Attentional bias toward threat in contamination fear: Overt components and behavioral correlates.
Open accessAbstract
Recent research suggests that an attentional bias toward threat may play a causal role in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) with contamination concerns. However, the attentional components involved in this bias, as well as its behavioral correlates, remain unclear. In the present study, eye movements were recorded in individuals high and low in contamination fear (HCF, LCF, respectively) during 30-s exposures to stimulus arrays containing contamination threat, general threat, pleasant, and neutral images. HCF individuals oriented gaze toward contamination threat more often than LCF individuals in initial fixations, and this bias mediated group differences in responding to a behavioral challenge in a public restroom. No group differences were found in the maintenance of gaze on contamination threat, both in terms of initial gaze encounters, as well as gaze duration over time. However, the HCF group made shorter fixations on contamination threat relative to other image types. The implications of these findings for further delineating the nature and function of attentional biases in contamination-based OCD are discussed.
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Shorter fixations on threat, but not increased overall dwell time, has been found in contamination fear.
“Likewise, shorter fixations on threat, but not increased overall dwell time, has been found in contamination fear (Armstrong et al., 2012)”
From Eye tracking of attention in the affective disorders: a meta-analytic review and synthesis (2012) · cites this paper as Armstrong et al., 2012
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- Authors
- Armstrong, T., Sarawgi, S., & Olatunji, B. O.
- Affiliations
- Vanderbilt University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Armstrong, Thomas
- Venue
- Journal of Abnormal Psychology
- Published
- 2012-02
- Volume
- 121
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 232-237
- ISSN
- 0021-843X (ISSN-L)
- 1939-1846
- PMC
- PMC3345033
- OpenAlex
- W2033370821
- Cited by
- 61
- References
- 28
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 4 · 2013: 6 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 4.48
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Journal of Abnormal Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Mental Health (5F31MH087018-02)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Obsessive-Compulsive Spectrum Disorders
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychoanalysis and Psychopathology Research
- Keywords
- fear of contamination, obsessive-compulsive disorder, contamination concerns, eye movements, gaze duration, threat exposure
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Attention, Eye Movements, Fear, Female, Fixation, Ocular, Humans, Infections, Male, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Photic Stimulation, Social Perception, Time Factors, Young Adult
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