Cited by 321Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive ProcessesNeural and Behavioral Psychology StudiesPsychological Treatments and Assessments

The DOI matches its Crossref record, with a small difference in title or year; 123 of the 123 references it cites were found in a registry or an index; none of the 47 sources its claims cite is checked for support yet.

Cognitive Bias Modification: Past Perspectives, Current Findings, and Future Applications

Open access
Hertel, Paula T., Mathews, Andrew·2011·Perspectives on Psychological Science

Abstract

Research conducted within the general paradigm of cognitive bias modification (CBM) reveals that emotional biases in attention, interpretation, and memory are not merely associated with emotional disorders but contribute to them. After briefly describing research on both emotional biases and their modification, the authors examine similarities between CBM paradigms and older experimental paradigms used in research on learning and memory. The techniques and goals of CBM research are compared with other approaches to understanding cognition–emotion interactions. From a functional perspective, the CBM tradition reminds us to use experimental tools to evaluate assumptions about clinical phenomena and, more generally, about causal relationships between cognitive processing and emotion.

Overview

AI snapshot

Written from the paper’s full text.

TL;DR

Cognitive bias modification (CBM) research shows that emotional biases in attention, interpretation, and memory can be experimentally modified, and that these changes can alter later emotional reactivity. The review links CBM to older learning/memory paradigms and argues that CBM is a general experimental tool for testing causal cognition-emotion assumptions.

Key findings

  • Attention training can shift attentional bias and emotional vulnerability: participants trained to attend threat reported more distress after insoluble problems than those trained to avoid threat, while repeated benign attention training reduced rated work stress and lowered cortisol in telemarketers.
  • Interpretation training can change how novel ambiguity is resolved and can affect emotion: negative training increased anxiety and negative interpretations, whereas positive training reduced worry, social anxiety, and depressed mood; effects persisted to the next day and influenced distress while viewing accident videos.
  • Memory modification is less developed: only a few experiments have established biased memories, and five memory-modification experiments failed to find or did not assess emotional consequences; one study found benign training proactively interfered with controlled recollection of negative resolutions.
  • CBM is framed as related to transfer-appropriate processing, desirable difficulties, and associative learning; far-transfer effects to emotional challenges are central but are not always obtained.

Methods

  • Design: narrative review of experiments within the CBM tradition, comparing CBM paradigms with older learning and memory paradigms such as counterconditioning and transfer-appropriate processing.
  • Data or sample: reviewed experiments were conducted with nonclinical volunteers unless participants were selected for special characteristics such as emotional vulnerability or clinical condition.
  • Main analysis: qualitative synthesis of attention, interpretation, and memory modification studies, plus discussion of mechanisms, automaticity versus cognitive control, mood-cognition research, appraisal theory, and cognitive behavior therapy.

Limitations

  • The paper states that only a few experiments have been performed to establish biased memories, that five memory-modification experiments failed to find or did not assess emotional consequences, that far transfer is not always obtained, and that it is too soon to know the extent and manner of controlled versus automatic processes in CBM.
  • The paper also notes that self-reports about cognitive procedures are usually not reliable and that there has been little neuroimaging research on cognitive control in bias modification.
  • Evident from the text: as a narrative review, it does not report a systematic search strategy or quantitative synthesis.

Model-written summary. Check it against the paper before relying on it.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1177/1745691611421205

Cites

123 of 123 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Nothing to recompute.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

37 Not checked yet · 27 Own interpretation · 3 No basis given

Verify all 47 references — free account

Show all 46 claims

  • It may state two separate claims as one. 19
  • Probably not a substantial claim. 2
21 of 21
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    Cognitive characteristics play a part in creating emotional resilience or emotional vulnerability.

    “A fundamental assumption underlying cognitive therapy for emotional disorders and cognitive appraisal theories of emotion is that cognitive characteristics play a part in creating emotional resilience or emotional vulnerability.”
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    The same fundamental principles underlying CBM are likely to apply across a wide range of specific applications.

    “Until we learn otherwise, we assume that the same fundamental principles are likely to apply across a wide range of specific applications.”
  • The authors state this as an assumption.

    The same cognitive procedures are involved in stressful transfer tasks as in training, despite differing contexts.

    “the same cognitive procedures are assumed to be involved but the contexts differ substantially from those presented during training.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Students forget learned material after tests, and anxious or depressed individuals revert to well-practiced biases outside therapy.

    “Unfortunately, students often forget what they have learned in college classes once the test has been taken, and anxious or depressed individuals easily revert to well-practiced biases outside the therapeutic context.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Self-reports about cognitive procedures are usually not reliable.

    “self-reports about cognitive procedures are usually not reliable.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    The lateral frontal cortex is implicated in intentional control.

    “Because the lateral frontal cortex is implicated in intentional control, this finding might argue against exclusively automatic effects.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    Appraisal theories have generally been tested by showing that the self-reported relevance of an event is a good predictor of emotional response, and not by modifying processes assumed to contribute to appraisal but likely inaccessible to conscious report.

    “Appraisal theories have generally been tested by showing that the self-reported relevance of an event is a good predictor of emotional response and not by modifying processes assumed to contribute to appraisal but likely inaccessible to conscious report, as in CBM experiments.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    In CBT, exposure to evocative events is designed to reduce emotional reactions via extinction or to collect evidence against false beliefs by showing that anticipated catastrophic consequences do not occur.

    “In CBT, exposure to evocative events is designed to reduce emotional reactions via extinction (sometimes referred to as habituation) or to collect evidence against false beliefs by showing that anticipated catastrophic consequences do not occur.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    In CBM, training and control conditions sometimes involve a similar extent of exposure to potential threat cues.

    “In CBM, by contrast, extinction due to exposure is not thought to be the agent of change; in fact, training and control conditions sometimes involve a similar extent of exposure to potential threat cues.”
  • The paper relies on this without support.

    CBT also targets inappropriate cognitive content, but here the usual means of change is to directly challenge the reportable thoughts believed to maintain distress.

    “To be sure, CBT also targets inappropriate cognitive content, but here the usual means of change is to directly challenge the reportable thoughts believed to maintain distress.”
10 of 10

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Citations

Cites

Show all 120 references

Research works printed but not linked: 5

  1. Anderson M.C., True and false recovered memories: Toward a reconciliation of the debate. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 58
  2. 10.1016/j.jbttep.2010.12.006 · DOI
  3. McDaniel M.A., 2010, Cognitive psychology of memory, 819
  4. Peters K.D., Journal of Abnormal Psychology
  5. Smith C.A., 1992, Emotion and social behaviour, 32

Cited by

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Metadata

Authors
Hertel, P. T., & Mathews, A.
Affiliations
  • Trinity University (US)
  • University of California, Davis (US)
Corresponding author
Hertel, Paula T.
Venue
Perspectives on Psychological Science
Published
2011-10-14
Volume
6
Issue
6
Pages
521-536
ISSN
  • 1745-6916 (ISSN-L)
  • 1745-6924
OpenAlex
W1995460541
Cited by
321
References
120
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 22 · 2021: 23 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 19 · 2018: 29 · 2017: 21 · 2016: 34 · 2015: 34 · 2014: 25 · 2013: 31 · 2012: 15
FWCI
29.26
Type
journal article
Language
en
Locations
  • Perspectives on Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Digital Commons - Trinity University (Trinity University) (submittedVersion)
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
cognitive bias modification, emotional bias, attentional bias, interpretation bias, memory bias, emotion and cognition, emotional disorders

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