On the relationship between attention and personality: covert visual orienting of attention in anxiety and impulsivity

The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between covert visual orienting of attention guided by peripheral or central cues and individual differences in anxiety and impulsivity. Ninety-six female students performed sequentially two versions of Posnerʹs cued-reaction time paradigm, one with peripheral and the other with central cues; two intervals between cue and target onsets (SOA) were considered (100 or 800 ms). Individual differences in anxiety and impulsivity were assessed by means of the Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward Questionnaire (SPSRQ). In addition to the expected effects—reaction times were faster when targets appeared after a peripheral cue, in the cued location, at the long SOA condition, and in the right visual field—analyses showed that scores on the SP scale were related to a greater difficulty in disengaging attention from a peripheral cue at the short SOA, whereas scores on the SR scale were related to a greater ability to disengage attention from the location signaled by a central cue at the long SOA. It is concluded that anxiety facilitates automatic detection of peripheral (and thus, potentially dangerous) stimuli, whereas impulsivity facilitates conscious shifting of attention when covert orienting is guided by expectation.