Comment on “Zamariola et al. (2018), Interoceptive Accuracy Scores are Problematic: Evidence from Simple Bivariate Correlations”—The empirical data base, the conceptual reasoning and the analysis behind this statement are misconceived and do not support the authors’ conclusions
Abstract
A recent paper by Zamariola and colleagues is widely cited as an authority on the invalidity of the Heartbeat Counting Task as a measure of interoceptive accuracy. Given the widespread interest in this field, it is essential that papers about methods are conceptually sound. However, only one of the authors' four criticisms appears substantiated - that people count too few heartbeats. Their arguments about "simple bivariate correlations" and their finding that interoceptive accuracy and heart rate correlate, depend on 'spurious correlations' arising from the overlooked point that interoceptive accuracy is a ratio. Moreover, scrutiny of the authors' data shows that their fourth criticism (that interoceptive accuracy is lower on longer trials) is confounded by differences in mean heart rate between trials. We present data from our own labs to refute it. We draw the authors' and editors' attention to these issues and trust that they will reconsider these erroneous conclusions.
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The heartbeat counting task may not be sensitive to differences in cardiac accuracy in better performers.
“Importantly, Zamariola et al. (2018) also found that the correlation between reported and actual number of heartbeats did not differ across individuals in the first and second quintile of HCT performers, suggesting that the task may also not be sensitive to differences in cardiac accuracy in better performers (but see Ainley et al. (2020)).”
From Atypical interoception as a common risk factor for psychopathology: A review (2021) · cites this paper as Ainley et al. (2020)
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Atypical interoception as a common risk factor for psychopathology: A review
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- Authors
- Ainley, V., Tsakiris, M., Pollatos, O., Schulz, A., & Herbert, B. M.
- Affiliations
- Royal Holloway University of London (GB)
- Universität Ulm (DE)
- University of Luxembourg (LU)
- Hochschule Fresenius (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Ainley, Vivien
- Herbert, Beate M.
- Venue
- Biological Psychology
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2020-04
- Volume
- 152
- Pages
- 107870
- ISSN
- 0301-0511 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W3006323073
- Cited by
- 88
- References
- 60
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 10 · 2023: 13 · 2022: 11 · 2021: 26 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 2
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Biological Psychology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Open Repository and Bibliography (University of Luxembourg) (submittedVersion)
- OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Psychiatry and Mental health › Psychosomatic Disorders and Their Treatments
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Heart Rate Variability and Autonomic Control
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Deception detection and forensic psychology
- Keywords
- interoceptive accuracy, heartbeat counting task, heart rate, spurious correlations, bivariate correlation, heart rate measurement, methodological critique
- MeSH terms
- Attention, Heart Rate, Humans, Problem Solving, Databases, Factual, Interoception
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