Attentional bias in psychopathology
Gemma Battagliese, Caterina Lombardo
Empirical evidence suggest that in several mental disorders a bias do exist in the information
processing of symptom-related stimuli. The bias can be related to attention, memory and
judgement processes. The attentional bias consists of a facilitating effect in the orienting of
attention toward symptom-related stimuli or a diffi culty in disengaging attention from symptomrelated
stimuli. The attentional bias has been indicated as an important factor for the occurrence
and the maintenance of several disorders. The aim of this review was to examine the literature
available, addressing the issue of evidencing empirical support in the fi elds of anxiety disorder,
depression, addiction, eating disorder and insomnia. Moreover we evaluated whether inconsistent
results could be attributed to methodological differences (since the different paradigms used
capture different aspects of the attentional bias process) or to conceptual reasons and to outline
future perspectives.
Keywords
Attentional bias, anxiety, depression, eating disorders, insomnia.
