Dot-probe paradigm

The dot-probe paradigm is a test used by <a href="/facts/Cognitive_psychologist/GnzIgx2I">cognitive psychologists</a> to assess <a href="/facts/Selective_attention/gPbUhqSq">selective attention</a>.
According to Eysenck, MacLeod & Mathews (1987) and Mathews (2004) the dot-probe task derives directly from research carried out by Christos Halkiopoulos in 1981. Halkiopoulos, later a doctoral student of Eysenck, carried out this research while he was a psychology undergraduate at UCL, under the supervision of Professor N.F. Dixon. He introduced an attentional probe paradigm, which he initially used in the auditory modality to assess attentional biases to threatening auditory information, when threatening and non-threatening information was presented simultaneously to both ears in a <a href="/facts/Dichotic_listening/hIn9G4KX">dichotic listening</a> task (). Halkiopoulos demonstrated attentional biases by measuring reaction times to auditory probes following neutral and emotional words in the attended and unattended channels. This method was subsequently used in the visual modality by MacLeod, Mathews and Tata (1986) in what came to be known as the dot-probe paradigm. As Professor Mathews puts it when in an interview he discusses his team's research and his collaboration with Eysenck: "Then Michael Eysenck made contact, and we picked the idea for the dot probe method from his student, Christos Halkiopoulos. I certainly remember that being a really fun time" (Mathews in Borkovec, 2004, p.13). Halkiopoulos's initial research is described by Eysenck, MacLeod, and Mathews (1987) and, in some more technical detail, by Eysenck (1991). Halkiopoulos himself describes this study towards the end of his UCL final year's dissertation (submitted to UCL's Psychology Department in 1981). The entire dissertation can be found here: Halkiopoulos, C. (2021, December 23). Tone Probe Paradigm (the dot probe paradigm's forgotten ancestry). <a href="https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/6y3d8">https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/6y3d8</a>
Despite Professor Mathews's (as well as others') clear identification of Halkiopoulos as the originator of the dot-probe paradigm, this pioneering technique has often been misattributed in the academic literature. Attempts to rectify this include several recent corrections in well-known publications. For example, the following correction note by Professor Michael Eysenck is only one of several appearing on the publisher Taylor & Francis' bookseller sites. It concerns claims made in Michael Eysenck’s book Cognition and Emotion (Eysenck, 2014). "Correction notice: In chapter 4, on pages 70-71, Christos Halkiopoulos should have been credited for his role as the inventor of the Dot Probe Paradigm and for the design and execution of the experiment discussed in Eysenck, M. W. (1991 a). Trait anxiety and cognition. In C. D. Spielberger, I. G. Sarason, Z. Kulczar, and J. Van Heck (Eds.), Stress and Emotion, Vol. 14. London: Hemisphere. <a href="https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315804606">https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315804606</a>". 
For an intriguing detailed discussion of how the paradigm was invented, recently written and made public by Halkiopoulos himself, see the following: Halkiopoulos, C. (2024, December 7). Tones, Dots and Attentional Biases: An autobiographical account of the development, first implementation, and reception of my attentional-probe paradigm (aka dot-probe paradigm). <a href="https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/jvx68">https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/jvx68</a>
"In many cases, the dot-probe paradigm is used to assess selective attention to threatening <a href="/facts/Stimulation/qTbolu55">stimuli</a> in individuals diagnosed with <a href="/facts/Anxiety_disorder/wh9zFH1V">anxiety disorders</a>. Biases have also been investigated in other disorders via this paradigm, including <a href="/facts/Major_depressive_disorder/l2lQeWqr">depression</a>, <a href="/facts/Post-traumatic_stress_disorder/9etKu7bX">post-traumatic stress disorder</a> and <a href="/facts/Chronic_pain/o4rGTd95">chronic pain</a>. Attention biases toward positive stimuli have been associated with a number of positive outcomes such as increased social engagement, increased prosocial behavior, decreased externalizing disorders, and decreased emotionally withdrawn behavior.

Dot-probe paradigm open-in-new

Dot-probe paradigm