Disentangling the facilitating and hindering effects of threat-related stimuli – A visual search study

A large body of research has demonstrated the attention-grabbing nature of threat-related stimuli. According to the results of studies using spatial cueing tasks, threat could also facilitate attentional processes. However, it was pointed out that it is not clear whether the attentional draw or the facilitated processing caused by threatening stimuli lead to a better performance compared to neutral ones. Here, we aimed to disentangle the two effects by using a visual search paradigm that allowed us to separate the emotional stimuli and the cognitive task. We manipulated stimulus onset time and threat intensity. Participants saw neutral and threatening pictures as priming stimuli, and then, they had to find numbers in ascending order in a matrix array. We measured the reaction time for finding the first number, and search time for finding all the numbers. Our results showed that when the priming stimulus is presented longer threatening pictures had an attentional-grabbing effect compared to neutral ones, which was compensated by the facilitating effect of threat. We did not find any significant effects for the shorter presentation time. Further theoretical and methodological implications are discussed.