Recent cognitive research show that each disorders have biases in different areas of information processing system (Mogg et al., 2000). Cognitive theories of emotion claim that anxiety leads to selective attention for cues related to threat. Several models state that attention in social phobia is directed towards threatening stimuli that related specifically to concerns about negative evaluation (Clark and Wells, 1995). Clark and Wells (1995) also propose that people with social phobia may avoid attending to the social situation as well. To solve this contradiction the vigilance- avoidance hypothesis (Mogg et aI., 1997) suggests that hyper vigilance is followed by avoidance of the threat stimulus, which serves a defensive function. Since these sorts of processing occur in a proportional second, the claims of theories could not be tested by questionnaire.In the article, the theoretical fundamental are discussed. We also show that how a computerized visual probe task could be developed to test such processing.

Introduction: Many of the students' educational problems, including academic failure and maladaptive behaviors, stem from exam anxiety caused by students' cognitive bias. Cognitive bias modification can reduce attention biases of students to negative issues. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of cognitive bias modification intervention on reducing attention bias in students with test anxiety. Methods: This research was an experimental study with pre and post-tests and a control group design. Statistical population of the study included all high school female students with test anxiety in district 3 of Tehran city in 2018-2019 academic years. Research sample included 32 female students with test anxiety that were selected by cluster sampling and classified into two groups: experimental group (n=16 subjects) and control group (n=16 subjects). The research instrument used in this study was the Sarason Anxiety Questionnaire (1980) with a reliability of 0. 88 and dot probe task (2017) Which has good validity and reliability for hated face that is 0. 94 and for neutral face is 0. 95. The results were analyzed using univariate analysis of covariance in SPSS version 22. Results: The results of Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) showed that cognitive bias modification were effective in attention bias of students with test anxiety (P < 0. 05). Conclusions: According to the results, it can be said that using this intervention can reduce the attention bias of the students with test anxiety, and thus increase the mental health and concentration of the students with test anxiety.

This study examined the effect of attentional bias modification related to food’s stimuli in obese women. The present study used Pretest–Posttest Design with experimental and control groups. To this end, 35 obese women, matched in two separate groups based on weight, age and education level, participated in the study. First, amount of attentional bias toward food words evaluated using probe dot task. Then, attentional bias in one group modified with probe dot task and other group received aplacebo. Again, the amount of attentional bias towards food stimuli in groups was assessed to determine the effectiveness of attentional bias modification task.Results: The experimental group who received attentional bias modification task, comparing with control group, showed, significantly, less attentional bias towards food cues.Conclusion: Attentional bias modification task in obese women were able to reduce the amount of attentional bias towards food cues. Thus, cognitive therapy, beside the other treatment, could help obese woman to be treated.

Attentional bias modification therapy is an emerging therapy for anxiety disorders. it seems that this method of treatment can also reduce the desire to use drugs and cognitive bias in addicts. The aim of the present study is to determine The effectiveness of Attentional Bias Modification Therapy with combining operant conditioning on the reduction of attentional bias in Addicts treated with methadon .. The method of this research was a semi-experimental type with a pre-test, post-test design of three groups with follow-up. Based on the desired criteria, 60 men were randomly selected and assigned to three groups (control, modification of attention bias, modification of attention bias with reinforcement and punishment). Two experimental groups received the interventions and the control group did not receive the intervention. To measure attention bias and interventions, the dot-probe test (McLeod et al., 1986) was used at two stimulus presentation times (600 milliseconds and 200 milliseconds(. The findings showed that there is a significant difference between all three groups in the post-test and follow-up of attention bias and pre-attention bias. In addition, the comparison between the attention bias modification and the attention bias modification group with reinforcement and punishment showed that the attention bias modification group with reinforcement and punishment had less attention bias in the post-test and follow-up. The result is that attention bias modification treatment is an effective intervention, and the use of bias modification treatment with reinforcement and punishment is a more efficient intervention to reduce the bias of addicts treated with methadone

This study was performed to examine the effect of holistic face processing and trait anxiety on children’s attentional biases toward schematic natural and jumbled emotional faces (angry, happy, and neutral). The participants entered into this study based on their scores in Trait anxiety inventory for children (Spielberger, 1973) and the results of a semi-structured interview. 30 high-and 30 low-anxiety children completed pictorial version of the modified dot-probe task. Data were analyzed by repeated measures analysis of variance and multivariate analysis of variance. The results showed that High trait anxious children show attentional bias toward angry faces (vigilance). In contrast, low trait anxious children show attentional bias away from angry faces (avoidance).These findings were observed only in natural angry emotional face and no trace of attentional bias was observed in jumbled emotional faces. The study findings are consistent with previous studies on the relationship between anxiety and attentional bias to threat in children and confirm the view of Holistic face processing in the recognition of faces.

Introduction: Test anxiety is one of the most common mental disorders that have a detrimental role on mental health and educational students. So, the aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of threatening cognitive bias correction on the reduction of test anxiety. Methods: In this quasi-experimental study, statistical community was Twelfth grade girl students in district 3 of Tehran city during 2018-2019. 300 students were selected by cluster random sampling and Sarason questionnaire was used for screening test anxiety subjects and dot probe was used for cognitive bias. Finally, 32 participants were randomly assigned to the experimental (16) and control (16) groups. In the experimental group, bias adjustment was performed in 8 sessions, before and after the intervention, test anxiety was measured. Results: The results showed that the mean scores of test anxiety in the experimental group decreased significantly from 23. 93 to 17. 75 and in the control group it increased from 23. 87 to 24. 06 and was unchanged. The results of univariate analysis of covariance showed that the modification of threat-related cognitive bias was effective in reducing the test anxiety of 12th grade students. Conclusion: It seems that a cognitive bias modification program could have clinical implications to facilitate the release of attention from the threat in the treatment of test anxiety.