What accounts for the rapid detection of threat? Evidence for an advantage in perceptual and behavioral responding from eye movements

Emotion

Volumn 14, Issue 4, 2014, Pages 816-823

  LoBue, Vanessa ^a   Matthews, Kaleigh ^a   Harvey, Teresa ^a   Stark, Siewli Lee ^a  

^a RUTGERS UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

Eye tracking; Snakes; Spiders; Threat detection; Visual search

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; AWARENESS; BEHAVIOR CONTROL; EYE MOVEMENT; EYE TRACKING; PERCEPTION; STIMULUS RESPONSE; TASK PERFORMANCE; THREAT;

ADOLESCENT; ADULT; ANIMALS; EYE MOVEMENTS; FEAR; FEMALE; HUMANS; MALE; REACTION TIME; SIGNAL DETECTION, PSYCHOLOGICAL; SNAKES; SPIDERS; VISUAL PERCEPTION; YOUNG ADULT;

EID: 84905119396     PISSN: 15283542     EISSN: 19311516     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1037/a0035869     Document Type: Article

References (50)

1. Baayen, R. H., Davidson, D. J., & Bates, D. M. (2008). Mixed-effects modeling with crossed random effects for subjects and items. Journal of Memory and Language, 59, 390-412. doi:10.1016/j.jml.2007.12.005.
2. Bagiella, E., Sloan, R. P., & Heitjan, D. F. (2000). Mixed-effects models in psychophysiology. Psychophysiology, 37, 13-20. doi:10.1111/1469-8986.3710013.
3. Becker, D. V., Anderson, U. S., Mortensen, C. R., Neufeld, S. L., & Neel, R. (2011). The face in the crowd effect unconfounded: Happy faces, not angry faces, are more efficiently detected in single-and multiple-target visual search tasks. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 140, 637-659. doi:10.1037/a0024060.
4. Benedetto, S., Pedrotti, M., & Bridgeman, B. (2011). Microsaccades and exploratory saccades in a naturalistic environment. Journal of Eye Movement Research, 4, 1-10.
5. Byrne, A., & Eysenck, M. (1995). Trait anxiety, anxious mood, and threat detection. Cognition and Emotion, 9, 549-562. doi:10.1080/02699939508408982.
6. Calvo, M. G., Avero, P., & Lundqvist, D. (2006). Facilitated detection of angry faces: Initial orienting and processing efficiency. Cognition and Emotion, 20, 785-811. doi:10.1080/02699930500465224.
7. Derakshan, N., & Koster, E. H. W. (2010). Processing efficiency in visual search in anxiety: An eye-movement registration study. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 48, 1180-1185. doi:10.1016/j.brat.2010.08.009.
8. Fenske, M. J., & Eastwood, J. D. (2003). Modulation of focused attention by faces expressing emotion: Evidence from flanker tasks. Emotion, 3, 327-343. doi:10.1037/1528-3542.3.4.327.
9. Field, A. P. (2006a). The behavioral inhibition system and the verbal information pathway to children's fears. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 115, 742-752. doi:10.1037/0021-843X.115.4.742.
10. Field, A. P. (2006b). Watch out for the beast: Fear information and attentional bias in children. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 35, 431-439. doi:10.1207/s15374424jccp3503_8.
11. Fisler, M. S., Federspiel, A., Horn, H., Dierks, T., Schmitt, W., Wiest, R.,. Soravia, L. M. (2013). Spider phobia is associated with decreased left amygdala volume: A cross sectional study. BMC Psychiatry, 13, 70. doi:10.1186/1471-244X-13-70.
12. Flykt, A. (2006). Preparedness for action: Responding to the snake in the grass. The American Journal of Psychology, 119, 29-43. doi:10.2307/20445317.
13. Flykt, A., & Caldera, R. (2006). Tracking fear in snake and spider fearful participants during visual search: A multi-response domain study. Cognition and Emotion, 20, 1075-1091. doi:10.1080/02699930500381405.
14. Forbes, S. J., Purkis, H. M., & Lipp, O. V. (2011). Better safe than sorry: Simplistic fear-relevant stimuli capture attention. Cognition & Emotion, 25, 794-804. doi:10.1080/02699931.2010.514710.
15. Fox, E., Russo, R., Bowles, R., & Dutton, K. (2001). Do threatening stimuli draw or hold visual attention in subclinical anxiety? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 130, 681-700. doi:10.1037/0096-3445.130.4.681.
16. Frischen, A., Eastwood, J. D., & Smilek, D. (2008). Visual search for faces with emotional expressions. Psychological Bulletin, 134, 662-676. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.134.5.662.
17. Gilboa-Schechtman, E., Foa, E. B., & Amir, N. (1999). Attentional biases for facial expressions in social phobia: The face-in-the-crowd paradigm. Cognition and Emotion, 13, 305-318. doi:10.1080/026999399379294.
18. Gueorguieva, R., & Krystal, J. (2004). Move over ANOVA: Progress in analyzing repeated-measures data and its reflection in papers published in the Archives of General Psychiatry. Archives of General Psychiatry, 61, 310-317. doi:10.1001/archpsyc.61.3.310.
19. Hansen, C., & Hansen, R. (1988). Finding the face in the crowd: An anger superiority effect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 917-924. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.54.6.917.
20. Horstmann, G., & Becker, S. I. (2008). Attentional effects of negative faces: Top-down contingent or involuntary? Perception & Psychophysics, 70, 1416-1434. doi:10.3758/PP.70.8.1416.
21. Horstmann, G., Scharlau, I., & Ansorge, U. (2006). More efficient rejection of happy than of angry face distractors in visual search. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 13, 1067-1073. doi:10.3758/BF03213927.
22. Huijding, J., Mayer, B., Koster, E. H. W., & Muris, P. (2011). To look or not to look: An eye movement study of hypervigilance during change detection in high and low spider fearful students. Emotion, 11, 666-674. doi:10.1037/a0022996.
23. Klorman, R., Weerts, T. C., Hastings, J. E., Melamed, B. G., & Lang, P. J. (1974). Psychometric description of some specific-fear questionnaires. Behavior Therapy, 5, 401-409. doi:10.1016/S0005-7894(74)80008-0.
24. Koster, E. H. W., Crombez, G., Van Damme, S., Verschuere, B., & De Houwer, J. (2004). Does imminent threat capture and hold attention? Emotion, 4, 312-317. doi:10.1037/1528-3542.4.3.312.
25. Larson, C. L., Aronoff, J., & Stearns, J. J. (2007). The shape of threat: Simple geometric forms evoke rapid and sustained capture of attention. Emotion, 7, 526-534. doi:10.1037/1528-3542.7.3.526.
26. Lipp, O. V. (2006). Of snakes and flowers: Does preferential detection of pictures of fear-relevant animals in visual search reflect on fearrelevance? Emotion, 6, 296-308. doi:10.1037/1528-3542.6.2.296.
27. Lipp, O. V., Derakshan, N., Waters, A. M., & Logies, S. (2004). Snakes and cats in the flower bed: Fast detection is not specific to pictures of fear-relevant animals. Emotion, 4, 233-250. doi:10.1037/1528-3542.4.3.233.
28. Lipp, O. V., & Waters, A. M. (2007). When danger lurks in the background: Attentional capture by animal fear-relevant distractors is specific and selectively enhanced by animal fear. Emotion, 7, 192-200. doi:10.1037/1528-3542.7.1.192.
29. LoBue, V. (2009). More than just a face in the crowd: Detection of emotional facial expressions in young children and adults. Developmental Science, 12, 305-313. doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2008.00767.x.
30. LoBue, V. (2010a). And along came a spider: Superior detection of spiders in children and adults. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 107, 59-66. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2010.04.005.
31. LoBue, V. (2010b). What's so scary about needles and knives? Examining the role of experience in threat detection. Cognition and Emotion, 24, 180-187. doi:10.1080/02699930802542308.
32. LoBue, V. (in press). Deconstructing the snake: The relative roles of perception, cognition, and emotion on threat detection. Emotion.
33. LoBue, V., & DeLoache, J. S. (2008). Detecting the snake in the grass: Attention to fear-relevant stimuli by adults and young children. Psychological Science, 19, 284-289. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2008.02081.x.
34. LoBue, V., & DeLoache, J. S. (2011). What so special about slithering serpents? Children and adults rapidly detect snakes based on their simple features. Visual Cognition, 19, 129-143. doi:10.1080/13506285.2010.522216.
35. LoBue, V., & Larson, C. L. (2010). What makes angry faces look so. angry? Examining visual attention to the shape of threat in children and adults. Visual Cognition, 18, 1165-1178. doi:10.1080/13506281003783675.
36. LoBue, V., & Rakison, D. (2013). What we fear most: A developmental advantage for threat-relevant stimuli. Developmental Review, 33, 285-303. doi:10.1016/j.dr.2013.07.005.
37. Masataka, N., & Shibasaki, M. (2012). Premenstrual enhancement of snake detection in visual search in healthy women. Scientific Reports, 2, 1-4. doi:10.1038/srep00307.
38. Milders, M., Arash, S., Logan, S., & Donnellon, N. (2006). Awareness of faces is modulated by their emotional meaning. Emotion, 6, 10-17. doi:10.1037/1528-3542.6.1.10.
39. Öhman, A., Flykt, A., & Esteves, F. (2001). Emotion drives attention: Detecting the snake in the grass. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 130, 466-478. doi:10.1037/0096-3445.130.3.466.
40. Öhman, A., Lundqvist, D., & Esteves, F. (2001). The face in the crowd revisited: A threat advantage with schematic stimuli. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 381-396. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.80.3.381.
41. Patla, A. E., & Vickers, J. N. (1997). Where and when do we look as we approach and step over an obstacle in the travel path. Neuroreport, 8, 3661-3665. doi:10.1097/00001756-199712010-00002.
42. Purkis, H. M., & Lipp, O. V. (2009). Are snakes and spiders special? Acquisition of negative valence and modified attentional processing by non-fear-relevant animal stimuli. Cognition & Emotion, 23, 430-452. doi:10.1080/02699930801993973.
43. Quinlan, P. T. (2013). The visual detection of threat. A cautionary tale. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 20, 1080-1101. doi:10.3758/s13423-013-0421-4.
44. Reinholdt-Dunn, M., Mogg, K., Benson, V., Bradley, B. P., Hardin, M. G., Liversedge, S. P., Pine, D. S., & Ernst, M. (2012). Anxiety and selective attention to angry faces: An antisaccade study. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 24, 54-65.
45. Reynolds, M. G., Eastwood, J. D., Partanen, M., Frischen, A., & Smilek, D. (2009). Monitoring eye movements while searching for affective faces. Visual Cognition, 17, 318-333. doi:10.1080/13506280701623704.
46. Rinck, M., Reinecke, A., Ellwart, T., Heuer, K., & Becker, E. S. (2005). Speeded detection and increased distraction in fear of spiders: Evidence from eye movements. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 114, 235-248. doi:10.1037/0021-843X.114.2.235.
47. Rutherford, E. M., MacLeod, C., & Campbell, L. W. (2004). Negative selectivity effects and emotional selectivity effects in anxiety: Differential attentional correlates of state and trait variables. Cognition & Emotion, 18, 711-720. doi:10.1080/02699930341000121.
48. Shibasaki, M., & Kawai, N. (2009). Rapid detection of snakes by Japanese monkeys (Macaca fuscata): An evolutionarily predisposed visual system. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 123, 131-135. doi:10.1037/a0015095.
49. Tipples, J., Young, A. W., Quinlan, P., Broks, P., & Ellis, A. W. (2002). Searching for threat. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 55, 1007-1026. doi:10.1080/02724980143000659.
50. Waters, A. M., Lipp, O. V., & Randhawa, R. S. (2011). Visual search with animal fear-relevant stimuli: A tale of two procedures. Motivation & Emotion, 35, 23-32. doi:10.1007/s11031-010-9191-8.