Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Addictive Disorders
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1355204

The role of attentional control in moderating attentional bias towards game-related stimuli in individuals with a high tendency for internet gaming addiction

Provisionally accepted
YEAJI HEO YEAJI HEO 1Gi-Eun Lee Gi-Eun Lee 2Jang-Han Lee Jang-Han Lee 1*
  • 1 Chung-Ang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
  • 2 Institute of Cultural Diversity Content, Seoul, Republic of Korea

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: This study aimed to elucidate individual difference factors that modulate the attentional processing of game stimuli so that elucidate heterogeneity of extant findings. The current study examined whether individual differences in components of attentional control (AC shifting and focusing) moderated the link between internet gaming addiction symptom and attentional engagement to and disengagement biases from game-relevant cues. Methods: In total, 75 male undergraduate students who have played League of Legend (LOL) for more than 2 years completed well-established self-report questionnaires of internet gaming disorder symptoms and attentional control. The attentional bias toward game stimuli was measured for attentional engagement and disengagement using the attentional response to the distal vs proximal emotional information (ARDPEI) task.Results: The results revealed that attentional control was a significant moderator of the relationship between internet game addiction symptoms and attentional disengagement bias. Further analyses revealed that positive relationship between internet game addiction symptoms and attentional disengagement bias only among those with low levels of AC-shifting ability. Contrary to our expectations, AC-shifting also moderated the relationship between internet gaming disorder and attentional engagement bias. The positive relationship between internet game addiction symptoms and attentional engagement bias only appeared among those with low levels of AC-shifting ability. Individual differences in AC-focusing did not moderate the relationship between internet gaming disorder and any attentional bias.Conclusion: This study confirmed that the greater the symptoms of game addiction, the stronger the attentional bias, especially in individuals with low AC-shifting ability. Therefore, it is necessary to examine sub-factors of AC in understanding the nature of attentional bias mechanisms in the development of internet game addiction and consider it as a psychological intervention to improve attentional bias.

    Keywords: internet game addiction tendency, attentional control, attentional bias, attentional engagement bias, attentional disengagement bias

    Received: 15 Dec 2023; Accepted: 30 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 HEO, Lee and Lee. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Jang-Han Lee, Chung-Ang University, Seoul, Republic of Korea

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.