جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه "focused attention" در نشریات گروه "روانشناسی"

Social anxiety disorder often has a poorer recovery rate than other anxiety disorders. A review of previous studies shows that two variables, social anxiety disorder and the focused – attention (which is one of the predictors of social anxiety disorder), respond less well to conventional psychological treatments. Among the newest integrated alternative approaches are paradoxical time table therapy and virtual reality technology therapy, there is a research gap regarding the comparison of their effectiveness in improving the focused – attention and reducing the symptoms of social anxiety disorder.

The present study was conducted with the aim of comparing the effectiveness of paradoxical time table therapy and virtual reality technology therapy on the focused – attention and symptoms of social anxiety disorder.

The current research design was a semi-experimental pre-test-post-test type with a control group and a one-month follow-up. The statistical population of the research included all people who referred to counseling centers and psychotherapy clinics in Tehran in the fall and winter of 2022. The statistical sample included 45 people with social anxiety disorder who were selected as available samples and were divided into three groups of 15 people (two experimental groups and one control group). To collect data, the Focous of Attention Questionnaire (Woody et al., 1997) and the social anxiety scale (Connor et al., 2000) were used. Also, the treatment of the paradoxical time table therapy (Besharat, 2017) was implemented in six sessions on the first experimental group and and the virtual reality technology therapy was implemented in 8 sessions on the second experimental group. Data analysis was done using multivariate analysis, variance analysis with repeated measures, Bonferroni post hoc test and SPSS-25 software.

The results showed that both treatments of paradoxical time table therapy and virtual reality technology therapy had a significant effect on the focus of attention and symptoms of social anxiety disorder (P<0.001). There was no significant difference between the effectiveness of the virtual reality technology therapy and the paradoxical time table therapy in the focused – attention, However, there was a significant difference between the effectiveness of the virtual reality technology therapy and the paradoxical time table therapy on the symptoms of social anxiety disorder. In this way, the paradoxical time table therapy is more effective in reducing the symptoms of social anxiety disorder compared to the treatment based on virtual reality technology therapy (P<0.001).

According to the findings of the present research, it seems that the paradoxical time table therapy and virtual reality technology therapy can be used as a therapeutic approach that according to the needsof patients with social anxiety disorder.

Anxiety sensitivity and focused – attention are important components in creating and maintaining social anxiety disorder, and a defect in each of them can play a role as a potential risk factor in this disorder. Some studies have shown that paradoxical time table therapy can lead to a reduction in worry and social anxiety symptoms. In Iran, there is a research gap regarding the efficacy of this treatment method on anxiety sensitivity and focus of attention in people with social anxiety disorder.

The present study was conducted with the aim of investigating the efficacy of paradoxical time table therapy on anxiety sensitivity and focused–attention in people with social anxiety disorder.

The current research design was a semi-experimental pre-test-post-test type with a control group and a one-month follow-up. The statistical population of the research included all people who referred to counseling centers and psychotherapy clinics in Tehran in the fall and winter of 2022. The statistical sample included 30 people with social anxiety disorder who were selected as available samples and were divided into two groups of 15 people (experimental group and control group). Focous of Attention Questionnaire (Woody et al., 1997) and revised anxiety sensitivity index (Taylor & Cox 1998) were used to collect data. Also, the treatment of the paradoxical time table therapy (Besharat, 2017) was implemented in six sessionsof 45 minutes on the experimental group. In addition to descriptive statistics, data analysis was performed using multivariate analysis, variance analysis with repeated measures, Bonferroni post hoc and SPSS25 software.

The results of the research showed that the treatment of paradox time program on all components of anxiety sensitivity (fear of respiratory symptoms, Fear of anxiety reactions, fear of cardiovascular symptoms, cognitive dyscontrol and the total score) and focused – attention (self-focused attentio and attention to the outside) had a significant effect (P<0.001).

According to the findings of the current research, it seems that the paradoxical time table therapy can be used by psychologists and psychiatrists as an efficient treatment to reduce the symptoms of social anxiety disorder, especially anxiety sensitivity and focused–attention.

Generally speaking, pictures are among the essential elements for transferring meaning and beauty. The present paper tries to explicate a theory for understanding the perception of pictures based on recent research in the philosophy of cognitive science and philosophy of mind. From a philosophical point of view, such a theory could be used for explaining the artistic, semantic, or sociological aspects of the pictures. However, this study is focused on showing how this theory is used for explaining aesthetic experience in the case of pictures.

This research is mainly based on the study of the original and primary written sources on this issue. Accordingly, this study has tried to obtain some specific results about the phenomenon of distributed attention and the pertinent role of this kind of attention in explaining the aesthetic aspect of perceptual experience through the methods of conceptual analysis and philosophical arguments in the ways, which are usual in contemporary philosophy of mind and cognition in the analytical tradition.

In terms of the things to which one can attend, two kinds of attention can be distinguished from each other. The first is called "attending to object", which means that while perceiving something, one's attention is directed just to an object as a whole and not to any of its properties. The second is called "attending to property" and refers to the kind of attention in which the subject's attention is focused on one of the properties of the relevant object. Each of these two kinds of attention can be itself "focused" or "distributed". In the case of focused attention, one's attention is directed to just one object or one property. In the case of distributed attention, by contrast, one is attending to several objects or several properties at the same time. According to these two distinctions, it can be easily seen that when one perceives something, four different modes of attention will be possible. Among these four modes of attention, the mode in which the attention is focused in respect of objects and distributed in respect of properties has a unique role in explaining the aesthetic experience. This kind of attention is referred to as "aesthetic attention" in this paper. The kind of theory that claims that aesthetic experience can be explained in terms of the aesthetic attention is usually called "the theory of aesthetic attention". Some experimental studies belonging to the field of cognitive science affirm that during the aesthetic perceptual experience, people usually use their aesthetic attention. It should be noticed that there is at least two other candidate theory for explaining the aesthetic experience. These two theories are usually referred to as "the aesthetic property theory" and "the intrinsic value theory", respectively. There is not enough space here for treating with these theories in detail, and therefore, the author just mentioned a common objection to these theories. The objection is that the aesthetic property theory and the intrinsic value theory cannot explain and accommodate the feature of aesthetic experience, which is called "lack of control". It means that one usually does not have any control over her aesthetic experience, and therefore, cannot manage the situation in the way that the aesthetic experience occurs predictably. Due to the fact that the theory of aesthetic attention is the unique theory that explains this lack of control, this study take it to be the most appropriate theory for explaining the aesthetic perceptual experience.
Nevertheless, the theory of aesthetic attention has another advantage in explaining the relevant properties of the aesthetic perceptual experience of a picture. To understand this advantage, first, it should be noticed that there are two different objects that seem to be represented in a picture. The first object is the two-dimensional object, which is consisted of the surface of the picture and is, therefore, usually called "the surface picture". The second object is the three-dimensional object which is supposed to be represented in the picture and usually is called "the depicted object". One of the essential questions in the philosophy of aesthetic perceptual experience is whether just the surface picture or just the depicted object or both are actually represented in a person's visual experience. The theory that is defended in this paper, is that both the surface picture and the depicted object are represented in visual perception. However, one can focus her attention on just one of them at a specific time. Thus, at a given time, both objects are experienced, but just one of them is attended.

According to what has been said in the main body of the paper, this study concluded that while perceiving a picture, two different aesthetic experiences may be realized. In the first case, one perceives both two-dimensional surface pictures and three-dimensional depicted object at the same time, but the person attends just the three-dimensional depicted object. In this case, one's attention is focused on the three-dimensional depicted object itself and is distributed toward its properties. This case can be taken as the appropriate model for understanding the conditions for the realization of aesthetic perception in the case of realistic pictures such as photographs and realistic paintings. In the second case, while perceiving two mentioned objects, just the person’s two-dimensional surface picture is attended. Here one's attention is focused on the two-dimensional surface picture itself and is distributed in respect of its properties. This case can be an appropriate model for explaining the realization of aesthetic experience in the case of the varieties of kinds of surrealistic pictures. Since people are usually more comfortable focusing their attention on the three-dimensional object and its properties, and therefore, are usually more apt to understand the aesthetic features of realistic pictures. This investigation may help non-specialist individuals in the art to put them in a position to experience the aesthetic features of surrealistic pictures as well as possible.

Ethical Considerations

Compliance with ethical guidelines
There are no ethical considerations in the research relevant to this study.

Authors’ contributions

The author of this paper has not received any contribution in the process of writing. 

No financial support has been received from any organization for this study.

The author appreciates the help of anonymous referees of the journal.

Conflict of interest 

This study did not have any conflict of interest.

Fear of negative evaluation, focused attention and self-criticism are important cognitive factors in social anxiety disorder. So far, many therapeutic interventions have been introduced to improve them. The aim of this study was to compare the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy and psychodrama on reducing this symptoms.

This research is a quasi-experimental study with two experimental groups and a control group. In this study, 36 students of Neyshabour University of Medical Sciences who met the criteria of social anxiety were randomly divided into three groups of 12 including two experimental groups and a control group. All three groups were evaluated with the short form of Fear of Negative Evaluation Questionnaire, Focus Questionnaire and Self-Criticism Questionnaire. The above cognitions were assessed.

Findings showed that cognitive-behavioral intervention and psycho-display both significantly reduced the negative evaluation (F = 11.559 and p = 0.001) of self-focused attention (F = 5.343 and p = 0.011). And critical self (F = 17.217 and p = 0.001) in the experimental groups compared to the control group. This difference was not significant between the test groups (p> 0.05).

Both cognitive-behavioral and psycho-dramatic interventions are effective on fear of negative evaluation, self-focused attention and self-criticism and can be used alternatively and depending on the situation in different groups, including students.

The purpose of this study was to investigate an intervention program focused and divided attention and study of its effectiveness on digit span and number and letter sequence in children with specific learning disorder. The research method was experimental with pre-test, post-test with control group, and research statistical society included all the students at age of 6-9 years old Treated in learning disorders centers in Tehran. 16 students were simple random selected and randomly assigned to two experimental and control groups and the digit span test and the number and letter sequence test of Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children Fourth Edition were used for pre-test. After running 8 individual sessions of 30-40 minutes of focused and divided attention training on the experimental group, all of the 16 subjects were post-tested and after a time period of one month and a half, were followed up. The data were analyzed whit Split Plot method. The results showed that there were significant differences between the two experimental and control groups in increasing the performance scores of digit span and number and letter sequence (p < 0.01). Thus, developing intervention program focused and divided attention causes to increased digit span and number and letter sequence in children with specific learning disorder.

Depressed mood effects attention and its span. The present study aimed to compare the allocation of attention to relevant and irrelevant neutral stimuli in depressed and non-depressed participants. The studied populations include all the students from Azad university of Ahwaz and the undergraduate psychology students from Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman. After completion of Beck Depression Inventory by participants, in two sessions with a minimum of 2 weeks interval and using structured clinical diagnostic interview, 52 participants were allocated in the non-depressed group and 41 to the depressed group.The focused attention of participants was measured by recognition of the Wechsler cube designs (focal task) and the defocused attention measured by recognition task of the irrelevant stimuli on the table. Mixed variance analysis of scores indicated that in allocating attention to relevant stimuli, there was no significant difference between two groups. However, attention to irrelevant stimuli for the depressed group was significantly greater than the non-depressed group. The results have been explained in line with the evolutionary framework of depression.

With the aim of investigating relation between depression and bias judgment by general self-efficacy and self-focused attention، 446 high school student (263 girl and 183 boy) that were enrolled in second، third and fourth grade of high school were selected by means of cluster sampkings. These students were enrolled، in 3 field of study (mathematical، experimental sciences،human sciences)، in public and private schools in east of Gilan in 2011-2012 academic year، these students completed the following questionaires the Children Depression Inventory (CDI Kovacs and Beck، 1997) the Probability/Outcome Negative Social Events Questionnaire (PCQ-C، Foa، Franklin، Perry and Her bert،1996) the Spotlight Attention Questionnaire (FAQ، Woody، Chambless، Glass، 1997) and the General Self- Efficacy Scale (GSE-10، Schwarz، 1992). Data were analyzed using the correlation coefficient and regression analysis. Findings from analysis showed that depression by general self-efficacy and self-focused attention has indirect effect over bias judgment. On the other hand depression had significant correlation with general self-efficacy and self-focused attention and also general self-efficacy and self-focused attention had a significant correlation with probability and outcome negative social events. Finally confirmed mediator pattern that means general self-efficacy and self-focused attention mediating role in relationship between depression and bias judgment. the results according to the previous research، discussed and analsyed.

The purpose of the present study was to compare effects of self-focused attention on memory bias in individuals with social anxiety. To do this, 45 male students in Tabriz University were selected to participate in the study who had higher scores in Connor social phobia inventory (SPIN) than its cut point. The sampling method was available. Participants were randomly divided into three groups: two experimental groups and one control group. All the subjects were presented the emotionally words to recall. During the experiment, one group received the false feedback of increased self-focused attention, and the other group received the false feedback of decreased self-focused attention. The control group received non-relevant feedback. Next, previous emotional words were presented with a series of other words for subjects to recognize. Using signal detection theory, response bias (ß) and response sensitivity (d'), were calculated for the recognition of emotional words. The data was analyzed by MANOVA. The results showed that there is significant difference in response sensitivity among three groups, but no significant difference in response bias was seen among the groups. Based on the findings, sensitivity of people with social anxiety in dealing with stressful situations and negative social and also individual memory bias were confirmed.

The purpose of current study was to investigate the effect of Attention Training Technique (ATT) on the anxiety, self-focused attention and metacognitions in socially anxious adolescents. Of 200 participants, 34 participants were selected considering their scores in social anxiety scale (SAS), Beck Depression Scale and Structured Clinical Interview which was based on DSM-IV-TR. Finally, 16 participants were selected based on their high scores in Focus of Attention Questionnaire (FAQ) and metacognition questionnaire and after a social task in front of two adults; then, these participants were randomly classified into experimental and control groups. Following the 4th and 8th sessions and following a month after the training, the two groups completed self-focused attention scale, metacognition questionnaire, cognitive-attentional syndrome scale and social anxiety questionnaire. According to the results of the study, resulting from analysis of variance with repeated measures, the experimental group showed significant reduction in self-focused attention, positive and negative metacognitive beliefs, cognitive control, cognitive attentional syndrome and social anxiety. The results of this study suggested that anxiety could be lastingly modified through a brief attention manipulation without the use of other cognitive behavioral techniques; however, cogent decision making needs more studies.

The main goal of this research was to exam the effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy on the decrease of self-focused attention and improving self-efficacy in students with social anxiety disorder. 30 students with social anxiety disorder who were selected and replaced in control and experiential groups (including 15 students) using random sampling method. Acceptance and commitment therapy was administered in experiential group for one month. The participants completed the following questionnaires: Focus of Attention Questionnaire (FAQ) and Self-efficacy for Social Situation Scale (SESS). Data were analyzed using covariance analysis. There were significant decrease in self-focused attention (P<0.001) and significant improving in self-efficacy in students who were in experiential group. The results of this research had shown that acceptance and commitment therapy was effective in the decrease of self-focused attention and improving self-efficacy in students with social anxiety disorder.

The goal of this research was examine the effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy on the decrease of self-focused attention and symptoms reduction in students with social anxiety disorder. A total of 30 students with social anxiety disorder were randomly selected andequally placed in control and experiential groups. Acceptance and commitment to therapy methods wereapplied to experiential group for one month. The subject sanswered the following questionnaires: Focuse of Attention Questionnaire (FAQ), and Social Phobia Inventory (SPIN). The data collected were analyzed using covariance analysis. The resuls showed that there were significant decrease in self-focused attention (P< 0.000), and symptoms reduction (P < 0.000) of the experiential group.

Metacognitive Therapy (MCT) is a new and emerging approach that focuses on reducing unhelpful cognitive processes and facilitating metacognitive styles of processing. The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of metacognitive therapy on improving of metacognitive beliefs، rumination، and depression symptoms of major depressive patient. In a single case experiment with multiple baseline design a woman suffering from MDD were treated with eighth weekly sessions of MCT and antidepressant medications. Second woman with the same diagnostic a control case only received antidepressant medications. Instruments used in this research were included MDD-S، Metacognitive beliefs، (MCQ)، Ruminative style (RRS)، and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II). Results indicated that metacognitive treatment result in improvement of subject''s scores in Beck depression scale that reduced from 35 to 6 in posttest and 2 months follow up. The scores of scales of CAS and MDD-S showed remarkable reduction. But the control case who recived only antidepressant medications didn''t show any significant changes in decrease of symptoms in follow up.