@MASTERSTHESIS{ 2018:2021277128,
 	title = {Attentional control and biases towards threat : theoretical foundations and adaptation of experimental tasks},
 	year = {2018},
 	url = "http://tede2.pucrs.br/tede2/handle/tede/8089",
 	abstract = "Attention is a multifaceted construct, one that has been at the center of
 discussions across several moments in the history of philosophy and psychology. The
 characteristic of attention to influence and regulate many other psychological process
 (e.g., consciousness, memory, decision-making) stresses its importance, and logically
 results in a hardship in segregating its theoretical boundaries and clearly defining this
 phenomenon. In a current empirical field of research on attention, biases of attentional
 orientation to threatening stimuli are investigated. However, models generated from
 empirical findings lack sustentation on well-established theoretical models of attention,
 and confusion exists across published experimental studies. Furthermore, experimental
 tasks to assess biases towards threat require integration with new operationalization and
 analysis strategies, which can provide better sensitivity, validity and measurement
 reliability, such as eye tracking and the novel index of attentional bias variability
 (ABV).
 This dissertation is included in the subarea number 7.07.02.03-9 of the Conselho
 Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico (CNPq) ? Experimental
 Psychology (Attentional and Cognitive Processes) ? which integrates the broader area
 of Psychology. Two studies are presented to answer to the need of advancing research
 about attention, attentional control (AC) and attentional bias relative to threat (ABT).
 Firstly, a theoretical study provides a historical overview of psychological research on
 attention, from the founders of modern Psychology to current neuropsychological
 integrative research and empirically-oriented models. This review is expected to clarify
 constructs of attention and to differentiate these constructs from those of other
 Psychological domains. Instead of segregating research fields, this is likely to promote a 
 9
 dialogue between fields that research the same phenomena ? but measure them
 differently and attribute to them different names.
 Following this theoretical review, an empirical study is presented, which
 proposes two adaptations of classical experimental tasks to measure ABT: the DotProbe
 Task (DPT) and the Emotional Stroop Task (EST). On the EST, task design is
 altered to account for important theoretical considerations and to better adapt the task to
 the measurement of ABV. On the DPT, a surprisingly rare integration of reaction times
 and eye tracking measures is established, and novel indices to calculate ABT and ABV
 are proposed. The reliability and validity of indices in both tasks is investigated with
 university students and through the differentiation of such indices between groups of
 high vs. low symptoms of anxiety and posttraumatic stress. The importance of pursuing
 the improvement of psychometric qualities of experimental tasks is discussed in depth
 upon the findings of the study, including recommendations to future experimental
 designs.",
 	publisher = {Pontif?cia Universidade Cat?lica do Rio Grande do Sul},
 	scholl = {Programa de P?s-Gradua??o em Psicologia},
 	note = {Escola de Ci?ncias da Sa?de}
}