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An Eye-Tracking Examination of Emotion Regulation, Attentional Bias, and Pupillary Response to Threat Stimuli

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Abstract

In the present study, we examined constructs of emotion regulation (emotion regulation difficulties, expressive suppression, and cognitive reappraisal) in relation to attentional bias to threat (ABT). Participants (N = 176) completed a battery of self-report measures and an eye-tracking task in which eye movements to neutral and threat images were recorded. Dwell time on threat was examined across six 500 ms intervals for each trial. We also examined pupillary response as a measure of emotional arousal. When accounting for cognitive reappraisal and emotion regulation difficulties, expressive suppression significantly predicted both ABT (from 1500–3000 ms) and pupillary response to threat. However, the effect of expression suppression on ABT was significant only at lower levels of cognitive reappraisal. Emotion regulation difficulties did not significantly predict ABT or pupillary response. Findings suggest that those who use expressive suppression to the exclusion of other regulatory strategies may be at particularly high risk for ABT and relatively higher levels of threat-related emotional arousal. Clinical implications, as well as results of an exploratory analysis examining dimensions of emotion regulation difficulties as they relate to ABT and pupillary response, will be discussed.

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Notes

  1. To increase confidence that the observed associations between emotion regulation-related constructs and ABT and pupillary reactivity were not a function of the relations of these variables with emotional distress, or affect more generally, we repeated our primary analyses and included measures of positive and negative affect as covariates (i.e., Positive and Negative Affect Schedule: Watson et al. 1988). Results were consistent with our initial analysis; statistically significant findings remained significant and nonsignificant findings were unchanged.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Erin Stevens for her valuable feedback and assistance in editing this manuscript and Natasha Benfer, Danielle DeLoach, Darian Crowley, Bailey Hall, Travis Rogers, and Tyler Toledo for assistance with data collection.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Auburn University, 226 Thach Hall, Auburn, AL, 36849-5214, USA

    Joseph R. Bardeen

  2. Westfield State University, Westfield, MA, USA

    Thomas A. Daniel

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Correspondence to Joseph R. Bardeen.

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Joseph R. Bardeen and Thomas A. Daniel declare that they have no conflict of interest. Additionally, the results of the submitted manuscript have not been presented elsewhere.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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This study was approved by the Office of Research Compliance at Auburn University. All participants provided informed consent prior to the completion of any study measures.

Animal Rights Statement

No animal studies were carried out by the authors for this article.

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Bardeen, J.R., Daniel, T.A. An Eye-Tracking Examination of Emotion Regulation, Attentional Bias, and Pupillary Response to Threat Stimuli. Cogn Ther Res 41, 853–866 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-017-9860-y

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