Technology and Mental Health: Exploring Attentional Bias from an experimental psychology perspective using virtual reality

Abstract

Attentional bias refers to preferences for specific stimuli, which can be driven by emotional states, lifestyle, or traumatic experiences. Traditionally, research was almost exclusively monopolised by clinical psychologists however minimal progress has occurred to develop a reliable measure for attentional bias. This thesis used a psychophysical approach to gain insight into attentional bias with a focus on the role of a stimulus feature, known as saliency. Chapter 2 aimed to determine the perceived salience for images using psychophysical and computational methods. The SV L2-norm colour model was found to be the most reliable determinant of stimulus salience. Chapter 3 investigated whether there are perceptual differences between alcohol or non-alcohol related images using noise paradigms. Each paradigm resulted in a different stimulus order which was unrelated to the order as found in the participants’ judgement task. Chapter 4 explored biases using free-viewing tasks, measuring eye-movements in virtual reality. Dwell times at certain positions were found to be dependent on content (alcohol or non-alcohol). Interestingly, spatial location biases was revealed which was not determined by semantic stimulus information. Chapter 5 determined the efficacy of dynamic free-viewing paradigms which were presented as two imaginary conveyer belts in motion. On average, participants with higher alcohol dependency preferred alcohol-related stimuli. These findings could inform the development of an individualised measure for substance use disorders.