Attention bias modification: the Emperor's new suit?
Open accessAbstract
A series of primarily laboratory-based studies found attention bias modification in socially anxious participants to lead to reduced anxiety. It is argued that the failure to replicate the positive results of attention bias modification in the study of Carlbring et al. may be due to reasons other than the application through the Internet. A number of controlled studies failed to replicate the positive effects of attention bias modification in clinically rather than subclinically socially anxious subjects. Given the lack of robust evidence for attention bias modification in clinically socially anxious individuals, the author is inclined to consider attention bias modification as 'the Emperor's new suit'. Results achieved with regular Internet-based treatments for social anxiety disorder based on cognitive therapy and exposure methods are much better than those achieved with attention bias modification procedures delivered 'face to face' in clinically distressed participants. Given the lack of robust evidence for attention bias modification in clinical samples, there is no need yet to investigate the implementation of attention bias modification through the Internet.Please see related article: http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-244X/12/66.
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Amplifying standard VRET with interventions aimed at modifying dysfunctional attentional biases in SAD does not appear to result in additional clinical change and provides no incremental advantage to VRET.
“amplifying standard VRET with interventions aimed at modifying dysfunctional attentional biases in SAD does not appear to result in additional clinical change and provides no incremental advantage to VRET”
From Virtual Reality exposure therapy in the treatment of public speaking anxiety and social anxiety disorder (2024) · cites this paper as Emmelkamp, 2012
In Background > Clinical relevance of research into experimental psychopathology (page unavailable), the paper reports that attention training did not enhance standard CBT for clinically socially anxious individuals. It does not establish whether adding attentional-bias interventions to VRET provides an incremental advantage over VRET alone. (LLM, conf=0.88)
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References 14 · Cited by 76
- Authors
- Emmelkamp, P. M.
- Affiliations
- University of Amsterdam (NL)
- Corresponding author
- Emmelkamp, Paul MG
- ORCID
- Emmelkamp, Paul MG
- Venue
- BMC Medicine
- Published
- 2012-06-25
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 63-63
- ISSN
- 1741-7015 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3391176
- OpenAlex
- W2052039474
- Cited by
- 76
- References
- 14
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2024: 4 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 4 · 2020: 5 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 5 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 11 · 2013: 7 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 13.74
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- BMC Medicine (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- UvA-DARE (University of Amsterdam) (acceptedVersion, other-oa)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion)
- Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychological Treatments and Assessments
- Keywords
- attentional bias modification, social anxiety disorder, replication failure, online therapy, cognitive therapy, exposure therapy, face-to-face treatment
- MeSH terms
- Anxiety Disorders, Attention, Clinical Trials as Topic, Humans, Psychopathology, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Treatment Outcome, Internet
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