No reliable effects of emotional facial expression, adult attachment orientation, or anxiety on the allocation of visual attention in the spatial cueing paradigm

Cooper, Robbie M.; Rowe, Angela C.; Penton-Voak, Ian S.; Ludwig, Casimir

Abstract

The primary goal of the current study was to examine the allocation of attention to emotional facial stimuli
as a function of adult attachment orientation. Using a modified version of the spatial cueing paradigm
we examined these effects in three experiments. In each experiment predictable cue validity effects were
observed and these effects were always modulated by the expression of the facial cue. Furthermore, the
magnitude of these cue validity effects was also influenced by individual differences in both adult attachment
orientation and anxiety. The direction of these effects, however, was not consistent across experiments
and did not replicate previous findings. We conclude that this paradigm may not usefully elucidate
the processes underlying the allocation of attention to emotional stimuli

Citation

Cooper, R. M., Rowe, A. C., Penton-Voak, I. S., & Ludwig, C. (2009). No reliable effects of emotional facial expression, adult attachment orientation, or anxiety on the allocation of visual attention in the spatial cueing paradigm. Journal of research in personality, 43(4), 643-652. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2009.03.005

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Mar 28, 2009
• Publication Date: 2009-08
• Deposit Date: Jan 16, 2012
• Print ISSN: 0092-6566
• Electronic ISSN: 1095-7251
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 43
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 643-652
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrp.2009.03.005
• Keywords: Attention, Emotion, Anxiety, Attachment orientation, Spatial cueing
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/id/eprint/4888