Post-event processing in social anxiety: Investigation using Attentional Control Theory

Post-event processing has been identified as a maladaptive maintaining feature of social anxiety occurring after a social-evaluative event; however, the cognitive mechanisms thought to underlie post-event processing are still unclear. Poor attentional control may serve to maintain this thought process in social anxiety disorder. A total of 92 undergraduates were pre-screened and categorised into either high or low social anxiety groups and then randomly assigned to either a post-event processing (following a speech task) or a control condition (four groups in total). Participants completed a series of self-report questionnaires and then performed the mixed emotional saccade task whereby participants completed pro-saccades and antisaccades in response to facial expressions in either single-task or mixed-task blocks. The results showed that high socially anxious participants in the post-event processing condition did not display attentional control impairments compared to high socially anxious participants in the control condition or low socially anxious participants in either condition. Conversely, low socially anxious participants in the post-event processing condition showed improved attentional control abilities compared to low socially anxious participants in the control condition. These findings suggest that post-event processing may facilitate attentional control abilities for low socially anxious individuals.