Ansiedade e atenção são dois conceitos complexos, que se relacionam diretamente em função de estratégias adaptativas relacionadas à sobrevivência em seres humanos. A presente tese teve como objetivo investigar se as ansiedades de traço e de estado estariam relacionadas ao viés de atenção nos canais visual ou auditivo em uma amostra não clínica. Os capítulos apresentam experimentos com a Visual Probe Detection Task, a Escuta Dicótica e o Stroop Emocional. Todos os experimentos foram realizados em população não clínica e comparou os resultados do cálculo do viés de atenção em grupos definidos pelos escores no inventário de ansiedade de traço e de estado. Foi observada a ausência de relação entre a ansiedade de traço e de estado com o viés de atenção nestes experimentos. A falta de especificidade cognitiva dos estímulos que compõem os três experimentos foi proposta como a causa principal destes resultados. / Anxiety and attention are two complex concepts that relate directly because of adaptive strategies related to survival in humans. This doctoral thesis addressed some aspects related to these two issues. It were discussed some aspects of trait and state anxiety and the study of attentional bias in visual and auditory channels. The chapters present the empirical results of the experiments that used the Visual Probe Detection Task, the Dichotic Listening Task and the Emotional Stroop Task. All experiments were performed in non-clinical population and related the results of the evaluation of attentional bias scores with trait and state anxiety. The results showed no relationship between trait and state anxiety with the attentional bias. It discusses possible reasons for this lack of bias in these samples. Among the possibilities, the lack of cognitive specificity of stimuli that make up the three experiments was proposed as the main reason for it.

Os Transtornos Emocionais ou Transtornos Internalizantes compreendem os Transtornos de Ansiedade e a Depressão Maior. São condições comuns, com frequência apresentam um curso crônico, podem chegar a ser incapacitantes e estão associados ao desenvolvimento de outros transtornos mentais ao longo da vida. Existe um vasto campo de pesquisa buscando identificar fatores de risco e de vulnerabilidade para estes transtornos. Entre estes, a história familiar é notoriamente conhecida como um dos fatores de risco mais consistentes. Contudo, os mecanismos pelos quais transtornos psiquiátricos nos pais conferem risco de psicopatologia nos filhos ainda são desconhecidos. Nesta dissertação, buscaremos investigar se alterações no sistema de orientação da atenção para ameaças podem estar envolvidas na transmissão de risco de transtornos emocionais de mães para filhos. Participaram do estudo 1280 crianças com desenvolvimento típico, entre 6-14 anos, participantes da Coorte de Escolares de Alto Risco para Transtornos Psiquiátricos na Infância e Adolescência. A ausência de diagnóstico psiquiátrico nas crianças foi avaliada por meio do Developing and Well-Being Behaviour Assessment (DAWBA) e os diagnósticos de ansiedade ou depressão nas mães foram realizados através do Mini International Diagnosis Interview (MINI). Duas tarefas dot-probe, com diferentes tempos de exposição (500ms e 1250ms) foram utilizadas para avaliar vieses de atenção para faces de felicidade e para faces de raiva. Os resultados mostraram que meninas com mães com transtornos emocionais apresentaram uma maior atenção direcionada para ameaças em comparação com filhas de mães sem transtornos emocionais (i. e. humor ou ansiedade). Em contraste, o viés atencional para ameaças em meninos depende do tipo de transtorno emocional que a mãe apresenta. Ou seja, em comparação com filhos de mães sem transtornos emocionais, meninos com mães com depressão maior (na ausência de transtorno de ansiedade) mostraram um aumento da atenção em direção à ameaça, enquanto que este viés está ausente em meninos cujas mães apresentam transtorno de ansiedade. Conclui-se que o viés atencional pode ser um mecanismo mediador do risco parental para transtornos emocionais, o que deve ser melhor investigado em estudos longitudinais. Ainda, especula-se que a prevalência mais alta de transtornos de ansiedade em meninas poderia ser parcialmente explicada como um reflexo desta transmissão de risco, uma vez que meninos são afetados por viés em seus processos de informação apenas quando possuem mães deprimidas, enquanto que meninas têm estes processos afetados quando possuem mães deprimidas ou ansiosas. Os resultados têm implicações tanto para o entendimento dos mecanismos de transmissão de risco para transtornos de ansiedade e depressão, quanto para o desenvolvimento de intervenções preventivas e pesquisas futuras em crianças em risco para estes transtornos emocionais na infância e adolescência. / Emotional Disorders or Internalizing Disorders comprise Major Depression and Anxiety Disorders. These disorders are common, frequently have a chronic course, could lead to disability and are associated with the development of other mental disorders later in life. There is a vast field of research aiming to identify risk factors to these disorders. Among these, family history of psychiatric disorders is one of the most consistent risk factors for emotional disorders. However, the mechanisms by which parental psychiatric disorders confer risk for psychopathology in children are still unknown. In this dissertation, we aim to investigate whether changes in the attention orienting system towards threats might be involved in the risk transmission of emotional disorders from mothers to children. The study included 1280 typically developing children, 6-14 years of age, participants from the High Risk Cohort Study for Psychiatric Disorders. Absence of childhood diagnosis was performed using the Developing and Well-Being Behavior Assessment (DAWBA). Maternal diagnosis of Anxiety and Depression was performed using the Mini International Diagnosis Interview (MINI). Two dot-probe tasks, which differed in stimulus exposure (500ms and 1250ms), assessed attention biases for happy-face and threat-face cues. Results showed that girls with maternal emotion disorder showed increased attention to threat compared to daughters of disorder-free mothers, irrespective of the type of maternal emotion disorder (i.e. mood or anxiety). In contrast, attention bias to threat in boys depends on the type of maternal emotion disorder. That is, in comparison with sons of disorder-free mothers, boys with maternal mood disorder (in the absence of anxiety disorder) showed increased attention to threat, whereas this bias is absent in boys with maternal anxiety disorder. We conclude that threat bias could be a mechanism mediating parental risk for emotional disorders. Longitudinal studies must be conducted to investigate this. Moreover, it is speculated that the higher prevalence of anxiety in girls might be partially a reflection of this risk transmission, since boys are only affected by information processing bias with depressed mothers, whereas both depressed and anxious mothers affect such processes on girls. The results have implications both for understanding the mechanisms underlying risk transmission for anxiety and depressive disorders and developing of preventive interventions and future research in children at risk for emotional disorders in childhood and adolescence.

Os vieses atencional e avaliativo para imagens relacionadas ao cigarro foram mensurados após a exposição a imagens relacionadas ao álcool (IA) ou controle (IC) através de uma tarefa de atenção visual. Participaram 40 universitários de 19 a 30 anos (M=23 anos) bebedores fumantes designados aleatoriamente para a condição IA ou IC. Além dos vieses, foram avaliados: beber problemático (através do Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test), e severidade da dependência de nicotina (Questionário de Tolerância e Fagerstron). Os fumantes apresentaram viés atencional e avaliativo para as imagens relacionadas ao fumar. A exposição prévia a pistas associadas ao beber elevou o viés avaliativo (mas não o atencional) para imagens relacionadas ao cigarro. Observou-se alta freqüência de bebedores problemáticos, porém, baixo grau de dependência em nicotina. As implicações destes resultados para a prevenção ao fumo e ao beber abusivo entre universitários foram discutidas. / This study applied a visual attentional task to evaluated the attentional and evaluative biases for smoking-related images after exposure to alcohol (IA) or control (IC) images. Subjects were 40 college drinker and smokers (19 to 30 years old, mean 23 yrs), randomly assigned for IA or IC conditions. Also problem drinking (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test) and severity of nicotine dependence (Questionário de Tolerância de Fagerströn) were assessed. Smokers showed attentional and evaluative biases for smoking-related images. Previous exposure to drinking cues increased the evaluative but not the attentional bias for smokingrelated images. There was a high frequency of problem drinkers, but a low degree of nicotine dependence in this sample. The implications of these findings for prevention of smoking and abusive drinking among college students were discussed.

Os Transtornos Emocionais ou Transtornos Internalizantes compreendem os Transtornos de Ansiedade e a Depressão Maior. São condições comuns, com frequência apresentam um curso crônico, podem chegar a ser incapacitantes e estão associados ao desenvolvimento de outros transtornos mentais ao longo da vida. Existe um vasto campo de pesquisa buscando identificar fatores de risco e de vulnerabilidade para estes transtornos. Entre estes, a história familiar é notoriamente conhecida como um dos fatores de risco mais consistentes. Contudo, os mecanismos pelos quais transtornos psiquiátricos nos pais conferem risco de psicopatologia nos filhos ainda são desconhecidos. Nesta dissertação, buscaremos investigar se alterações no sistema de orientação da atenção para ameaças podem estar envolvidas na transmissão de risco de transtornos emocionais de mães para filhos. Participaram do estudo 1280 crianças com desenvolvimento típico, entre 6-14 anos, participantes da Coorte de Escolares de Alto Risco para Transtornos Psiquiátricos na Infância e Adolescência. A ausência de diagnóstico psiquiátrico nas crianças foi avaliada por meio do Developing and Well-Being Behaviour Assessment (DAWBA) e os diagnósticos de ansiedade ou depressão nas mães foram realizados através do Mini International Diagnosis Interview (MINI). Duas tarefas dot-probe, com diferentes tempos de exposição (500ms e 1250ms) foram utilizadas para avaliar vieses de atenção para faces de felicidade e para faces de raiva. Os resultados mostraram que meninas com mães com transtornos emocionais apresentaram uma maior atenção direcionada para ameaças em comparação com filhas de mães sem transtornos emocionais (i. e. humor ou ansiedade). Em contraste, o viés atencional para ameaças em meninos depende do tipo de transtorno emocional que a mãe apresenta. Ou seja, em comparação com filhos de mães sem transtornos emocionais, meninos com mães com depressão maior (na ausência de transtorno de ansiedade) mostraram um aumento da atenção em direção à ameaça, enquanto que este viés está ausente em meninos cujas mães apresentam transtorno de ansiedade. Conclui-se que o viés atencional pode ser um mecanismo mediador do risco parental para transtornos emocionais, o que deve ser melhor investigado em estudos longitudinais. Ainda, especula-se que a prevalência mais alta de transtornos de ansiedade em meninas poderia ser parcialmente explicada como um reflexo desta transmissão de risco, uma vez que meninos são afetados por viés em seus processos de informação apenas quando possuem mães deprimidas, enquanto que meninas têm estes processos afetados quando possuem mães deprimidas ou ansiosas. Os resultados têm implicações tanto para o entendimento dos mecanismos de transmissão de risco para transtornos de ansiedade e depressão, quanto para o desenvolvimento de intervenções preventivas e pesquisas futuras em crianças em risco para estes transtornos emocionais na infância e adolescência. / Emotional Disorders or Internalizing Disorders comprise Major Depression and Anxiety Disorders. These disorders are common, frequently have a chronic course, could lead to disability and are associated with the development of other mental disorders later in life. There is a vast field of research aiming to identify risk factors to these disorders. Among these, family history of psychiatric disorders is one of the most consistent risk factors for emotional disorders. However, the mechanisms by which parental psychiatric disorders confer risk for psychopathology in children are still unknown. In this dissertation, we aim to investigate whether changes in the attention orienting system towards threats might be involved in the risk transmission of emotional disorders from mothers to children. The study included 1280 typically developing children, 6-14 years of age, participants from the High Risk Cohort Study for Psychiatric Disorders. Absence of childhood diagnosis was performed using the Developing and Well-Being Behavior Assessment (DAWBA). Maternal diagnosis of Anxiety and Depression was performed using the Mini International Diagnosis Interview (MINI). Two dot-probe tasks, which differed in stimulus exposure (500ms and 1250ms), assessed attention biases for happy-face and threat-face cues. Results showed that girls with maternal emotion disorder showed increased attention to threat compared to daughters of disorder-free mothers, irrespective of the type of maternal emotion disorder (i.e. mood or anxiety). In contrast, attention bias to threat in boys depends on the type of maternal emotion disorder. That is, in comparison with sons of disorder-free mothers, boys with maternal mood disorder (in the absence of anxiety disorder) showed increased attention to threat, whereas this bias is absent in boys with maternal anxiety disorder. We conclude that threat bias could be a mechanism mediating parental risk for emotional disorders. Longitudinal studies must be conducted to investigate this. Moreover, it is speculated that the higher prevalence of anxiety in girls might be partially a reflection of this risk transmission, since boys are only affected by information processing bias with depressed mothers, whereas both depressed and anxious mothers affect such processes on girls. The results have implications both for understanding the mechanisms underlying risk transmission for anxiety and depressive disorders and developing of preventive interventions and future research in children at risk for emotional disorders in childhood and adolescence.

Ansiedade e atenção são dois conceitos complexos, que se relacionam diretamente em função de estratégias adaptativas relacionadas à sobrevivência em seres humanos. A presente tese teve como objetivo investigar se as ansiedades de traço e de estado estariam relacionadas ao viés de atenção nos canais visual ou auditivo em uma amostra não clínica. Os capítulos apresentam experimentos com a Visual Probe Detection Task, a Escuta Dicótica e o Stroop Emocional. Todos os experimentos foram realizados em população não clínica e comparou os resultados do cálculo do viés de atenção em grupos definidos pelos escores no inventário de ansiedade de traço e de estado. Foi observada a ausência de relação entre a ansiedade de traço e de estado com o viés de atenção nestes experimentos. A falta de especificidade cognitiva dos estímulos que compõem os três experimentos foi proposta como a causa principal destes resultados. / Anxiety and attention are two complex concepts that relate directly because of adaptive strategies related to survival in humans. This doctoral thesis addressed some aspects related to these two issues. It were discussed some aspects of trait and state anxiety and the study of attentional bias in visual and auditory channels. The chapters present the empirical results of the experiments that used the Visual Probe Detection Task, the Dichotic Listening Task and the Emotional Stroop Task. All experiments were performed in non-clinical population and related the results of the evaluation of attentional bias scores with trait and state anxiety. The results showed no relationship between trait and state anxiety with the attentional bias. It discusses possible reasons for this lack of bias in these samples. Among the possibilities, the lack of cognitive specificity of stimuli that make up the three experiments was proposed as the main reason for it.

Os vieses atencional e avaliativo para imagens relacionadas ao cigarro foram mensurados após a exposição a imagens relacionadas ao álcool (IA) ou controle (IC) através de uma tarefa de atenção visual. Participaram 40 universitários de 19 a 30 anos (M=23 anos) bebedores fumantes designados aleatoriamente para a condição IA ou IC. Além dos vieses, foram avaliados: beber problemático (através do Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test), e severidade da dependência de nicotina (Questionário de Tolerância e Fagerstron). Os fumantes apresentaram viés atencional e avaliativo para as imagens relacionadas ao fumar. A exposição prévia a pistas associadas ao beber elevou o viés avaliativo (mas não o atencional) para imagens relacionadas ao cigarro. Observou-se alta freqüência de bebedores problemáticos, porém, baixo grau de dependência em nicotina. As implicações destes resultados para a prevenção ao fumo e ao beber abusivo entre universitários foram discutidas. / This study applied a visual attentional task to evaluated the attentional and evaluative biases for smoking-related images after exposure to alcohol (IA) or control (IC) images. Subjects were 40 college drinker and smokers (19 to 30 years old, mean 23 yrs), randomly assigned for IA or IC conditions. Also problem drinking (Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test) and severity of nicotine dependence (Questionário de Tolerância de Fagerströn) were assessed. Smokers showed attentional and evaluative biases for smoking-related images. Previous exposure to drinking cues increased the evaluative but not the attentional bias for smokingrelated images. There was a high frequency of problem drinkers, but a low degree of nicotine dependence in this sample. The implications of these findings for prevention of smoking and abusive drinking among college students were discussed.

Ansiedade e atenção são dois conceitos complexos, que se relacionam diretamente em função de estratégias adaptativas relacionadas à sobrevivência em seres humanos. A presente tese teve como objetivo investigar se as ansiedades de traço e de estado estariam relacionadas ao viés de atenção nos canais visual ou auditivo em uma amostra não clínica. Os capítulos apresentam experimentos com a Visual Probe Detection Task, a Escuta Dicótica e o Stroop Emocional. Todos os experimentos foram realizados em população não clínica e comparou os resultados do cálculo do viés de atenção em grupos definidos pelos escores no inventário de ansiedade de traço e de estado. Foi observada a ausência de relação entre a ansiedade de traço e de estado com o viés de atenção nestes experimentos. A falta de especificidade cognitiva dos estímulos que compõem os três experimentos foi proposta como a causa principal destes resultados. / Anxiety and attention are two complex concepts that relate directly because of adaptive strategies related to survival in humans. This doctoral thesis addressed some aspects related to these two issues. It were discussed some aspects of trait and state anxiety and the study of attentional bias in visual and auditory channels. The chapters present the empirical results of the experiments that used the Visual Probe Detection Task, the Dichotic Listening Task and the Emotional Stroop Task. All experiments were performed in non-clinical population and related the results of the evaluation of attentional bias scores with trait and state anxiety. The results showed no relationship between trait and state anxiety with the attentional bias. It discusses possible reasons for this lack of bias in these samples. Among the possibilities, the lack of cognitive specificity of stimuli that make up the three experiments was proposed as the main reason for it.

Os Transtornos Emocionais ou Transtornos Internalizantes compreendem os Transtornos de Ansiedade e a Depressão Maior. São condições comuns, com frequência apresentam um curso crônico, podem chegar a ser incapacitantes e estão associados ao desenvolvimento de outros transtornos mentais ao longo da vida. Existe um vasto campo de pesquisa buscando identificar fatores de risco e de vulnerabilidade para estes transtornos. Entre estes, a história familiar é notoriamente conhecida como um dos fatores de risco mais consistentes. Contudo, os mecanismos pelos quais transtornos psiquiátricos nos pais conferem risco de psicopatologia nos filhos ainda são desconhecidos. Nesta dissertação, buscaremos investigar se alterações no sistema de orientação da atenção para ameaças podem estar envolvidas na transmissão de risco de transtornos emocionais de mães para filhos. Participaram do estudo 1280 crianças com desenvolvimento típico, entre 6-14 anos, participantes da Coorte de Escolares de Alto Risco para Transtornos Psiquiátricos na Infância e Adolescência. A ausência de diagnóstico psiquiátrico nas crianças foi avaliada por meio do Developing and Well-Being Behaviour Assessment (DAWBA) e os diagnósticos de ansiedade ou depressão nas mães foram realizados através do Mini International Diagnosis Interview (MINI). Duas tarefas dot-probe, com diferentes tempos de exposição (500ms e 1250ms) foram utilizadas para avaliar vieses de atenção para faces de felicidade e para faces de raiva. Os resultados mostraram que meninas com mães com transtornos emocionais apresentaram uma maior atenção direcionada para ameaças em comparação com filhas de mães sem transtornos emocionais (i. e. humor ou ansiedade). Em contraste, o viés atencional para ameaças em meninos depende do tipo de transtorno emocional que a mãe apresenta. Ou seja, em comparação com filhos de mães sem transtornos emocionais, meninos com mães com depressão maior (na ausência de transtorno de ansiedade) mostraram um aumento da atenção em direção à ameaça, enquanto que este viés está ausente em meninos cujas mães apresentam transtorno de ansiedade. Conclui-se que o viés atencional pode ser um mecanismo mediador do risco parental para transtornos emocionais, o que deve ser melhor investigado em estudos longitudinais. Ainda, especula-se que a prevalência mais alta de transtornos de ansiedade em meninas poderia ser parcialmente explicada como um reflexo desta transmissão de risco, uma vez que meninos são afetados por viés em seus processos de informação apenas quando possuem mães deprimidas, enquanto que meninas têm estes processos afetados quando possuem mães deprimidas ou ansiosas. Os resultados têm implicações tanto para o entendimento dos mecanismos de transmissão de risco para transtornos de ansiedade e depressão, quanto para o desenvolvimento de intervenções preventivas e pesquisas futuras em crianças em risco para estes transtornos emocionais na infância e adolescência. / Emotional Disorders or Internalizing Disorders comprise Major Depression and Anxiety Disorders. These disorders are common, frequently have a chronic course, could lead to disability and are associated with the development of other mental disorders later in life. There is a vast field of research aiming to identify risk factors to these disorders. Among these, family history of psychiatric disorders is one of the most consistent risk factors for emotional disorders. However, the mechanisms by which parental psychiatric disorders confer risk for psychopathology in children are still unknown. In this dissertation, we aim to investigate whether changes in the attention orienting system towards threats might be involved in the risk transmission of emotional disorders from mothers to children. The study included 1280 typically developing children, 6-14 years of age, participants from the High Risk Cohort Study for Psychiatric Disorders. Absence of childhood diagnosis was performed using the Developing and Well-Being Behavior Assessment (DAWBA). Maternal diagnosis of Anxiety and Depression was performed using the Mini International Diagnosis Interview (MINI). Two dot-probe tasks, which differed in stimulus exposure (500ms and 1250ms), assessed attention biases for happy-face and threat-face cues. Results showed that girls with maternal emotion disorder showed increased attention to threat compared to daughters of disorder-free mothers, irrespective of the type of maternal emotion disorder (i.e. mood or anxiety). In contrast, attention bias to threat in boys depends on the type of maternal emotion disorder. That is, in comparison with sons of disorder-free mothers, boys with maternal mood disorder (in the absence of anxiety disorder) showed increased attention to threat, whereas this bias is absent in boys with maternal anxiety disorder. We conclude that threat bias could be a mechanism mediating parental risk for emotional disorders. Longitudinal studies must be conducted to investigate this. Moreover, it is speculated that the higher prevalence of anxiety in girls might be partially a reflection of this risk transmission, since boys are only affected by information processing bias with depressed mothers, whereas both depressed and anxious mothers affect such processes on girls. The results have implications both for understanding the mechanisms underlying risk transmission for anxiety and depressive disorders and developing of preventive interventions and future research in children at risk for emotional disorders in childhood and adolescence.

Cocaine users display impaired inhibitory control. The influence of cocaine-related stimuli on inhibitory control has not been assessed. The Attentional Bias-Behavioral Activation (ABBA) task uses cocaine and neutral images as cues to determine if drug-related images impair inhibitory control in cocaine users. This dissertation was designed to assess the influence of cocaine images on inhibitory control in cocaine users through the conduct of studies designed to address four aims. The first aim was to demonstrate that cocaine users display impaired inhibitory control following cocaine images compared to neutral images on the ABBA task. This was accomplished through the conduct of two experiments. The first experiment piloted the ABBA task and cocaine users completed the cocaine go (n = 15) or neutral go condition (n = 15) of the task. The second experiment consisted of two studies designed to develop a within-subjects methodology for using the ABBA task. In the first study, cocaine users completed either the cocaine go (n = 20) or neutral go (n = 20) condition of the ABBA task and all participants also completed the Cued Go/No-Go task, with geometric shapes as cues. In the second study, cocaine users (n = 18) completed the cocaine go condition of the ABBA task and a modified version of the ABBA task with all neutral images as cues to further refine a possible within-subjects methodology. The second aim was to demonstrate that inhibitory failures occur most often when cues are presented for short compared to longer durations of time. Data collected during other protocols (n = 91) were combined to investigate the influence of stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA; i.e., the amount of time a cue is presented before a target indicated a response should be executed or withheld) on inhibitory control following cocaine-related and neutral cues on the ABBA task. The third aim was to demonstrate impaired inhibitory control following cocaine images on the ABBA task is specific to cocaine users. Cocaine users (data collected in the second experiment of the first aim) and non-using control participants (n = 16) completed the cocaine go and all neutral conditions of the ABBA task and the Cued Go/No-Go task. The fourth aim was to demonstrate the feasibility and acceptability of inhibitory control training to cocaine-related stimuli with cocaine users. A small pilot clinical trial was conducted and cocaine users were randomly assigned to complete inhibitory control training to cocaine images or geometric shapes. Cocaine images impaired inhibitory control on the ABBA task, as demonstrated by an increased proportion of inhibitory failures in the cocaine go condition compared to the neutral go condition in Experiments 1, 2, and 4. The proportion of inhibitory failures following cocaine images in Experiment 4 was increased at short (i.e., 100, 200) compared to long SOAs. Cocaine images also impaired inhibitory control compared to the Cued Go/No-Go Task in Experiment 2, however there were no differences in the proportion of inhibitory failures between the cocaine go and all neutral conditions of the ABBA task. There were no differences between cocaine users and controls in Experiment 3 for the proportion of inhibitory failures on the ABBA or Cued Go/No-Go tasks, but controls responded faster indicating a speed/accuracy trade off occurred in the control group. Inhibitory control training as an approach to improve treatment outcomes is feasible, as indicated by attendance and accuracy on the training task, and participants rated the overall procedure as satisfactory in Experiment 5. A better understanding of inhibitory control in the presence of cocaine related cues could be crucial to better understand how drug cues contribute to the risk for relapse and the continued use of drugs because both occur in the presence of drug cues.

The work within this thesis examined aspects of emotion processing among non-clinical females who varied in levels of eating-related psychopathology. Five studies employed a quantitative approach in order to assess potential deficits in both the control and experience of emotion. To examine the experience of emotion, Studies 1, 2 and 3 assessed the attentional processing of emotional stimuli in those with high and low levels of eating-related psychopathology. In Studies 1 and 2, specific components of attention bias including orientation, disengagement and avoidance were assessed in order to explore their role in contributing to disordered eating behaviour. Findings from these studies did not reveal any differences in attentional orienting between those with high and low levels of eating-related psychopathology. However, when primed with happy faces, those with high levels of disordered eating were significantly quicker than those with low levels to disengage from threat-relevant words. This finding could be interpreted in terms of emotional arousal with happy facial displays providing a protective function against subsequently presented stimuli. With regards to emotional avoidance, those with higher levels of eating-related psychopathology were more likely to avoid emotional displays relative to those with lower levels. In fact, a higher drive to achieve thinness was shown to predict a greater avoidance of both angry and happy facial expressions. Interestingly, depression, anxiety and alexithymia were all shown to impact upon attentional processing. In Study 3, the efficacy of attention training in reducing attentional biases towards threat in women with varying levels of disordered eating was examined. Importantly, a single session of attention training was found to be successful in modifying previously observed attentional biases towards threat. However, eating-related psychopathology was shown to have only a partial influence on participants attention processing. These findings suggest that the success of attention training may be independent of disordered eating. To examine the control of emotion within a non-clinical population, Study 4 utilised self-report questionnaires to explore associations between deficits in emotional functioning and severity of eating-related psychopathology. The data obtained from this questionnaire-based investigation are reported in a series of three short studies. Specifically, Study 4.1 of this chapter examined the relationship between difficulties in the regulation of emotion within eating-related psychopathology. Furthermore, Studies 4.2 and 4.3 set out to explore some of the factors which may influence emotion processing, such as pessimistic attitudes regarding emotional expression. Across all studies, the role of depression, anxiety and alexithymia as potential confounding factors was considered. Findings revealed a significant relationship between eating-related psychopathology and difficulties regulating emotion. Dysfunctional or negative attitudes towards the expression of emotion were also linked to a greater number of eating disorder-related concerns and behaviours. However, many of the associations between eating-related psychopathology and impaired emotional functioning were no longer apparent when depression, anxiety and alexithymia had been statistically accounted for. These findings not only support previous research, but highlight the importance of mood and alexithymia in contributing to the emotional deficits observed. Finally, Study 5 aimed to explore the potential consequences of inadequate emotion processing within eating-related psychopathology. Self-report measures were utilised to assess the frequency of eating-related intrusive thoughts in those with high levels of eating-related psychopathology. As predicted, those with greater levels of disordered eating reported experiencing a higher frequency of thoughts or intrusions relating to eating. This may point towards a failure to successfully process emotional experience in this group. Taken together, this body of work enhances the current understanding of the role of emotion processing in contributing to both the onset and maintenance of disordered eating. These findings also emphasise the key role of mood and alexithymia in influencing the relationship between emotional functioning and eating-related psychopathology. Therefore further research examining emotion processing within disordered eating must acknowledge the potential contribution of depression, anxiety and alexithymia. Furthermore, the present findings provide clear support for the development of a model of cognitive-emotion processing within eating-related psychopathology. The implications of these findings for both eating disorder treatment and prevention are discussed. Possible directions for future research are also identified.