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    Better safe than sorry: Simplistic fear-relevant stimuli capture attention

    Access Status
    Fulltext not available
    Authors
    Forbes, S.
    Purkis, H.
    Lipp, Ottmar
    Date
    2011
    Type
    Journal Article
    
    Metadata
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    Citation
    Forbes, S. and Purkis, H. and Lipp, O. 2011. Better safe than sorry: Simplistic fear-relevant stimuli capture attention. Cognition and Emotion. 25 (5): pp. 794-804.
    Source Title
    Cognition and Emotion
    DOI
    10.1080/02699931.2010.514710
    ISSN
    0269-9931
    School
    School of Psychology and Speech Pathology
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/30644
    Collection
    • Curtin Research Publications
    Abstract

    It has been consistently demonstrated that fear-relevant images capture attention preferentially over fear-irrelevant images. Current theory suggests that this faster processing could be mediated by an evolved module that allows certain stimulus features to attract attention automatically, prior to the detailed processing of the image. The present research investigated whether simplified images of fear-relevant stimuli would produce interference with target detection in a visual search task. In Experiment 1, silhouettes and degraded silhouettes of fear-relevant animals produced more interference than did the fear-irrelevant images. Experiment 2, compared the effects of fear-relevant and fear-irrelevant distracters and confirmed that the interference produced by fear-relevant distracters was not an effect of novelty. Experiment 3 suggested that fear-relevant stimuli produced interference regardless of whether participants were instructed as to the content of the images. The three experiments indicate that even very simplistic images of fear-relevant animals can divert attention. © 2010 Psychology Press.

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