Targeting Biased Emotional Attention to Threat as a Dynamic Process in Time

Abstract

Recent findings suggest biases of emotional attention (BEA) may be expressed dynamically, fluctuating from moment to moment between overengagement and avoidance of emotional stimuli. We attempted to modify these temporal dynamics of BEA to threat among trait-anxious adults ( N = 61) using Attention Feedback Awareness and Control Training (A-FACT). A-FACT is a novel intervention methodology that delivers real-time feedback to a person concurrent with her/his dynamic BEA expression. We found that relative to a placebo control condition, A-FACT led to significantly reduced BEA dynamics toward and away from threat, temporal variability in BEA, and emotional reactivity to an anxiogenic stressor. Findings illustrate that BEA may be optimally conceptualized and quantified as a dynamic process in time and that intervention methods sensitive to and capable of targeting BEA process dynamics in real time—as in A-FACT—represent a promising new direction for cognitive bias modification research.