Table 2.

A brief description of the main reaction time tasks used in assessing attentional biases in individuals with chronic pain.

Task	Brief description
Modified Posner (spatial)-cueing task	An emotion-related or neutral cue is presented at one of 2 possible locations in the visual periphery before a neutral target appears. The participant is then asked to identify the target type or spatial location as quickly as possible. The cue may be predictive (indicate the likely location of the upcoming stimulus) or nonpredictive (location unrelated to the target location)
Emotional Stroop task	An emotion-related or neutral coloured word (stimulus) is presented against a grey background. The participant is asked to identify the colour of the word regardless of the word's semantic meaning as quickly as possible, and reaction time is recorded
Dot-probe task	Two cues (one neutral and one emotion-related) are presented at opposite locations in the visual periphery and then a target appears. The participant is asked to identify the target type as quickly as possible. Differences in reaction time between congruent trials, where the dot replaces the emotion-related stimulus and incongruent trials, where the dot replaces the neutral stimulus are recorded
Visual search task	The individual is asked to find a particular visual stimulus (ie, target) among distractors (ie, cues) as quickly as possible. Two conditions are usually presented; in the first one, the distractors are pain-related, and the target is neutral, and in the second, the distractors are neutral, and the target is pain-related. Reaction time for both conditions is recorded