Effect of Visual Attention Tasks on Addiction Research

Abstract

In addiction research, a number of visual attention tasks are utilized as a measurement tool or an experimental technique. In this review, it is aimed to analyze the effect of common visual attention tasks on addiction research. In this frame, to what end the change detection task, dual task, attentional blink paradigm and Stroop test are utilized in addiction studies and main findings of those studies are summarized. From this point of view, it can be suggested that visual attention tasks are used to investigate individuals’ attentional bias for addicted object in addiction research, moreover, the effect of attentional bias in maintaining the dependence is emphasized. The potential of utilizing visual attention tasks in diagnosing and treating addiction is also emphasized in the literature.

Keywords

• addiction
• attentional bias
• visual attention

Görsel Dikkat Görevlerinin Bağımlılık Araştırmalarına Etkisi

Öz

Bağımlılık araştırmalarında çeşitli görsel dikkat görevlerinden bir ölçüm aracı veya deneysel bir teknik olarak yararlanılmaktadır. Bu derleme çalışmasında sık kullanılan görsel dikkat görevlerinin bağımlılık araştırmalarına olan etkisi incelenmiştir. Bu çerçevede değişim saptama, ikili görev, dikkat yanıp sönmesi ve Stroop testi görevlerinin, bağımlılık araştırmalarında ne amaçla kullanıldığı ve bu araştırmalarda elde edilen bulgular özetlenmiştir. Gerçekleştirilen literatür taramasından hareketle, görsel dikkat görevlerinin bağımlılık araştırmalarında daha çok, bağımlılık nesnesine karşı bireylerin gösterdiği dikkat yanlılığını incelemede kullanıldığı, ayrıca söz konusu çalışmalarda dikkat yanlılığının, bağımlılığın sürdürülmesine olan etkisine vurgu yapıldığı söylenebilir. Ayrıca literatürde görsel dikkat görevlerinin, bağımlılığın tanı ve tedavisinde kullanılma potansiyeline de sıklıkla vurgu yapılmaktadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• bağımlılık
• dikkat yanlılığı
• görsel dikkat

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