This Is AuburnElectronic Theses and Dissertations

Visual attention: Delayed disengagement of phobic-related stimuli presented in a flicker task

Date

2010-04-15

Author

Wheeler, Scott

Type of Degree

dissertation

Department

Psychology

Abstract

The flicker task, a change detection paradigm, has been used to present phobic-related stimuli to snake-tolerant and snake-fearful participants. The current experiment arranged a stimulus set into three blocks of image-pairs (neutral, snake, and neutral) in an effort to demonstrate slowed disengagement in the third block. The hypothesis was not supported; however, the change detection may still be a viable method for measuring visual attention biases among snake fearful persons.