Attentional Bias and Complicated Grief: A Primed Dot-Probe Task with Emotional Faces
Abstract
We used a dot-probe task to examine attentional biases toward emotional stimuli among three groups: conjugally bereaved1.5–3 years post-loss with or without Complicated Grief (CG) and a sample of demographically similar married participants. Each trial was preceded by a subliminal prime of the spouse's name or the spouse's name scrambled (neutral). Only CG participants demonstrated significant attentional biases. When primed with their (deceased) spouse's name, CG participants attended away from closed-mouth sad faces, and in the neutral condition attended away from happy faces. Because over half of the CG participants also met criteria for MDD (n = 14), we repeated these analyses examining co-morbid MDD with CG. The same findings emerged for sad faces in the deceased condition and happy faces in the neutral condition. These findings extend previous research on CG, demonstrating that CG and co-morbid CG with MDD involves distinct attentional problems specifically related to grief symptomatology.
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Other studies suggest that individuals with prolonged grief disorder avoid reminders of the deceased.
“Other studies suggest these individuals avoid reminders of the deceased 106,107 .”
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- Authors
- Bullock, A. B., & Bonanno, G. A.
- Affiliations
- Columbia University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Bullock, Ashley B.
- ORCID
- Bonanno, George A.
- Venue
- Journal of Experimental Psychopathology
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2013-05
- Volume
- 4
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 194-207
- ISSN
- 2043-8087 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2150980598
- Cited by
- 16
- References
- 56
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 3 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 2 · 2014: 2
- FWCI
- 1.48
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Experimental Psychopathology (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health
- Social Sciences › Anthropology › Death, Funerary Practices, and Mourning
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Keywords
- complicated grief, attentional bias, dot-probe task, subliminal priming, emotional facial expressions, bereavement, major depressive disorder, comorbidities, sad faces, attentional avoidance
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