Selective Attention Of College Students To Information Of COVID-19 And Suggestion

Our brain selectively activates certain information while suppressing other irrelevant information.This is called selective attention.It is a vital link in the information processing,and it is also the basic guarantee for the efficient operation of limited cognitive resources.Existing studies have examined the impact of infectious diseases on psychosocial processing such as emotion and risk perception,and less attention has been paid to the impact of infectious diseases on basic cognitive processing such as selective attention.Therefore,this research mainly focuses on the selective attention of college students to information related to the epidemic in the context of the spread of COVID-19,in order to reveal the impact of infectious diseases on the selective attention processing of healthy individuals,and propose countermeasures accordingly.Information specificity,information valence and emotional state will affect the individual’s selective attention.Previous studies have shown that individuals who have experienced security threats will change their selective attention to relevant specific information.Not only that,information with different valences will also have different effects on the selective attention of individuals.Therefore,this article will examine the impact of the “COVID-19” epidemic on the selective attention of college students from the three dimensions of epidemic specificity,emotional valence,and individual anxiety.Based on the above three potential influencing factors,this article designed four studies: Study 1 examined the impact of epidemic specificity of information on the selective attention of college students under the normal situation of the epidemic;Study2 examined the impact of epidemic information with different valence on the selective attention of college students under the normal situation of the epidemic;Study 3examined the impact of the information’s epidemic specificity on the selective attention of college students in a state of pandemic anxiety;Study 4 examined the impact of epidemic information with different valence on the selective attention of college students in a state of pandemic anxiety.The results showed that :(1)The specificity of the epidemic didn’t affect the selective attention of college students to the information of the epidemic item under the normal situation of the epidemic;(2)The valence of information affected the selective attention of college students to the information of the epidemic item under the normal situation of the epidemic.This effect is different in terms of positive and negative epidemic information: for positive epidemic information,individuals have careful avoidance;for negative epidemic information,individuals have difficulty in restraining attention;(3)In a state of pandemic anxiety,The specificity of the epidemic still does not affect the selective attention of college students;(4)The influence of the change of emotional state on the selective attention of individuals is mainly reflected in the epidemic information of different valence: under the normal epidemic situation,individuals have difficulty in suppressing negative epidemic information;under the state of pandemic anxiety,individuals have difficulty in suppressing neutral epidemic information,but have no difficulty in suppressing negative epidemic information.Based on the results of this article,the researchers put forward countermeasures and suggestions for the management of information propaganda during the national infectious disease prevention and control period and the emotional adjustment of college students themselves.In terms of information propaganda management: First,whether it is in the early stage of the outbreak or the normalized management of the epidemic,the information of epidemic items is a very good material for propagating epidemic prevention knowledge;Second,whether it is in the early stage of the outbreak or the normalized management of the epidemic,at this stage,information managers can improve the individual’s attention activation of positive information about the epidemic by changing the way information is disseminated;Third,in the early stage of the outbreak,individuals’ anxiety was more serious,but purposeful active attention was not affected.Therefore,we should consider using this “COVID-19 network” to require the masses to actively learn epidemic prevention knowledge,such as setting up learning in the community classes,etc.;in the normalized management stage,individuals should pay attention to the difficulty of restraining the negative information of the epidemic,and promptly announce those epidemic transmission incidents that have re-erupted,reminding the public not to relax prematurely.In terms of emotional regulation of college students,different anxiety states in the context of the epidemic should use different emotional regulation strategies.In a state of high-intensity anxiety,one should first strip off the defensive emotions,and then experience anxiety,and be aware of the changeability of the epidemic environment from a conceptual perspective;in a state of low-intensity anxiety,cognitive re-evaluation strategies can be used to correct negative ideas about the epidemic.The anti-epidemic experience of the “COVID-19” has strengthened the confidence that the war against the epidemic will eventually win.