Cited by 356Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive ProcessesPsychological Treatments and AssessmentsDeath Anxiety and Social Exclusion

The effect of a single-session attention modification program on response to a public-speaking challenge in socially anxious individuals

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Amir, Nader, Weber, Geri, Beard, Courtney, Bomyea, Jessica, Taylor, Charles T.·2008·Journal of Abnormal Psychology

Abstract

Research suggests that individuals with social anxiety show an attention bias for threat-relevant information However, few studies have directly manipulated attention to examine its effect on anxiety. In the current article, the authors tested the hypothesis that an attention modification program would be effective in reducing anxiety response and improving performance on a public-speaking challenge. Socially anxious participants completed a probe detection task by identifying letters (E or F) replacing one member of a pair of faces (neutral or disgust). The authors trained attention by including a contingency between the location of the neutral face and the probe in one group (Attention Modification Program; AMP). Participants in the AMP group showed significantly less attention bias to threat after training and lower levels of anxiety in response to a public-speaking challenge than did the participants in the Attention Control Condition (ACC) group. Moreover, blind raters judged the speeches of those in the AMP group as better than those in the ACC group. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that attention plays a causal role in the maintenance of social anxiety.

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  • The lack of significant differences in the association of social anxiety and cognitive biases for different modalities of cue presentation fits with the observation of such biases in both the nonverbal and verbal domains and supports the hypothesis that cognitive biases in social anxiety solely depend on their relation to social threat and generalize across sensory modalities.

    “At the behavioral level, the lack of significant differences in the association of SA and the cognitive biases for different modalities of cue presentation fits with the observation of such biases both in the nonverbal [5]–[8] and verbal [61] domain of information processing and further supports the hypothesis that cognitive biases in SA solely depend on their relation to social threat and”

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Authors
Amir, N., Weber, G., Beard, C., Bomyea, J., & Taylor, C. T.
Affiliations
  • San Diego State University (US)
  • University of Georgia (US)
  • Brown University (US)
Corresponding author
Amir, Nader
Venue
Journal of Abnormal Psychology
Published
2008-11
Volume
117
Issue
4
Pages
860-868
ISSN
  • 0021-843X (ISSN-L)
  • 1939-1846
OpenAlex
W2151660788
Cited by
356
References
58
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 10 · 2022: 6 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 21 · 2018: 27 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 28 · 2015: 36 · 2014: 30 · 2013: 39 · 2012: 37
FWCI
33.17
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of Abnormal Psychology (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH087623, R34MH077129, R34MH073004)
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 › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
Keywords
social anxiety, attention bias to threat, public speaking, anxiety maintenance, attention training, speech performance
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Arousal, Attention, Behavior Therapy, Discrimination Learning, Emotions, Facial Expression, Female, Generalization, Psychological, Humans, Male, Orientation, Pattern Recognition, Visual, Phobic Disorders, Practice, Psychological, Psychomotor Performance, Reaction Time, Rejection, Psychology, Social Perception, Speech, Young Adult

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