title: Attentional biases in high social anxiety using a flanker task.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The existence of threat-related attentional bias has been well supported in social anxiety research. However, most previous studies investigated separately attentional bias toward targets or distractors. This study examined the selective attention of socially anxious individuals in the presence of both emotional targets and distractors.
  
  
  METHODS
  Participants with high vs. low social anxiety (HSA vs. LSA) took part in a modified flanker task. Participants initially focused on the center of the screen, and then were required to identify the emotion of the central face (target) regardless of the flanking faces (distractors).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The response times (RTs) of the HSA and LSA groups did not differ significantly when responding to different central faces (targets), but the HSA group responded more slowly to central faces when the flankers (distractors) were negative faces as opposed to positive or neutral.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The depression levels of participants in this non-clinical sample were not controlled.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results support attention control theory and suggest impaired inhibition control in HSA..
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, No. 5 Yiheyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100871, PR China. Electronic address: chensiqi@pku.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Siqi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, No. 5 Yiheyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100871, PR China.
authors.forename: Nisha
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, No. 5 Yiheyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100871, PR China. Electronic address: qmy@pku.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Mingyi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Qian
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Beijing Key Laboratory of Behavior and Mental Health, Peking University, No. 5 Yiheyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100871, PR China.
authors.forename: Muyu
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lin
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001289:Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / Q000209:etiology*; D015982:Bias; D004644:Emotions / Q000502:physiology*; D005145:Face; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007266:Inhibition, Psychological; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D010364:Pattern Recognition, Visual; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000150:complications*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D057566:Self Report; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Attention control theory; Attentional bias; Flanker task; Social anxiety