(PS2-A9) Analyzing the Attentional Biases in Individuals with Fear of Public Speaking During a Speech Using 360º Video-based Virtual Reality

Introduction: Cognitive models of social anxiety disorder (SAD) postulate that attentional biases are one of the factors involved in the development and maintenance of this condition (Clark & Wells, 1995; Rapee & Heimberg, 1997). However, findings are mixed, as some studies show that SAD individuals tend to avoid emotional stimuli -especially, the negative ones-, while others show that individuals tend to maintain more attention to those stimuli. Moreover, most research has used face-based computerized paradigms rather than realistic ones.

Objective: The aim of this study was to analyze the attentional patterns in individuals with low and high levels of public speaking anxiety (PSA) during a speech task with a 360º video-based virtual reality audience. Specifically, we analyzed the differences between low (vs. high) PSA individuals in the maintenance (number of fixations and total fixation time) and disengagement (mean fixation duration) of attention towards negative, positive, and neutral stimuli (audience members).

Method: The sample consisted of 58 people (75.9% women) aged between 18 and 28 (M = 20.05, SD = 2.16) with low (n = 32) and high (n = 26) PSA. They were instructed to prepare and perform a 3-min speech following the Impromptu Speech Task procedure (Beidel et al., 1989) in front of a virtual audience. Audience members were actors who were trained to behave negatively (e.g., yawning), positively (e.g., smiling) or neutrally.

Results: Mixed ANOVAs showed significant interaction effects between group and valence on the number of fixations, F(2,112) = 4.73, p = .011, hp2 = .08, and total fixation time, F(2,112) = 5.07, p = .008, hp2 = .08, indicating that individuals with high (vs. low) PSA individuals exhibited more fixations to emotional (positive and negative) than neutral stimuli, while low (vs. high) PSA individuals spent longer time fixating at the positive than neutral stimuli. Moreover, there were significant differences in the neutral stimuli –as high (vs. low) PSA individuals showed a lower number of fixations– and in the negative stimuli –as high (vs. low) PSA individuals showed a higher total fixation time–. Finally, there was an effect of group on mean fixation duration F(1,56) = 3.96, p = .051, hp2 = .07, as high (vs. low), indicating that PSA individuals showed higher scores in this measure –independently to the type of stimulus–.

Discussion: These results suggest that high PSA individuals maintain more attention on emotional than neutral information, especially on the negative stimuli. In addition, they show a higher attentional pattern of engagement to any stimulus. This supports previous studies that found a negative bias toward the threat, but also adds a tendency toward attentional reassurance, which complements the results so far. This study contributes to the disentangling attentional patterns in SAD through an ecologically valid design and provides additional data for current cognitive theories of social anxiety.