Reward-Related Attentional Capture Is Associated With Severity of Addictive and Obsessive-Compulsive Behaviors

A cue that signals reward can capture attention and elicit approach behaviors in people and animals. The current study examined whether attentional capture by reward-related cues is associated with severity of addiction-related and obsessive-compulsive behaviors. Participants were recruited via Mech...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychology of addictive behaviors 2019-08, Vol.33 (5), p.495-502
Main Authors: Albertella, Lucy, Le Pelley, Mike E, Chamberlain, Samuel R, Westbrook, Fred, Fontenelle, Leonardo F, Segrave, Rebecca, Lee, Rico, Pearson, Daniel, Yücel, Murat
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Addiction
Addictions
Adult
Approach Behavior
Attention - physiology
Attentional Capture
Behavior
Behavior, Addictive - physiopathology
Cognitive aspects
Compulsions
Cues
Evaluation
Female
Human
Humans
Learning
Male
Non-Substance Addictions
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder - physiopathology
Psychomotor Performance - physiology
Questionnaires
Reward
Rewards
Severity
Severity of Illness Index
Test Construction
Visual searching
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Summary:A cue that signals reward can capture attention and elicit approach behaviors in people and animals. The current study examined whether attentional capture by reward-related cues is associated with severity of addiction-related and obsessive-compulsive behaviors. Participants were recruited via Mechanical Turk and included 143 adults (Mage = 34 years, SD = 8.5; 43% female) who had endorsed at least 1 addiction-related or obsessive-compulsive behavior in the past month. All assessment components were delivered via the Internet and included questionnaires to assess severity of compulsivity-related problems across addiction-related and obsessive-compulsive behaviors, as well as a visual search task to measure reward-related attentional capture. Reward-related attentional capture was associated with severity of compulsivity, transdiagnostically. These findings have implications for understanding the mechanisms that underlie compulsive behaviors and suggest that reward-related attentional capture is a promising transdiagnostic cognitive risk marker for compulsivity.
ISSN:0893-164X
1939-1501
DOI:10.1037/adb0000484