TY - JOUR
T1 - Visual attention in violent offenders
T2 - Susceptibility to distraction
AU - Slotboom, Jantine
AU - Hoppenbrouwers, Sylco S.
AU - Bouman, Yvonne H.A.
AU - in 't Hout, Willem
AU - Sergiou, Carmen S.
AU - van der Stigchel, Stefan
AU - Theeuwes, Jan
PY - 2017/5/1
Y1 - 2017/5/1
N2 - Impairments in executive functioning give rise to reduced control of behavior and impulses, and are therefore a risk factor for violence and criminal behavior. However, the contribution of specific underlying processes remains unclear. A crucial element of executive functioning, and essential for cognitive control and goal-directed behavior, is visual attention. To further elucidate the importance of attentional functioning in the general offender population, we employed an attentional capture task to measure visual attention. We expected offenders to have impaired visual attention, as revealed by increased attentional capture, compared to healthy controls. When comparing the performance of 62 offenders to 69 healthy community controls, we found our hypothesis to be partly confirmed. Offenders were more accurate overall, more accurate in the absence of distracting information, suggesting superior attention. In the presence of distracting information offenders were significantly less accurate compared to when no distracting information was present. Together, these findings indicate that violent offenders may have superior attention, yet worse control over attention. As such, violent offenders may have trouble adjusting to unexpected, irrelevant stimuli, which may relate to failures in self-regulation and inhibitory control.
AB - Impairments in executive functioning give rise to reduced control of behavior and impulses, and are therefore a risk factor for violence and criminal behavior. However, the contribution of specific underlying processes remains unclear. A crucial element of executive functioning, and essential for cognitive control and goal-directed behavior, is visual attention. To further elucidate the importance of attentional functioning in the general offender population, we employed an attentional capture task to measure visual attention. We expected offenders to have impaired visual attention, as revealed by increased attentional capture, compared to healthy controls. When comparing the performance of 62 offenders to 69 healthy community controls, we found our hypothesis to be partly confirmed. Offenders were more accurate overall, more accurate in the absence of distracting information, suggesting superior attention. In the presence of distracting information offenders were significantly less accurate compared to when no distracting information was present. Together, these findings indicate that violent offenders may have superior attention, yet worse control over attention. As such, violent offenders may have trouble adjusting to unexpected, irrelevant stimuli, which may relate to failures in self-regulation and inhibitory control.
KW - Aggression
KW - Attention
KW - Executive function
KW - Inhibitory control
KW - Offenders
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85013212237&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.psychres.2017.02.031
DO - 10.1016/j.psychres.2017.02.031
M3 - Article
C2 - 28222312
AN - SCOPUS:85013212237
SN - 0165-1781
VL - 251
SP - 281
EP - 286
JO - Psychiatry Research
JF - Psychiatry Research
ER -