The Effect of Emotional Distractors on Visual Search Performance in Young Adults with varying levels of symptoms of ADHD

Abstract

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) involves disruptions in emotional regulation which further impacts task performance. Additionally, different emotional regulation strategies can have various costs and benefits that may impair or aid performance. This study uses a modified emotional visual search task paradigm to understand how salient visual distractors can have an impact on emotional regulation in young adults with varying levels of ADHD. The visual search task required participants to search for a target symbol, located in different eccentricities, against an emotion inducing distracting background image while engaging in an instructed strategy of emotional regulation- either reappraisal, suppression, or simply attending to the emotion. ADHD scores were considered as a continuous predictor in the study. The results found that overall reappraisal, negative images, and peripheral targets slowed participants down. ADHD predicted performance in the suppression and the attend blocks but it was not correlated with performance in reappraisal. ADHD also predicted performance in negative and neutral trials but was not correlated with positive trials. Additionally, habitual emotional regulation strategy use did not predict performance in trials with instructed regulation strategy consistent with it.