Fig. 2.

Conceptual cascade model depicting the normative relations of socioemotional functioning, affect-biased attention in orienting and alerting, and executive attention across development. Attention bias, as measured by tasks like the dot-probe, likely emerges from an interaction of the three attentional systems (alerting, orienting, and executive attention). There are early appearing biases based on individual factors (e.g., emotionality). These biases are later shaped by developmental processes (e.g., maturational, experiential, and social processes), represented in the “development” arrow. The influence of executive attention increases across development, illustrated by the change in color and shape of its paths.

It is worth noting that even though this illustration would suggest a statistical meditation processes, these factors may also act as moderators. For instance, as portrayed, early socioemotional functioning impacts later affect-biased attention in orienting and alerting via executive attention. In turn, the relation of these biases on later socioemotional functioning is mediated by executive attention. There is some support for this in the exuberance–externalizing literature (e.g., Morales et al., 2016a). However, in the anxiety literature, there is evidence to suggest that executive attention might moderate this link rather than mediate it (e.g., Susa et al., 2012).