Effects of trait anxiety and manipulated mood on the temporal allocation of attention to emotional information

Cognitive theories and empirical research suggest the existence of a moderate anxiety- linked attentional bias for threatening information. The present study extended this work by examining the effects of individual differences in trait anxiety and the manipulated valence and arousal of mood on the temporal allocation of attention to emotional information. Male undergraduate participants (N = 168) completed an assessment of the temporal allocation of attention to negative and positive words first in the absence, and then in the presence, of a mood induction (MI). Negative high-arousal, positive high- arousal, negative low-arousal, and positive low-arousal moods were induced successfully by periodic presentation of images from the relevant quadrant of the valence by arousal space between trials of the attention task. Contrary to predictions, trait anxiety was unrelated to temporal attentional processing of emotional information either in the absence or presence of a mood induction, suggesting that the trait-anxiety-linked attentional bias for negative semantic information may be weak or nonexistent in the temporal domain. Normatively, in the negative high-arousal MI condition, attentional engagement was enhanced to positive information but was reduced to negative information. In addition, more negative pre-MI state mood was associated with more rapid disengagement of attention from negative information during the negative high- arousal MI. Two mechanisms are considered that may account for these findings, in which induced or naturally occurring aversive mood states may a) motivate individuals to repair their mood by down-regulating attention to negative information and up-regulating attention to positive information, or b) cause either habituation to or reduced affect in response to negative information. The present findings highlight the importance of manipulated and naturally occurring negative mood states in temporal attention to negative information.