Attention and Anxiety

Antonia Pilar Pacheco-Unguetti; Alberto Acosta; Alicia Callejas; Juan Lupiáñez

doi:10.1177/0956797609359624

Attention and Anxiety

Antonia Pilar Pacheco-Unguetti¹; Alberto Acosta¹; Alicia Callejas²; Juan Lupiáñez¹

¹ Department of Experimental Psychology and Physiology of Behavior, University of Granada · ² Department of Neurology, Washington University School of Medicine

Psychological Science 2010

Anxiety modulates the functioning of attention. Although the existence of this relationship is clear, its nature is still poorly defined. Added are the facts that different types of anxiety—state or trait—may influence attention differently and that attention is not a unitary system. We studied the influence of such types of anxiety by means of a task that, using emotionally neutral information, assesses the efficiency of three attentional networks: orienting, alerting, and executive control. Results showed a double dissociation. Trait anxiety was related to deficiencies in the executive control network, but state anxiety was associated with an overfunctioning of the alerting and orienting networks.

DOI: 10.1177/0956797609359624
Volume: 21 (2)
Pages: 298-304
Language: en
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