Abstract
There is growing evidence that cognitive bias modification procedures targeting attention (CBM-A) can alter anxiety reactivity in the laboratory, and also can yield therapeutic benefits for clinically anxious patients. These promising findings underscore the need for investigators to delineate the conditions under which CBM-A procedures are effective. In the present research we conducted two studies to empirically determine whether CBM-A continues to be effective when participants are informed of the training contingency and instructed to actively practice the target pattern of attentional selectivity. These studies were designed to address two key questions relating to this issue. First, if participants are informed of the training contingency and instructed to practice the target pattern of attentional selectivity, then will the CBM-A manipulation still effectively modify attentional response to negative information? Second, if it does still modify attentional response to negative information under these conditions, then will this change in attentional selectivity still serve to alter anxiety responses to a stressful experience? The results indicate that when participants are informed of the training contingency and instructed to practice the target pattern of attentional selectivity, then the CBM-A manipulation continues to exert an impact on attentional selectivity, but this modification of attentional bias no longer affects anxiety reactivity to a subsequent stressor. We discuss both the theoretical and practical implications of these findings.
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Notes
This represents a lenient criterion, as a participant randomly endorsing three options would have a 43 % probability of endorsing the valence option by chance alone.
Assuming the conventional levels of α = .05 and β = .80.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by Australian Research Council Grant DP0879589, and by a grant from the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research, CNCS-UEFISCDI, Project Number PNII-ID-PCCE-2011-2-0045.
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Appendix
Appendix
CAQ: Part A
Please think back to the first stage of the experiment in which you had to indicate whether one dot or two dots appeared on the screen after the words.
What do you think predicted where (in the location of the top or bottom word) the probe would more often appear? Please make any comments that come to mind even if you think it is just a guess or intuition about some aspect of the way you did the task_________
CAQ: Part B
Please answer Questions 1 and 2 for each of the Word Characteristics.
If you answer YES in Column 1 to any of the characteristics, then answer question 3 for that characteristic.
Word Characteristic | 1. | 2. | 3. |
|---|---|---|---|
Do you think that this word characteristic predicted the probe location? (yes or no) | How confident are you that your chosen answer is correct (0–100 %) | Where do you think the probe more often appeared? (circle one of the two options for the characteristic listed below that you think the probe appeared more often in) | |
Example: the length of the words | Yes | 50 % |
|
The concreteness of the words | More concrete word More abstract word | ||
The number of syllables in the words | Word with more syllables Word with fewer syllables | ||
The emotional tone of the words | Negative word Neutral word | ||
How frequently the words get used in English language | More frequent word Less frequent word | ||
Text brightness of the words | Word that looked brighter Word that looked less bright | ||
Number of vowels in the words | Word with more vowels Word with fewer vowels | ||
Verb vs non-verb status of the word | Word that were verbs Word that were non-verbs |
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Grafton, B., Mackintosh, B., Vujic, T. et al. When Ignorance is Bliss: Explicit Instruction and the Efficacy of CBM-A for Anxiety. Cogn Ther Res 38, 172–188 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-013-9579-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-013-9579-3