Semester
Spring
Date of Graduation
2009
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Type
MS
College
Eberly College of Arts and Sciences
Department
Psychology
Committee Chair
Elisa Krackow
Abstract
Research implies that individuals with high anxiety levels may be more accurate in response to misleading questions when compared to individuals with low anxiety levels (Ridley & Clifford, 2004; Ridley, Clifford, & Keogh, 2002). This effect may be because individuals with high anxiety levels demonstrate an attentional memory bias toward threatening stimuli. The present study investigated whether a high versus low attentional bias affects suggestibility. Seventy participants completed a visual probe task to measure attentional bias. Next, participants were presented with 11 threatening pictures. Each picture was followed by a distractor task. Participants were then asked two misleading and two correctly leading questions about the preceding picture. Participants in the high and low attentional bias groups did not differ significantly in their accuracy scores in response to misleading questions.
Recommended Citation
Stacom, Elizabeth E., "The effect of attentional bias on suggestibility" (2009). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 4536.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/4536