Security priming improves attentional processing to infant emotions among insecurely attached women: The different roles of supraliminal and subliminal priming

Abstract In t wo ERP experiments, we examined the attention-related mechanism involved in perceiving infant emotions following exposure to security priming. Specifically, we examined how security priming affected securely and insecurely attached women. We found that both supraliminal and subliminal security priming resulted in increased attention allocation in anxiously and avoidantly attached women but had no effect on securely attached women. Moreover, we also found that supraliminal and subliminal security priming differed in their effectiveness in increasing attention allocation among anxiously and avoidantly attached women. Supraliminal security priming were more effective for anxiously attached women, whereas subliminal security priming were more effective for avoidantly attached women. The implications of these findings and directions for future research are discussed.