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Cited by 134Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive ProcessesNeural and Behavioral Psychology StudiesPsychological Treatments and Assessments

Does attention bias modification improve attentional control? A double-blind randomized experiment with individuals with social anxiety disorder

Open access
Heeren, Alexandre, Mogoaşe, Cristina, McNally, Richard J., Schmitz, Anne, Philippot, Pierre·2015·Journal of Anxiety Disorders
DOI 10.1016/j.janxdis.2014.10.007
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Abstract

People with anxiety disorders often exhibit an attentional bias for threat. Attention bias modification (ABM) procedure may reduce this bias, thereby diminishing anxiety symptoms. In ABM, participants respond to probes that reliably follow non-threatening stimuli (e.g., neutral faces) such that their attention is directed away from concurrently presented threatening stimuli (e.g., disgust faces). Early studies showed that ABM reduced anxiety more than control procedures lacking any contingency between valenced stimuli and probes. However, recent work suggests that no-contingency training and training toward threat cues can be as effective as ABM in reducing anxiety, implying that any training may increase executive control over attention, thereby helping people inhibit their anxious thoughts. Extending this work, we randomly assigned participants with DSM-IV diagnosed social anxiety disorder to either training toward non-threat (ABM), training toward threat, or no-contingency condition, and we used the attention network task (ANT) to assess all three components of attention. After two training sessions, subjects in all three conditions exhibited indistinguishably significant declines from baseline to post-training in self-report and behavioral measures of anxiety on an impromptu speech task. Moreover, all groups exhibited similarly significant improvements on the alerting and executive (but not orienting) components of attention. Implications for ABM research are discussed.

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Crossref · 10.1016/j.janxdis.2014.10.007

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49 of 49 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • Increased vigilance or defense typically characterizes SAD and PTSD.

    “This increased vigilance or defense typically characterizes SAD (Heeren et al, 2015) and PTSD (Cantor, 2009).”

    From Oxytocin Facilitates Pavlovian Fear Learning in Males (2016) · cites this paper as Heeren et al, 2015

  • 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 [80]

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Authors
Heeren, A., Mogoaşe, C., McNally, R. J., Schmitz, A., & Philippot, P.
Affiliations
  • UCLouvain (BE)
  • Babeș-Bolyai University (RO)
  • Harvard University (US)
ORCID
Venue
Journal of Anxiety Disorders
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2015-01
Volume
29
Pages
35-42
ISSN
0887-6185 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.janxdis.2014.10.007
OpenAlex
W2085831037
Cited by
134
References
48
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 12 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 14 · 2019: 18 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 16 · 2015: 14
FWCI
20.41
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Journal of Anxiety Disorders (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Digital Access to Libraries (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Funders
  • Belgian French Community
  • Belgian National Funds
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
  • Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neural and Behavioral Psychology Studies
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychological Treatments and Assessments
Keywords
attentional bias modification, social anxiety disorder, attentional control, executive function, alerting, orienting, threat cues, anxiety reduction, Attention Network Task
MeSH terms
Adult, Anxiety, Attention, Cues, Discrimination, Psychological, Double-Blind Method, Female, Humans, Male, Phobic Disorders, Thinking, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Executive Function, Self Report

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