Measuring attentional bias to threat in children and adolescents: a matter of speed?

Attentional bias to threat has proven a robust phenomenon in adults but has shown to be less stable in children. This study investigated whether a generally slow response speed may potentially obscure the effects of threat upon attention in children. Three non-clinical samples of different age (children, adolescents, young adults) performed an emotional modification of the spatial cueing task. Attentional bias was examined by comparing cueing effects by fear-conditioned cues (CS+) and neutral cues (CS-). Overall, analyses showed no biased attention to threat, and no differences between age groups could be detected. Further analyses indicated that the inability to demonstrate attentional bias to threat in the present study was due to the large response speed variability in our sample. Quintile analyses of the reaction times revealed that an overall attentional bias to threat across all groups was present when only the fast reaction times were taken into account. Methodological implications for measuring attentional bias in young age groups are discussed.