Exploring attentional bias in nursing students under sadness priming: A dot-probe study

This study aims to examine how sadness primed in nursing students, influences attentional bias using the dot-probe task. Sixty nursing students who have experienced patient deaths were randomly assigned to either a sadness priming group or a control group in a dot-probe study. Results indicated that, under emotional priming, the sadness priming group had longer reaction times to sad faces in the inconsistent condition compared to the consistent condition (p = 0.001), and shorter reaction times in the consistent condition compared to the neutral condition (p < 0.001). Additionally, their attention orientation index was greater than that of the control group, t(58)=2.477, p = 0.017; both the attention bias index and attention orientation index were significantly greater than 0, t(29)=3.098, p = 0.004; t(29)=3.740, p = 0.001. These findings indicate that sadness priming, leads nursing students to exhibit an attentional bias toward sad faces, characterized by facilitated attention.