An examination of hypervigilance for external threat in individuals with generalized anxiety disorder and individuals with persecutory delusions using visual scan paths.

Journal article

One account of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is that it results from hypervigilance, manifest as excessive scanning of the external environment and preferential attention to threat. However, for individuals with GAD, there has been no direct study of scanning, and evidence for preferential attention to threat has only been found for threat-words. We therefore devised a new measure of hypervigilance. Visual scan paths were recorded of individuals with GAD (N = 12) and people without a psy...

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Authors: Freeman, D; Garety, P; Phillips, M

• Journal: Quarterly journal of experimental psychology. A, Human experimental psychology
• Volume: 53
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 549-567
• Publication date: 2000-05-01
• DOI: 10.1080/027249800390600
• EISSN: 1464-0740
• ISSN: 0272-4987
• Language: English
• Keywords: Case-Control Studies; Anxiety Disorders; Male; Pattern Recognition, Visual; Humans; Delusions; Time Factors; Schizophrenia, Paranoid; Middle Aged; Attention; Anxiety; Female; Adult; Models, Psychological