Attention bias modification for reducing speech anxiety
Abstract
The mechanisms mediating the anxiolytic effects of attention bias modification (ABM) remain unclear. Accordingly, we randomly assigned speech-anxious subjects to receive four sessions of one of three training conditions: ABM, inverse ABM, and control. In the ABM condition, subjects viewed pairs of photographs of models displaying facial expressions of disgust and joy on a computer screen. Probes always replaced the positive face, and subjects pushed a button to indicate the identity of the probe (E or F) as rapidly as possible. In the inverse condition, the probes always replaced the negative face, and in the control condition, the probes replaced each face type equally often. After four training sessions, all groups exhibited statistically indistinguishable, but significant, reductions on self-report, behavioral, and physiological measures of speech anxiety. Self-report and behavioral measures of attentional control improved likewise. Contrary to early studies, ABM was not superior to control procedures in producing reductions on measures of social anxiety.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Other explanations for the co-occurrence of reductions in anxiety and AB measures during ABM training, such as whether ABM training modifies other processes (e.g., inhibitory attention control) that might underlie changes in anxiety and AB measures, are rarely examined.
“Moreover, other explanations for co-occurrence are rarely examined, such as whether ABM training modifies other processes (e.g., inhibitory attention control) which might underlie changes in anxiety and AB measures [80,81].”
From Anxiety and Threat-Related Attention: Cognitive-Motivational Framework and Treatment (2018) · cites this paper as [81]
Two of these studies indicated that anxiety reduction was accompanied by improved attention control.
“Two of these studies also assessed attention control (indexed by the interference effect of neutral distractors on the Attention Network Task; Fan, McCandliss, Sommer, Raz, & Posner, 2002), which indicated that anxiety reduction was accompanied by improved attention control (Heeren, Mogoas ¸e, McNally et al., 2015;McNally et al., 2013).”
From Anxiety and attention to threat: cognitive mechanisms and treatment with attention bias modification (2016) · cites this paper as McNally et al., 2013
Studies comparing ABM-threat-avoidance, inverse-ABM, and control attention training showed reduction in anxiety symptoms from pre- to post-training, irrespective of the type of training task, and without reducing AB to threat on spatial-attention tasks.
“These showed reduction in anxiety symptoms from pre-to post-training, irrespective of the type of training task, and without reducing AB to threat on spatial-attention tasks.”
From Anxiety and attention to threat: cognitive mechanisms and treatment with attention bias modification (2016) · cites this paper as McNally et al., 2013
The citation lists haven’t been fetched yet
References 30 · Cited by 95
- Authors
- McNally, R. J., Enock, P. M., Tsai, C., & Tousian, M.
- Affiliations
- Harvard University (US)
- Corresponding author
- McNally, Richard J.
- ORCID
- McNally, Richard J.
- Venue
- Behaviour Research and Therapy
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2013-12
- Volume
- 51
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 882-888
- ISSN
- 0005-7967 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2116127256
- Semantic Scholar
- 1d440aa7bc4b4833f784b46545d29c6431f0b0d0
- Cited by
- 95
- References
- 30
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 6 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 9 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 7 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 6 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 7 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 10.36
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Behaviour Research and Therapy (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Harvard University
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychological Treatments and Assessments
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Stuttering Research and Treatment
- Keywords
- attentional bias modification, speaking anxiety, social anxiety, attentional control, anxiolytic mechanism, facial expression recognition, disgust, joy, emotion regulation
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Analysis of Variance, Anxiety Disorders, Attention, Cues, Double-Blind Method, Female, Humans, Male, Phobic Disorders, Speech Disorders, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Self Report
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
