A five-factor model of perseverative thought.

Like diagnostic status, clinically relevant thought remains overwhelmingly conceptualized in terms of discrete categories (e.g., worry, rumination, obsessions).

Worry alters speed-accuracy tradeoffs but does not impair sustained attention.

Worry has been experimentally linked to a range of cognitive consequences, including impairments in working memory, inhibition, and cognitive control. However, findings are mixed, and the effects of worry on other phenomenologically-relevant constructs, such as sustained attention, have received less attention. Potential confounds such as speed-accuracy tradeoffs have also received little attention, as have psychometric and related design considerations, and potential moderators beyond trait worry.

"Cold" Cognitive Control and Attentional Symptoms in Anxiety: Perceptions Versus Performance.

Clinically significant anxiety is associated with an array of attentional symptoms (e.g., difficulty concentrating; unwanted thought) that are subjectively experienced as severe.

Difficulty concentrating in generalized anxiety disorder: An evaluation of incremental utility and relationship to worry.

Difficulty concentrating is one of the most common diagnostic criteria across DSM-5 categories, especially within the emotional (mood- and anxiety-related) disorders. A substantial literature has characterized cognitive functioning in emotional disorders using objective (behavioral) computerized cognitive tasks. However, diagnoses are typically formed on the basis of subjective (self-reported; clinician-rated) assessments of symptoms, and little is known about difficulty concentrating as a symptom.