| dc.description.abstract | Theory and empirical evidence suggest that those with higher posttraumatic stress (PTS)
symptoms and better attentional control (i.e., the strategic control of higher-order executive
attention in regulating bottom-up, stimulus driven responses to prepotent stimuli; Sarapas,
Weinberg, Langenecker, & Shankman, 2017) can use that ability to disengage and shift attention
away from threat stimuli (i.e., avoidance/overcontrollers). Those with relatively worse attentional
control lack the requisite resources to do this, leading to prolonged attentional engagement with
threat stimuli (i.e., maintenance/undercontrollers). Given that attentional control is a limited
resource, overcontrollers may not be able to strategically avoid threat information when
cognitive load is relatively high. The interaction between PTS symptoms, attentional control, and
cognitive load in predicting threat-related attentional bias was examined in the present study to
test this hypothesis. In addition, due to the heterogenous nature of PTS disorder (PTSD), it may
be useful to determine whether some symptom clusters are more influential than others in
predicting the proposed effect. Given that abnormalities in threat-related information processing
have been observed across anxiety disorders (Armstrong & Olatunji, 2012; Bar-Haim et al.,
2007), it may be that the effect of PTS symptoms on threat bias is anchored to symptoms that are
also prominent in anxiety disorders. Participants (N = 149 undergraduate students) were
randomly assigned to high or low load conditions. Participants completed self-report measures of
PTS symptoms, a behavioral measure of attentional control, and a novel task that assessed threatrelated
attentional bias via eye movements and button press. The results of a series of
hierarchical regressions showed that attentional control moderated the relationship between PTS
symptoms and threat-related attention bias variability in the low, but not high, load condition.
This effect was specific to arousal and avoidance symptoms. Thus, consistent with theory, underconditions of higher cognitive load, overcontrollers may not be able to use attentional control to
disengage and shift attention away from threat. Study findings suggest that it may be important
to consider contextual factors that increase cognitive load, as well as individual differences in
attentional control, when developing attention modification interventions to reduce PTS
symptomatology. | en_US |
