Personality and Individual Dierences 43 (2007) 18981907

www.elsevier.com/locate/paid

Adult attachment orientations and the processing

of emotional pictures ERP correlates
Amir Zilber, Abraham Goldstein *, Mario Mikulincer
Department of Psychology, Bar-Ilan University, Gonda Brain Research Center, Ramat-Gan 52900, Israel

Received 13 December 2006; received in revised form 3 June 2007; accepted 11 June 2007
Available online 3 August 2007

Abstract

Past studies have consistently found that adult attachment orientations contribute to the ways in which
people handle emotional events. Attachment-anxious individuals tend to intensify negative emotional states
and exaggerate the threatening aspects of an event, whereas attachment-avoidant individuals tend to dis-
tance themselves from emotional situations. In the current study, we examined how adult attachment ori-
entations modulate brain responses to emotional stimuli using event-related potentials. Participants viewed
unpleasant, pleasant, and neutral pictures, and categorized them according to their valence. Individuals
scoring high on attachment anxiety elicited greater late positive potential (LPP) amplitudes to negative pic-
tures than those scoring low on anxiety. Findings are consistent with predictions derived from attachment
theory and add to our understanding of emotional regulation.
 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Adult attachment; Event-related potentials

1. Introduction

According to attachment theory, human beings are born with an attachment-system that works
to maintain proximity to signicant others in times of stress (Bowlby, 1982/1969). This system

*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +972 35317154; fax: +972 35352184.
E-mail address: goldsa@mail.biu.ac.il (A. Goldstein).

0191-8869/$ - see front matter  2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.paid.2007.06.015
 A. Zilber et al. / Personality and Individual Dierences 43 (2007) 18981907 1899

accomplishes basic regulatory functions and is manifested in support-seeking behavior. Early

motherchild experiences shape infants mental representations of the self and signicant others
and these remain active over the entire life span (Bowlby, 1973, 1988). In adulthood, most empir-
ical tests of these theoretical ideas have focused on a persons attachment orientations the sys-
tematic pattern of relational expectations and behavior that results from a particular history of
interactions with signicant others (Fraley & Shaver, 2000). Initially, research was based on Ains-
worths typology of secure, anxious, and avoidant styles (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall,
1978). However, subsequent studies (Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991; Brennan, Clark, & Shaver,
1998) revealed that attachment orientations in adulthood can be organized around two dimen-
sions: anxiety and avoidance. Attachment anxiety is dened by lack of attachment security, a
strong need for closeness, worries about relationships, and fear of being rejected. Attachment
avoidance is dened by a lack of attachment security, compulsive self-reliance, and preference
for emotional distance from others. In this two-dimensional space, the secure style is a region
where both anxiety and avoidance are low.
Recently, Mikulincer and Shaver (2003) proposed an integrative control-system model to ex-
plain the activation and functioning of the attachment-system in adulthood. According to this
model, attachment-system functioning consists of three components: (a) the primary strategy
associated with attachment-system activation, (b) the strategy related to the attainment of a sense
of attachment security, and (c) the strategies triggered by attachment-gure unavailability
hyperactivation or deactivation of attachment-related needs, cognitions, feelings, and behaviors.
The rst component involves monitoring and appraisal of threatening events and is responsible
for activation of the attachment-system. The second component relates to the monitoring and ap-
praisal of attachment-gure availability and is responsible for individual dierences in the sense of
attachment security. The last component involves monitoring and appraisal of the viability of
proximity-seeking as a way of dealing with attachment insecurity. This component is responsible
for individual variations in the hyperactivation or deactivation of the attachment-system and ac-
counts for the psychological manifestations of attachment anxiety and avoidance. Whereas
attachment-anxious people tend to hyperactivate the attachment-system and over-emphasize
needs for proximity and support, attachment-avoidant people tend to inhibit proximity-seeking
inclinations and suppress attachment-related thoughts and concerns.
Mikulincer and Shavers (2003) model also includes excitatory and inhibitory neural circuits by
which attachment anxiety and avoidance aect the appraisal of threatening events and the conse-
quent activation of proximity-seeking inclinations. On the one hand, attachment-anxious peoples
hyperactivating strategies, which maintain the attachment-system in a chronically activated state,
lead to an exaggeration of threat appraisal and heighten attentional focus to threatening events.
Moreover, anxiously attached people tend to generate and intensify negative emotional states as
additional means to sustain attachment-system activation (Mikulincer & Orbach, 1995). On the
other hand, avoidant peoples deactivating strategies, which maintain the attachment-system in
a down-regulated or inactive state, foster the ignoring or dismissal of threatening events and
the suppression of any threat-related thought or emotion that might activate the attachment-
system (Fraley & Shaver, 1997). Although these deactivating strategies are mainly directed to
signs of rejection, disapproval, criticism, and separation, they also tend to be applied to attach-
ment-unrelated distress-eliciting thoughts and emotions because this threatening material can
reactivate unwanted needs for proximity and protection (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2003). Indeed,
1900 A. Zilber et al. / Personality and Individual Dierences 43 (2007) 18981907

Mikulincer and She (2000) and Pereg and Mikulincer (2004) have shown that avoidant people
tend to dismiss and draw away from emotional material, even if this material is not directly re-
lated to attachment issues or interpersonal relationships.
Although Mikulincer and Shavers (2003) model was based on evidence from behavioral and
self-report studies, its neural correlates have not been dened. In a rst attempt to investigate
the neural underpinning of attachment orientations, functional magnetic resonance imaging
(fMRI) was used to examine the relation between these orientations and brain activation patterns
when thinking about emotional events and when attempting to repress those thoughts (Gillath,
Bunge, Shaver, Wendelken, & Mikulincer, 2005). Findings revealed that more attachment-anx-
ious participants showed more activation on emotion-related regions (anterior temporal pole,
dorsal anterior cingulate) when they thought about negative scenarios. In addition, highly anxious
participants showed less activation of brain areas related to emotion regulation (orbitofrontal cor-
tex). It was suggested that anxious people react more strongly to negative thoughts, and are less
capable to down-regulate these feelings. Findings also indicated that participants scoring high on
attachment avoidance showed a somewhat dierent pattern of brain activation, reecting suppres-
sion of negative thought. Whereas individuals low on avoidance tended to deactivate the subcal-
losal cingulate and the left prefrontal cortex while suppressing negative thoughts, these areas were
kept active by avoidant participants. Another study (Dawson et al., 2001) used electroencephalo-
graphic and autonomic activity recordings of study infants and mothers reactions to the strange
situation paradigm. As compared to securely attached infants, insecure infants exhibited less left
frontal brain activity, which may reect greater propensity to use withdrawal-type emotion regu-
latory strategies, such as turning away from the external environment. The above studies show
that attachment orientations are reected on long-term emotion regulation strategies.
In the current study, we used event-related potentials (ERPs) to examine how attachment orien-
tations modulate the processing of emotional information at the individual-stimulus level. ERPs
are changes in electrical scalp-recorded potentials time-locked to specic events. The advantage
of using ERPs is their high temporal resolution, which enables examination of the actual process-
ing of a stimulus. ERP waveforms consist of positive and negative deections (components), which
are regarded as manifestations of specic cognitive processes. By analyzing these components, it is
possible to assess the processing of emotional stimuli and pinpoint particular aspects of informa-
tion processing that are regulated by the attachment-system. One such component is the late
positive potential (LPP), a positive going component with a centralparietal scalp distribution,
which has been shown to be sensitive to dierences in the emotional content of pictures (e.g., Lang,
Bradley, & Cuthbert, 1997; Schupp et al., 2000). This component is thought to reect motivational
engagement and commitment of attentional resources, and has been found to be stronger when
watching emotionally arousing pictures than neutral pictures (e.g., Lang et al., 1997).
We attempted to use the LPP to measure how attachment orientations aect the motivational
engagement and attentional resources allocated to the processing of emotionally arousing pic-
tures. According to Mikulincer and Shaver (2003), attachment-anxious people tend to be highly
focused on the threatening aspects of incoming information and to intensify the experience of neg-
ative emotions, which, in turn, can be manifested in relatively strong LPP amplitudes while pro-
cessing negative emotional pictures. In contrast, attachment-avoidant people tend to withdraw
attentional resources from the processing of emotional information, and, then, they would reveal
relatively attenuated LPP amplitudes in response to either positive or negative emotional pictures.
 A. Zilber et al. / Personality and Individual Dierences 43 (2007) 18981907 1901

On this basis, we hypothesized that higher attachment anxiety scores would be associated with
stronger LPP amplitudes to negative emotional pictures, whereas higher attachment avoidance
scores would be associated with smaller LPP amplitudes to either positive or negative emotional
pictures.

2. Method

2.1. Participants

Forty-four Israeli undergraduate Psychology students (10 males, 1928 years of age, mean 21.5)
took part in the experiment for course credit. All participants had normal or corrected-to-normal
vision and none had a prior history of neurological or psychiatric disorders, drug use or alcohol
abuse.

2.2. Tools and procedure

The study was carried out in two sessions. In the rst session, participants completed a Hebrew
version of the experience in close relationships scale (ECR; Brennan et al., 1998) during classroom
time. The scale consisted of 18 items tapping attachment anxiety (e.g., I worry about being aban-
doned) and 18 items tapping attachment avoidance (e.g., I prefer not to show a partner how I
feel deep down). Participants rated the extent to which each item was descriptive of their expe-
riences in close relationships on a 7-point scale ranging from not at all (1) to very much (7).
The reliability and validity of the ECR scale have been repeatedly demonstrated, also for Israel
population (e.g., Brennan et al., 1998; Mikulincer & Florian, 2000). In the current sample, Alpha
Cronbach coecients were 0.89 for the 18 attachment anxiety items and 0.86 for the 18 attach-
ment avoidance items. On this basis, we computed two total scores for each participant by aver-
aging items in each ECR subscale. Additionally, participants completed a Hebrew version of the
neuroticism subscale of the big ve inventory (John, Donahue, & Kentle, 1991, BFI) in order to
control for this high-order personality trait, which can be confounded with attachment anxiety
(e.g., Shaver & Brennan, 1992).
Participants ERPs were recorded during the second session which took place between 9 am and
5 pm. They were shown a succession of 60 pictures, which were repeated in two blocks. The pic-
tures included 20 pleasant (e.g., seascapes), 20 neutral (e.g., household objects), and 20 unpleasant
(e.g., dirty toilets) pictures selected from the International Aective Picture System1 (IAPS; Lang,
Bradley, & Cuthbert, 1999). The three categories diered signicantly from each other in IAPS
normative valence ratings (M = 7.43, 4.97, and 2.73 for pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant con-
tents). Mean arousal levels for both emotional categories were signicantly higher than for neutral
contents (M = 5.34, 2.9 and 5.47 for pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant contents, respectively).

1
Positive pictures: 7580, 7350, 5623, 5811, 1500, 5270, 8510, 5820, 5460, 5260, 1999, 8540, 8502, 8200, 5621, 8496,
8170, 7330, 7502, 8420; Neutral pictures: 7700, 7025, 7150, 7130, 2200, 7038, 2190, 7050, 7010, 7034, 7002, 7035, 7000,
7170, 7090, 7100, 7080, 7550, 7500, 7190; Unpleasant pictures: 3071, 9140, 9301, 9300, 9435, 9007, 9830, 9000, 9561,
2981, 9342, 9290, 8230, 9180, 2691, 9470, 1525, 9622, 9042, 1120.
1902 A. Zilber et al. / Personality and Individual Dierences 43 (2007) 18981907

The pictures were presented in random order with the restriction that no more than two pic-
tures in a given category were shown in succession. Each picture was viewed only once in each
block. On each trial, a warning dot ashed for 800 ms, followed by the presentation of the picture
for 1.5 s. After presentation of each picture, participants were asked to categorize the picture as
pleasant, neutral, or unpleasant using a three-way response box. The inter-trial interval was 3 s,
including response time.

2.3. ERP recording and analysis

Electroencephalographic data were collected using a 65-channel geodesic net (Electrical Geode-
sics, Eugene, Oregon) containing electrodes covering the head and eye area. Scalp impedance for
each sensor was kept below 60 kX. All channels were processed online by means of 0.1 Hz high-
pass and 100 Hz low-pass ltering and digitized at a rate of 250 Hz. Further processing was
carried out oine. EEG for each trial was segmented with a 100 ms pre-stimulus to 1500 ms
post-stimulus epoch, and segments were averaged separately for each condition pleasant, neutral
and unpleasant. Only trials in which the picture was classied correctly were entered into the aver-
age. EEG epochs were visually inspected and those containing eye blinks, eye movements and
other artifacts were removed.
Due to the dimensionality of the data, we rst conducted an explorative analysis to determine
the time windows and sites in which the waveforms were signicantly modulated by the emotional
valence of the pictures. The voltage of the three picture types was compared within-subjects for
each time point and at each electrode site using repeated-measures ANOVAs using a signicance
criterion of p < 0.01. In order to avoid false positives, we considered signicant eects meaningful
only when eects were observed for at least eight continuous data points (32 ms) and two neigh-
boring sensors revealed signicant aective modulation (Schupp, Junghofer, Weike, & Hamm,
2003). In a second step, the outcome of the rst analysis was used to dene regions of interest
for more detailed analysis of attachment-related variations. A separate mixed-design ANOVA
was conducted on each of the signicantly modulated components with picture type (pleasant,
neutral, and unpleasant) as a within-subjects measure and anxiety and avoidance scores (above
and below median) as between-subjects measures. Signicance levels were adjusted using the
GreenhouseGeisser correction when needed.

3. Results

Participants were categorized as high or low in anxiety and avoidance according to their respec-
tive scores on those measures (above or below median). Sex ratios, ages and personality scores
(neuroticism, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience) scores
were similar for the low and high median groups in the anxiety and in the avoidance scales,
sex ratio: v2(1) < 1, NS, age and personality: all ts(42) < 1, NS.
On average, 84.1% of the pictures were classied appropriately according to the IAPS valence
(as negative, positive or neutral). Participants did a better job in categorizing negative pictures
(M = 92.2%, SE = 1.6%) relative to neutral (M = 78.6%, SE = 3.0%) or positive (M = 81.6%,
SE = 2.27%) pictures, F(2, 86) = 9.28, p < 0.001. There were no dierences in categorization
 A. Zilber et al. / Personality and Individual Dierences 43 (2007) 18981907 1903

between participants with high and low (above and below median) scores in anxiety or avoidance.
The eects of anxiety and avoidance and rst and second interactions were not signicant, all
Fs < 1.8.
Initial analyses of the ERP data indicated that waveforms were modulated by picture type at
four time windows. The rst was a positive deection at frontal electrodes between 100 and
130 ms (P1). Negatively valenced pictures elicited more positive voltage than neutral pictures.
The second modulation occurred at right parieto-temporal sites, between 110 and 170 ms. It in-
cluded a positive deection (110140 ms) and the subsequent negative (N1) deection (140
170 ms). On these components, unpleasant pictures showed more positive voltage than neutral
pictures. The negative pictures elicited more positive amplitudes relative to neutral ones at a later
stage (P2, 180240 ms) at parietal electrodes. Mean amplitudes of each of those regions and time
windows were subjected to the mixed-design ANOVAs described above. None of those compo-
nents were signicantly associated with attachment anxiety or avoidance, and no signicant inter-
action was found between attachment scores and picture type.
The greatest eect of picture type appeared at the LPP window at central electrodes. LPP
amplitude was calculated for each electrode and condition, by averaging the time window lasting
from 350 to 750 ms post-stimulus. This window was selected to cover the LPP component in every
subject without adjacent components. It is also the time window used in several studies using emo-
tional pictures (e.g., Schupp et al., 2000). The modulation of LPP by picture type was further
investigated using picture type and location [frontal (16, 13, 8, 3, 62, 57, 9, 4, 58), central (17,
5, 55, 54, 22, 18, 65, 43, 47), and parietal (28, 29, 30, 42, 46, 33, 34, 41); Fig. 1] as factors. The
two main eects were signicant: picture type, F(2, 42) = 11.64, p < 0.01, and location, F(2, 42) =
60.06, p < 0.01. Post hoc pair-wise comparisons (Bonferroni) revealed that LPP elicited by nega-
tive pictures (M = 1.47, SE = 0.13) was signicantly larger than the one elicited by neutral pic-
tures (M = 0.90, SE = 0.11), p < 0.01 and by positive pictures (M = 1.07, SE = 0.14), p < 0.05.
However, LPP for positive pictures was not signicantly dierent than that for neutral pictures,
F(1, 43) = 3.60, NS. LPP amplitude was largest in parietal sites (M = 3.22, SE = 0.24), signi-
cantly smaller in central sites (M = 1.53, SE = 0.17), and again smaller at frontal ones (M =
1.30, SE = 0.25). The picture type location interaction also reached signicance, F(4, 40) =
2.74, p < 0.05. The dierences between negative pictures and neutral and positive ones were largest
at the central electrodes, F(1, 43) = 22.76, p < 0.01 and F(1, 43) = 10.47, p < 0.01, accordingly. Po-
sitive pictures did not dier signicantly from neutral ones at any site. In addition, there were no
signicant dierences in LPP peak latency between the various stimulus types and sub-groups.
The modulation of the LPP by attachment variables was therefore analyzed focusing on the
central electrode area and on the amplitude dierence between negative and neutral pictures.2
A mixed-design analysis was carried out with picture type (neutral vs. negative) as a within-sub-
jects factor, and attachment anxiety (high vs. low) and attachment avoidance (high vs. low) as
between-subjects factors. There were no signicant main eects for attachment scores on LPP
amplitudes. However, there was a signicant interaction between picture type and the anxiety
dimension, F(1, 40) = 4.09, p < 0.05. The aective modulation was more pronounced for

2
The analysis was repeated adding electrode location as a factor. The pattern of results regarding the eect of
attachment anxiety was similar, yet less signicant, F(1, 40) = 3.23, p = 0.07. There were no interaction eects between
location and attachment, all Fs < 1.
1904 A. Zilber et al. / Personality and Individual Dierences 43 (2007) 18981907

10

64
63

11 6

14 7 1
12
2

15 8 3
19 61
60
13 62

4
23 9
16 58 59
57
20 56

17 5 55 54
21 53
Cz
24 18 43
22 52
47
25
30 50
26
29 42 51
28 46
27 34 49

33 A41
Fz
38 7
31 32 45 48

37 40

35 36 44
39

Fig. 1. Electrode sites on the geodesic net. The sites that showed modulation by picture type are shaded and arranged
into frontal, central and parietal areas.

participants scoring high on the anxiety scale than for those scoring low (see Fig. 2). The dier-
ences derived from both relative enhanced LPPs elicited by negative pictures and reduced LPP
amplitudes for neutral pictures. This eect was further tested by calculating the correlation be-
tween the continuous attachment anxiety score and the negative neutral dierence on LPP
amplitude. Pearson correlation between these variables was signicant, r = 0.31, p < 0.05, and re-
mained unchanged after controlling for neuroticism scores with a partial correlation analysis.
Neuroticism was not correlated with either attachment anxiety scores, r = 0.07, NS, or the LPP
dierence r = 0.04, NS. In contrast, the interaction between attachment avoidance and picture
type was not signicant, F < 1. The higher-order interaction was also not signicant, F < 1, and
the eect of anxiety showed the same pattern in the high and low avoidance sub-groups.

4. Discussion

The aim of the present study was to examine whether adult attachment orientations modulate the
processing of aective stimuli. Our main nding was that highly attachment-anxious participants
appear to have an enhanced response to negative pictures than less anxious participants. As
 A. Zilber et al. / Personality and Individual Dierences 43 (2007) 18981907 1905

Fig. 2. Grand average waveforms elicited by neutral (dotted), positive (dashed) and negative (solid) pictures on the
central area electrodes, shown separately for low (right) and high (left) anxious subjects (top), and for low (right) and
high (left) avoidant participants (bottom).

mentioned above, heightened LPP amplitude reects an increase in motivational engagement and
commitment of attentional resources (Lang et al., 1997). This is consistent with Mikulincer and Sha-
vers (2003) claims that attachment-anxious individuals, who chronically rely on hyperactivating
strategies, tend to exaggerate their vigilance for threatening aspects of the environment. According
to our results, this hyperactivation appears to involve mechanisms that work at the late stages of pro-
cessing and controlled allocation of attention, and not at the early stages of stimulus analysis. This
suggests that insecurely attached individuals spend more resources in processing events that were
already categorized as threatening or emotional, although at the perceptual level they reect similar
processing as securely attached people. The eect appears to be specic to attachment-related
anxiety and not general anxiety, because they did not disappear after controlling for neuroticism.
Our second hypothesis that avoidant individuals would allocate fewer resources to the process-
ing of emotional information was not supported by the ndings. Highly avoidant participants
showed enhanced LPPs to negative emotional pictures similar to those observed among less
avoidant individuals. Thus, emotional regulation and suppression of threat information would
have to occur at a higher level, and is not reected, at least in our data, on immediate processing
to the incoming information.
1906 A. Zilber et al. / Personality and Individual Dierences 43 (2007) 18981907

These ndings are a rst step in attempting to pinpoint the precise mechanisms that underlie
attachment-related emotional regulation. Previous studies have reported attachment-related ef-
fects on behavior and cognitive performance and have interpreted them as resulting from the ac-
tion of hyperactivating or deactivating strategies (Mikulincer, Birnbaum, Woddis, & Nachmias,
2000; Mikulincer, Gillath, & Shaver, 2002; Mikulincer & Orbach, 1995). However, these strategies
have been described in an abstract, theoretical manner, and the cognitive and brain mechanisms
by which these strategies are implemented have not been dened. The examination of ERP com-
ponents that are associated with attachment orientations while processing emotional information
can contribute to bridging the gap between high-level theoretical constructs and low-level cogni-
tive mechanisms.
Nevertheless, these results are only an initial attempt, and should be interpreted with care until
further replication. Individual dierences in ERP waveforms are large and might mask relatively
smaller eects such as those appearing at early components. Further studies ought to seek for a
better signal to noise ratio, which can be accomplished by increasing the number of trials. It
should also be noted that in the present experiment, in contrast to previous studies (Cuthbert,
Schupp, Bradley, Birbaumer, & Lang, 2000; Schupp et al., 2000, 2003), pleasant pictures elicited
ERP waveforms which were not signicantly dierent from those elicited by neutral ones. Emo-
tionally arousing stimuli usually elicit a greater ERP response than neutral ones regardless of va-
lence, reected as augmented LPP amplitudes. The stimuli selected in the present experiment did
not have extreme arousal values as in previous studies and instead had moderate arousal ratings.
It is possible that dierential responses to pleasant and unpleasant stimuli are apparent only at
moderate levels of arousal, reecting valence-specic processing. At increasing levels of arousal,
the waveforms might reect arousal related eects concealing more valence-related ones.
It is also important to note that the stimuli used in the current study were emotional pictures
that did not include attachment-related content. Further research should examine whether attach-
ment-related variations in cognitive and emotional processing are general to negatively charged
stimuli and whether these variations are amplied while processing attachment-relevant material.
In addition, because attachment-gure availability is supposed to have a great inuence on the use
of hyperactivating and deactivating strategies (Mikulincer & Shaver, 2003), further studies should
attempt to examine ERPs elicited by emotional stimuli while manipulating appraisals of attach-
ment-gure availability.

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Institute for Psychobiology in Israel Founded by
The Charles E. Smith Family, and was performed at the Alter Family Cognitive Psychophysiol-
ogy Lab, Bar-Ilan University.

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