Some methodological issues in assessing attentional biases for threatening faces in anxiety: a replication study using a modi®ed version of the probe detection task Karin Mogg *, Brendan P. Bradley Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EB, UK Received 21 May 1998; accepted 20 August 1998 Abstract Various versions of the probe detection task have been developed to assess attentional biases in anxiety and there is debate about their relative merits in terms of reliability and sensitivity to such biases. The present study used a pictorial version of the probe detection task to examine attentional biases for emotional facial expressions. The main aims were (1) to see if our previous ®nding of greater vigilance for threatening faces in high than low trait anxiety could be replicated [Bradley, B. P., Mogg, K., Falla, S. J., & Hamilton, L. R. (1998). Attentional bias for threatening facial expressions in anxiety: manipulation of stimulus duration. Cognition and Emotion, in press] and (2) to examine whether the same pattern of results and a similar eect size, would be obtained using a `probe position' task (i.e. where is the probe?), rather than the `probe classi®cation' task (i.e. what is the type of the probe?) used by Bradley et al. (1998). The probe position task produced similar results to those obtained from the probe classi®cation task, so providing further evidence of an anxiety-related attentional bias for threatening faces. Results also indicated that, for non-clinical participants, the probe position task yielded faster overall RTs, fewer errors and a similar eect size, compared with the probe classi®cation task. Implications for the assessment of attentional biases in non-clinical and clinical samples are discussed. # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction One of the main techniques used to assess attentional biases for threat information in anxiety is the probe detection task (e.g. reviews by Williams, Watts, MacLeod, & Mathews, 1997; Mogg & Bradley, 1998a). Such biases have been the focus of much research interest Behaviour Research and Therapy 37 (1999) 595±604 0005-7967/99/$ - see front matter # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S0005-7967(98)00158-2 BEHAVIOUR RESEARCH AND THERAPY PERGAMON * Corresponding author.