Turning a blind eye: The struggle to inhibit attention towards unexpected negative emotions.

Philip T Chalk, Josef J Ormsby, Derek H Arnold, Alan J Pegna

Abstract read

In one paragraph

Article in Cognitive, affective & behavioral neuroscience, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

0numbers the graph read from it

0cells of the map it votes in

0citing papers in PubMed

–field-weighted citation impact

1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

0 citing papers in PubMed.

No citing paper in PubMed yet.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Philip T ChalkSchool of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Level 3, McElwain Building (24A), St Lucia, Queensland, 4067, Australia. p.t.chalk@uq.net.au.

Josef J OrmsbySchool of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Level 3, McElwain Building (24A), St Lucia, Queensland, 4067, Australia.

Derek H ArnoldSchool of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Level 3, McElwain Building (24A), St Lucia, Queensland, 4067, Australia.

Alan J PegnaSchool of Psychology, The University of Queensland, Level 3, McElwain Building (24A), St Lucia, Queensland, 4067, Australia. a.pegna@uq.edu.au.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

We investigated whether expectations modulate the attentional capture of fearful and happy face distractors in a visual search task. Twenty-eight participants were instructed to locate a face surrounded by a color singleton and subsequently discriminate its gender. On some trials, the target was displayed concurrently with an irrelevant happy or fearful distractor. At the beginning of each block, instructions informed participants of the probability with which a happy or fearful distractor could occur. We measured lateralized event-related potentials time-locked to the irrelevant distractors and found that attentional suppression, indexed by the distractor positivity (P

Indexed as

AttentionEmotionsInhibition, PsychologicalAdultElectroencephalographyEvoked PotentialsFacial ExpressionFearFemaleHappinessHumansMalePhotic StimulationReaction TimeYoung AdultAttentional captureExpectationFearful facesPDVisual search

Identifiers

PMID41851420

DOI10.3758/s13415-026-01415-3

PMCPMC13385269

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata

LicenceCC BY

Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.