Abstract
A wealth of evidence demonstrates an attentional bias in favor of negative stimuli in dysphoria. However, there are two remaining controversies: (1) disagreement about attentional bias to positive stimuli, and (2) ambiguity regarding how to distinguish orientation from disengagement of attention. In order to resolve these problems, the modified gap-overlap task was used in the present study. This task examines three within-subject variables related to a stimulus presented in the center: presentation duration (500 ms, 1500 ms), disappearance (gap, overlap), and affective valence (sad, neutral, and happy words). Participants were required to response to a target stimulus that appeared to the left or right of a central stimulus. Reaction times (RTs) to the target stimulus reflect attentional disengagement from affective stimuli. Participants in the study were 41 students. RT analysis indicated that the nondysphoric individuals showed delayed endogenous attentional disengagement from happy words. Conversely, attention to happy words in the dysphoric individuals was attenuated in the 1500 ms conditions. There was no obvious attentional bias to sad words in the dyspshoric individuals. These findings suggest that the attentional bias to negative stimuli in dysphoric individuals might be limited to attentional orientation.
