Abstract:  PURPOSE:From the social cognitive perspective, we systematically investigated the effect of empathy to attentional bias and specific components time processes under the different cognitive resources and different types of emotional information.
METHODS：We used emotional Stroop paradigm and dot probe paradigm and combined with eye movement, words and faces were the experimental stimulus.In study1, we adopted emotional Stroop task and recorded fixation time and fixation count.In study2, we used dot probe paradigm and recorded first fixation time and fixation time and fixation count as the index of attention orientation and attention maintenance respectively.
RESULTS:Study1 showed that all participants showed negative attentional bias(longer fixation time and more fixation count), especially for sad face.Study2 showed that all participants directed their attention more quickly(shorter first fixation time)to emotional information than neutral ones at the attention orientation stage.However, at the attention maintenance stage, only participants with high empathy had longer total fixation duration and more fixation count for happy and sad faces than participants with low empathy.
CONCLUSIONS: This study indicated that only under the conditions of low cognitive resources consumption and face stimulus,could participants with high empathy play the processing advantages of attention orientation-maintenance pattern towards emotional information,which provided a reference for the optimization of trait empathy.

Key words:  empathy, attentional bias, emotional Stroop, dot probe, eye movement