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. 2010 May;105(5):883-90.
doi: 10.1111/j.1360-0443.2009.02860.x. Epub 2010 Feb 9.

The effect of image complexity on attentional bias towards alcohol-related images in adult drinkers

Melissa A Miller  1 , Mark T Fillmore
Affiliations

The effect of image complexity on attentional bias towards alcohol-related images in adult drinkers

Melissa A Miller et al. Addiction. 2010 May.

Abstract

Aim: Visual probe tasks are often used to measure attentional bias (AB) towards alcohol-related images in drinkers, but little is known about the effect of the properties of the images used in this task: specifically, image complexity.

Methods: AB was examined in a group of adult drinkers (n = 25). Two measures of attentional bias were obtained from a modified visual probe task. First, a traditional dot probe detection task measured attentional bias in drinkers based on their reaction times to probes replacing neutral and alcohol-related images. Secondly, an eye-tracking measure was applied to this task to directly assess the drinkers' eye gazes to the alcohol-related and neutral images. The effect of image complexity was examined by comparing AB towards images classified as simple and complex.

Findings: Results showed that drinkers displayed AB only towards simple alcohol-related images as measured by both probe RT and fixation times.

Conclusion: These findings suggest that complex alcohol-related images might be less effective at capturing drinkers' attention and could result in less attentional bias when used in visual probe tasks.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest Declaration:

The authors have no connection with the tobacco, alcohol, pharmaceutical or gaming industries or any body substantially funded by one of these organizations. There are no contractual constraints on publishing of this research.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Mean probe reaction time (ms) to neutral and alcohol-related images presented as either simple or complex. Capped vertical lines indicate standard error of the mean (SEM).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Mean fixation time (ms) to neutral and alcohol-related pictures presented as either a simple or complex image. Capped vertical lines indicate standard error of the mean (SEM).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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