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Article . 2025 . Peer-reviewed
License: CC BY NC ND
Data sources: Crossref
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Article . 2025
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Learning to suppress what I fear.

Authors: Jan Theeuwes; Dirk van Moorselaar;

Learning to suppress what I fear.

Abstract

Objects that typically induce fear capture attention in an automatic, involuntary manner, particularly for individuals fearful of such objects. This study investigates whether attention to these objects can be attenuated through statistical learning. Participants searched for shapes while occasionally being distracted by images of leaves, which appeared with a higher probability at a particular location, resulting in learned spatial suppression (collected in 2024). Subsequently, distractors also included butterfly and spider images. Counter to a control group, individuals with high fear of spiders exhibited heightened attentional capture by spiders compared to neutral distractors. Critically, at high-probability distractor locations, fearful individuals managed to suppress spider images, resulting in reduced interference. This suggests that attention to fear-inducing stimuli can be modulated through learning processes, offering potential for novel training methods to alleviate biases toward threatening stimuli. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).

Country
Netherlands
Keywords

Male, Adult, statistical learning, Young Adult, Humans, Learning, Animals, Female, Attention, Spiders, Fear, threat, attention

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selected citations
These citations are derived from selected sources.
This is an alternative to the "Influence" indicator, which also reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Citations provided by BIP!
popularity
This indicator reflects the "current" impact/attention (the "hype") of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Popularity provided by BIP!
influence
This indicator reflects the overall/total impact of an article in the research community at large, based on the underlying citation network (diachronically).
BIP!Influence provided by BIP!
impulse
This indicator reflects the initial momentum of an article directly after its publication, based on the underlying citation network.
BIP!Impulse provided by BIP!
2
Top 10%
Average
Average
hybrid