interpretation bias, where the individual automatically perceives emotionally aversive meanings in ambiguous information. Computer-based interventions which have been designed to reverse these biases (known as cognitive bias modification (CBM)) have been shown to significantly alleviate anxiety and low mood, demonstrating the causal role of biased thinking in mental ill health, whilst providing a potential platform for developing non-specialist interventions which individuals can access on their own home computer. All the research to date, has, however, focussed on a single thinking bias at a time (either attention or interpretation). In addition, testing of participants tends to be conducted with groups of either highly socially anxious participants, or those who experience no difficulty in their everyday living due to anxiety. Interpretation bias modification programs typically train individuals to interpret information in a more positive way, and the effect of interpretation bias from pre to post training is assessed, along with any changes in mood. Similarly, attention bias modification programs train participants to attend away from unpleasant stimuli and the difference between pre and post attention bias is measured, along with mood changes. Very little work has considered whether reduction in one bias also results in a reduction in the other bias and how different mood states might interact with different levels of bias. For further progress to be made in understanding the mechanisms underpinning emotional problems, work needs to be done to find out how the identified attentional and interpretive processes interact with one another and with different levels of distress to induce and subsequently maintain differing levels of anxiety in individuals. The aim of the proposed research is to find out first of all whether or not the biases operate conjointly or independently. Based on these findings, the second aim will be to examine the optimal conditions for training delivery for individuals with elevated anxiety and/or depression levels, and exuberant individuals. The findings from this research will inform the development of current theories of affective conditions in cognitive psychology. With improved understanding of the conditions in which the mind generates biased thinking more precise cognitive bias modification interventions can be developed to target problematic thinking in anxiety, depression and elation.