Intolerance of uncertainty and attentional networks: Unique associations with alerting

The present study sought to extend our understanding as to how intolerance of uncertainty (IU) relates to information-processing by investigating associations between IU and attentional networks, including alerting, orienting, and executive attention. Based upon prior research, IU was expected to cluster with alerting. An unselected sample of college students (N = 86; 79% women) completed self-report measures of IU and state anxiety, as well as the attention network test. Among the attentional networks, IU only shared a positive association with alerting and the association remained intact after statistically controlling for state anxiety. State anxiety did not moderate the association between IU and alerting. Although two IU dimensions (prospective and inhibitory) both shared a positive association with alerting, only prospective IU was associated with alerting after statistically controlling for state anxiety. The results provide evidence that IU relates to an overfunctioning of the alerting attentional network, which may suggest a role of hypervigilance and a greater influence of bottom-up processing in relation to IU. Implications for how these results advance our understanding of possible links between IU and anxiety disorders are discussed.