Emotional Dot Probe

Background

The Emotion Dot-Probe Task runs a dot probe procedure especially targeting automatic attentional bias towards words (or images) depicting emotional information such as negative or positive information.

The Millisecond Emotion Dot Probe task with words was published by Tina M. Sutton and Jeanette Altarriba in 2011 who found that attentional bias towards negative content can even be documented with subliminally presented material, thus supporting the automatic processing of possibly threating emotional information.

Task Procedure

Each trial starts out with the presentation of a fixation cross in the center of the screen for 500ms. The fixation cross is followed by the brief the presentation (default: 180ms) of word pairs consisting of one emotion word (e.g. 'agony') and one matched control word (e.g. 'arrow') that are flashed onto the screen to the left (top) or right (bottom) of a center fixation cross for a short duration. The word pairs are immediately followed by the letter 'R' or 'P'(= the probe). An optional mask can also be run. The probe is presented either in the location of the emotion word or in the location of the control word. Participants are asked to press the respective keys (R or P) to categorize the probes.

Two types of emotions (positive vs. negative) and two congruency conditions (congruent = probe follows the emotion word; incongruent = probe follows the control word) are tested in a mixed design with the two type of emotions being blocked. The order of the two emotion blocks is counterbalanced across participants. Each test block is preceded by a practice block of 6 trials with fixed word pairs that are run in random order. The 14 test trials start without further notice. Practice and test pairs use emotion words that come from the same general emotion category (e.g. 'negative') but are paired with control words from different categories (e.g. practice: fruit vs. test: sports equipment).

What it Measures

The Emotion Dot Probe Task measures implicit attentional bias towards emotion information

Psychological domains

• Implicit Cognition: Cognitive Processes not under conscious control
• Selective Attention: Focusing on a specific stimulus or task while filtering out distractions

Main Performance Metrics

• Attention Bias Index: Response Time Measure of Attentional Bias towards Information that captures attention (here: positive and negative information)

Psychiatric Conditions

DPT measures have been successfully used to study the following patient groups (amongst others):

• Anxiety Disorders
• Major Depressive Disorder
• Substance Abuse
• Eating Disorders

References

Search Google Scholar for peer-reviewed, published research using the Inquisit Emotional Dot Probe.

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Tina M. Sutton & Jeanette Altarriba (2011). The automatic activation and perception of emotion in word processing: Evidence from a modified dot probe paradigm. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 23:6, 736-747, DOI: 10.1080/20445911.2011.554392