Anxiety, Cognitive Biases, and Evaluative Conditioning: An Eye-Tracking Experiment

Prior research revealed a correlation between individual differences in neuroticism (specifically, the component of trait anxiety) and evaluative conditioning (i.e., changes in attitude due to stimulus pairings). In two studies (N = 274 and N = 294), we examined which cognitive biases may explain this relation. In an evaluative conditioning procedure that included either clearly valenced (positive or negative) or ambivalent (positive and negative) stimuli, we used eye-tracking technology to measure attentional bias (dwell time within stimulus areas of interest), valence recollection tests to measure contingency awareness and memory bias, and adjective ratings to assess interpretation bias. In the second experiment, we additionally assessed attentional avoidance strategies. Correlation analyses did not reveal significant associations between any personality variable (neuroticism, anxiety, behavioral inhibition) and evaluative conditioning effects in either experiment. Implications are discussed in terms of methodological and theoretical contributions.