Fig. 1.

(A) Task description. Participants started each trial by indicating on a VAS scale their expectancy of being captured by the artificial predator in the next trial. At the same time, participants were informed about the condition (HID or VIS) of the next trial by a panel displayed on the bottom of the screen reproducing the condition. After, a rectangular path was displayed together with a blue ball representing the agent positioned in the middle of the path plus, in VIS trials only (presented in the example shown in this figure), a red ball representing a predator appearing on the left extreme side of the path. After 1–3 s, the blue ball turned green and participants had to press a button and keep it pressed to move the green ball/agent toward the target position represented by a gray square at the far right side of the path. At the same time, the red ball/predator moved closer to the agent. On 50% of trials capture occurred (50% of the time at target position, as in the example, 50% along the path), while on 50% of trials the agent reached the target without being caught and a safety signal (two yellow horizontal arrows) was displayed upon the target. (B) Relationship between trait-anxiety and average VAS score indicating the subjective probability of being captured by the predator (r(22) = 0.498, p = 0.018). (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)