Anxiety and the Allocation of Attention to Threat

Using a probe detection technique we have recently demonstrated that anxious subjects consistently deploy attention towards threat-related stimuli, whereas non-anxious controls tend to move attention away from such material (MacLeod, Mathews, & Tata, 1986). The current study employed the same paradigm but attempted to distinguish the role of trait and state anxiety by testing high- and low-trait students when state anxiety was relatively low (12 weeks before a major examination) and again when it was relatively high (one week before this examination). High-trait subjects alone tended to shift attention towards generally threatening material on both test occasions. Results for examination-related stimuli were more complex. Increased proximity to the examination was associated with an increase in attentional bias towards such threat stimuli in high-trait subjects, but with increased attentional avoidance of such stimuli in low-trait subjects. It is suggested that the attentional response to currently relevant stress-related stimuli may be associated with neither trait nor state anxiety alone, but with an interactive function involving both these variables. These results are discussed in relation to existing models of emotion and cognition, and alternative interpretations of the findings are considered.