ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the characteristics of attentional control between Wenchuan earthquake anxious and normal children. Methods Using Screening Child Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED), 18 earthquake anxious children were chosen as participants and 18 normal children were chosen as control group. They were asked to perform a visual search task. Results ( 1 ) The judgment accuracy of earthquake anxious children was lower than normal children's significantly ( ( 0.95 ± 0.01 ), ( 0. 98 ± 0. 01 ), P ＜0.01 ). ( 2 ) The reaction time of earthquake anxious children was significantly longer than normal children' s ((1664.5 ± 78.5 ) ms, ( 1110.7 ± 78.5 ) ms, P ＜ 0. 01 ). ( 3 ) There was significantly faster performance in the valid condition than in the neutral( ( 1304.7 ± 61.3 ) ms, ( 1382. 3 ± 47.4 ) ms, P ＜ 0. 05 ) and invalid condition ( ((1304.7 ± 61.3 )ms, (1475.8 ± 71.5 )ms; P ＜ 0. 05 ), as well as faster performance in the neutral than in the invalid condition ((1382.3 ± 47.4) ms, ( 1475.8 ± 71.5 ) ms, P ＜ 0.05 ) in all children. Conclusion The performance of earthquake anxious children on top-down attentional control task is less than normal children. It indicates that anxious emotion which is brought by traumatic incidents like earthquake influents earthquake anxious children' s cognitive processing ability.