Anxiety and attentional focusing: trait, state and hemispheric influences

Two studies employed a global/local perceptual task to examine individual differences and mechanisms involved in attentional focusing. Subjects searched for letter targets appearing at either the local or global level within a composite stimulus. Positive and negative motivational states were created by presenting the task within alternating games where points were likely to be gained or lost. Both studies found an interaction between trait anxiety and motivational state, with high trait anxious subjects showing attentional focusing (i.e. relatively fast processing of local targets) during the negative games. This anxiety-related focusing was not accompanied by delays in responding to global targets. In addition, experiment 1 found that the anxiety-related focusing during the negative games was relatively constant, without adjusting to the incentive value of each trial. Experiment 2 found the focusing effect to be limited to targets presented to the right visual field, which is consistent with models relating the left hemisphere to anxiety and local processing. In general, these findings suggest that trait anxiety leads to enhanced left hemisphere activation during negative motivational states, which in turn focuses attention by facilitating local perceptual information.