Temporal dynamics in attention bias (AB) have gained increasing attention in recent years. It has been proposed that AB is variable over trials within a single test session of the dot-probe task, and that the variability in AB is more predictive of psychopathology than the traditional mean AB score. More important, one of the dynamics indices has shown better reliability than the traditional mean AB score. However, it has been also suggested that the dynamics indices are unable to uncouple random measurement error from true variability in AB, which questions the estimation precision of the dynamics indices. To clarify and overcome this issue, the current article introduces a state-space modeling (SSM) approach to estimate trial-level AB more accurately by filtering random measurement error. The estimation error of the extant dynamics indices versus SSM were evaluated by computer simulations with different parameter settings for the temporal variability and between-person variance in AB. Throughout the simulations, SSM showed robustly lower estimation error than the extant dynamics indices. We also applied these indices to real data sets, which revealed that the dynamics indices overestimate within-person variability relative to SSM. Here SSM indicated less temporal dynamics in AB than previously proposed. These findings suggest that SSM might be a better alternative to estimate trial level AB than the extant dynamics indices. However, it is still unclear whether AB has meaningful in-session variability that is predictive of psychopathology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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将注意力偏差从测量误差中解脱出来的时间动态：一种状态空间建模方法。

近年来，注意力偏差（AB）的时空动态越来越引起人们的关注。已经提出，在点探针任务的单个测试会话中，AB随试验而变化，并且与传统的平均AB评分相比，AB的可变性更能预测心理病理学。更重要的是，其中一项动力学指标已显示出比传统的平均AB评分更好的可靠性。但是，也有人提出，动力学指标无法将随机测量误差与AB的真实变异性脱钩，这对动力学指标的估计精度提出了质疑。为了澄清和克服此问题，当前文章介绍了一种状态空间建模（SSM）方法，以通过过滤随机测量误差来更准确地估计试验级AB。现有动态指标相对于SSM的估计误差通过计算机模拟来评估，其中针对AB中的时间变异性和人际差异使用不同的参数设置。在整个仿真过程中，SSM均显示出比现有动态指标低得多的估计误差。我们还将这些指标应用于真实数据集，这表明相对于SSM，动力学指标高估了人的变异性。在这里，SSM表示AB中的时间动态性比以前提出的要少。这些发现表明，与现有的动力学指标相比，SSM可能是评估试验水平AB的更好选择。但是，尚不清楚AB是否具有有意义的会期变化，可以预测心理病理学。（PsycInfo数据库记录（c）2021 APA，保留所有权利）。