Abstract
Background and Objectives: Negative cognitive biases have been linked to anxiety and mood problems. Accumulated data from laboratory studies show that positive and negative interpretation styles with accompanying changes in mood can be induced through cognitive bias modification (CBM) paradigms. Despite the therapeutic potential of positive training effects, few studies have explored training paradigms administered via smartphones. The current study aimed to compare the effectiveness of three different types of training programmes (cognitive bias modification-attention, CBM-A; cognitive bias modification-interpretation, CBM-I; attention and interpretation modification, AIM) administered via smart-phones by using a control condition (CC).Methods: Seventy-six undergraduate participants with high social anxiety (Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale, LSAS ≥ 30) were randomly assigned to four groups: CBM-A (n = 20), CBM-I (n = 20), AIM (n = 16), and CC (n = 20).Results: The results showed that the effects of CBM training, CBM-I training, or AIM training vs. CC for attention yielded no significant differences in dot-probe attention bias scores. The CBM-I group showed significantly less threat interpretation and more benign interpretation than the CC group on interpretation bias scores.Conclusions: The present results supported the feasibility of delivering CBM-I via smartphones, but the effectiveness of CBM-A and AIM training via smartphones was limited.
Highlights
Research has shown that individuals who are extremely anxious tend to preferentially orient their attention toward threats, which influences their sensitivity to the environment (Fox and Beevers, 2016), and to interpret ambiguous information as threatening, which could reflect the down-stream effects of anxiety (White et al, 2016)
To examine whether the training was influenced by anxiety state, a 4 × 2 mixed-design ANOVA was performed on the state anxiety data, with group (CBM-A, Cognitive Bias Modification (CBM)-I, AIM vs. control condition (CC)) as between subjects and time as the withinsubjects factors
The results showed that the positive bias scores at post-test were more negative and significantly higher than at pre-test (p < 0.001, d = 0.55, 1-β = 0.92) for the Cognitive Bias Modification-Interpretation (CBM-I) group, but in the other three groups, there was no significant difference between pre- and post-test (p > 0.05, d ≤ 0.20, 1-β ≥ 0.80)
Summary
Research has shown that individuals who are extremely anxious tend to preferentially orient their attention toward threats, which influences their sensitivity to the environment (Fox and Beevers, 2016), and to interpret ambiguous information as threatening, which could reflect the down-stream effects of anxiety (White et al, 2016). Cognitive Bias Modification (Kuckertz and Amir, 2015) and that CBM-I can promote an optimism interpretive bias among anxious individuals (Rozenman et al, 2014; Clifton et al, 2016). These modifications were accompanied by a decline in the level of anxiety (Beard et al, 2011; Brosan et al, 2011). Accumulated data from laboratory studies show that positive and negative interpretation styles with accompanying changes in mood can be induced through cognitive bias modification (CBM) paradigms. The current study aimed to compare the effectiveness of three different types of training programmes (cognitive bias modification-attention, CBM-A; cognitive bias modification-interpretation, CBM-I; attention and interpretation modification, AIM) administered via smart-phones by using a control condition (CC)
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