A comparison of selective attention and facial processing biases in typically developing children who are high and low in self-reported trait anxiety

Richards, Anne; French, Christopher C.; Nash, Gily; Hadwin, Julie A. and Donnelly, Nick. 2007. A comparison of selective attention and facial processing biases in typically developing children who are high and low in self-reported trait anxiety. Development and Psychopathology, 19(2), pp. 481-495. ISSN 09545794 [Article]

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Abstract or Description

The relationship between children's anxiety and cognitive biases was examined in two tasks. A group of 50 children aged 10 to 11 years (mean = 11 years, SD = 3.71 months) was given two tasks. The first tested children's selective attention (SA) to threat in an emotional Stroop task. The second explored facial processing biases using morphed angry-neutral and happy-neutral emotional expressions that varied in intensity. Faces with varying levels of emotion (25% emotion–75% neutral, 50% emotion–50% neutral, 100% emotion–0% neutral [prototype] and 150% emotion–0% neutral [caricature]) were judged as being angry or happy. Results support previous work highlighting a link between anxiety and SA to threat. In addition, increased anxiety in late childhood is associated with decreased ability to discriminate facial expression. Finally, lack of discrimination in the emotional expression task was related to lack of inhibition to threat in the Stroop task.

Item Type:

Article

Identification Number (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1017/S095457940707023X

Departments, Centres and Research Units:

Psychology

Dates:

DateEvent
1 March 2007Published

Item ID:

480

Date Deposited:

10 Dec 2008 10:36

Last Modified:

03 Aug 2017 10:24

Peer Reviewed:

Yes, this version has been peer-reviewed.

URI:

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/480

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