Attention allocation during the processing of socially relevant information: Moderators of attentional biases and relevance for the experience of social anxiety

对威胁性刺激的偏向性注意分配被认为与社交焦虑障碍（SAD）的病因和维持有关。最近，研究人员通过实验程序解决了这种处理偏见，这些实验程序旨在训练注意力远离威胁。第一项研究检查注意力调整训练对SAD症状的影响，取得了令人印象深刻的结果;然而，这些发现并没有在进一步的研究中得到一致的复制。实验结果表明，SAD中的注意偏向可能包括不同的成分，它可能会受到情境条件（如状态焦虑，任务要求）和个体间差异（如自我调节技能）的调节。为了更好地理解注意修正过程的机制，有必要进一步描述注意偏差的观察环境，以及注意过程和SAD心理学之间的实际关系。提出的研究项目的目的是检查条件，温和的注意力偏见的威胁在SAD的患病率。任务要求，状态焦虑，自我调节的个体差异被认为是调节变量。据推测，SAD的个人一贯表现出高度警惕的威胁，在早期处理阶段，成功的更个人的注意力分配，取决于调节变量。它进一步假设，不同的偏见组件差异相关的SAD症状，这些协会介导的额外的偏见在信息处理（解释偏差）。将在两项连续研究中对SAD患者和健康对照者进行检查。在这两项研究中，对社会威胁刺激的注意力将通过视觉搜索和眼动追踪的组合进行评估。在研究1中，将评估实验诱导的状态焦虑对不同任务中注意分配的影响。在研究2中，注意力评估是由进一步的认知偏差的评估，和一个标准化的行为测试。这些数据将有助于评估偏见信息处理和SAD症状之间的关系。在这两项研究中，注意力控制的个体差异被认为是协变量。研究结果将有助于重新完善注意力调整训练，并有助于预测谁可能从此类干预措施中受益。研究结果也将加强我们对SAD潜在的精神病理过程的理解。直接凝视评估和间接视觉搜索程序相结合，使传统的实验任务在注意力评估的有效性进行评估。

A biased attention allocation towards threat stimuli is considered relevant in both the etiology and maintenance of social anxiety disorder (SAD). Recently, researchers addressed this processing bias by experimental procedures developed to train attention away from threat. The first studies examining the effects of attention modification trainings on SAD symptoms yielded impressive results; however, these findings were not consistently replicated in further studies. Experimental findings suggest that the attentional bias in SAD may comprise different components, and it might be moderated by context conditions (such as state anxiety, task demands) and interindividual differences (e.g. in self-regulation skills). For a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying attention modification procedures it is necessary to further describe the circumstances under which an attentional bias can be observed, as well as the actual relationship between attentional processes and the SAD symptomatology. The presented research project is aimed on examining conditions that moderate the prevalence of attentional biases for threat in SAD. Task demands, state anxiety, and interindividual differences in self-regulation are considered as moderating variables. It is assumed that individuals with SAD consistently show a hypervigilance for threat in early processing stages that is succeeded by a more individual attention allocation that depends on moderating variables. It is further assumed that different bias components are differentially associated to SAD symptoms, and that these associations are mediated by additional biases in information processing (interpretation bias). Individuals with SAD and healthy controls will be examined in two consecutive studies. In both studies, attention towards social threat stimuli will be assessed by a combination of visual search and eyetracking. In study 1, the effects of experimentally induced state anxiety on attention allocation during different tasks will be assessed. In study 2, attention assessment is complemented both by the assessment of further cognitive biases, and a standardized behavioural test. These data will help to evaluate the relationship between biased information processing and SAD symptoms. In both studies individual differences in attention control are considered as covariate. Findings will contribute to re-fine attention modification trainings, and will allow to predict who might profit from such interventions. Findings will also enhance our understanding of psychopathological processes underlying SAD. The combination of direct gaze assessment and indirect visual search procedures enables an evaluation of the validity of traditional experimental tasks in attention assessment.