Internet-delivered assessment and manipulation of anxiety-linked attentional bias: Validation of a free-access attentional probe software package

Abstract

It recently has been established within the laboratory that the attentional probe methodology not only can sensitively assess the threat attentional bias associated with anxiety vulnerability, but also can be configured to yield training tasks capable of modifying emotional vulnerability by manipulating such attentional selectivity. In order to appraise and exploit the potential practical applications of such procedures, it is desirable that clinical investigators without specialist equipment should become able to deliver such tasks within field settings. The present research program involved development of a fully customizable attentional probe software package, that delivers assessment and training versions of the probe task across the Internet. Two experimental studies served to validate the assessment and training efficacy of resulting probe task variants, completed remotely by GAD sufferers and nonclinical populations using their own computers. We advise fellow researchers how to freely download this software package for use within their own investigations.