No Evidence of Reliability Across 36 Variations of the Emotional Dot-Probe Task in 9,600 Participants

Abstract

The emotional dot-probe task is a widely used measure of attentional bias to threat. Recent work suggests, however, that subtraction-based behavioral measures of emotional dot-probe performance may not be appropriate for measuring such attentional biases because of poor reliability. In the two current studies, we systematically tested 36 versions of the emotional dot-probe task that varied in stimuli (faces, scenes, snakes/spiders), timing (stimulus onset asynchrony of 100 ms, 500 ms, 900 ms), stimulus orientation (horizontal, vertical), and trial types (e.g., threat congruent and threat incongruent). Across 9,600 participants, none of the 36 versions demonstrated internal reliability greater than zero. Reliability was similarly poor in anxious participants (based on Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7 items or Brief Hypervigilance Scale). We conclude that the standard behavioral scores (difference scores based on reaction time or accuracy) derived from the emotional dot-probe task are not adequately reliable measures of attentional biases to threat in anxious or nonanxious populations.