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  • Title: Training less threatening interpretations over the Internet: Does the number of missing letters matter?
    Author: Steinman SA, Teachman BA.
    Journal: J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry; 2015 Dec; 49(Pt A):53-60. PubMed ID: 25579609.
    Abstract:
    BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Cognitive Bias Modification to reduce threat interpretations (CBM-I) trains individuals to resolve ambiguous scenarios via completion of word fragments that assign benign meanings to scenarios. The current study tested: 1) whether Internet-based CBM-I can shift interpretations to be more positive/less negative, and 2) whether varying the number of letters missing in the word fragments (assumed to increase task difficulty) moderates CBM-I's effects. METHODS: Participants (N = 350) completed a brief online version of CBM-I, followed by assessments of interpretation bias, fear of negative evaluation, and anticipatory anxiety. Participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 5 conditions: control (half of scenarios ended positively, half negatively), or 4 positive conditions (all scenarios ended positively, but word fragments varied on number of letters missing, from 0 to 3). RESULTS: Relative to the control condition, all positive conditions led to more positive/less negative interpretations. When analyses were re-run with only a highly socially anxious subset of the sample (n = 100), conditions in which the final word of scenarios was missing 0, 1, or 2 letters led to more positive/less negative interpretations compared to the control condition, but the condition missing 3 letters did not differ from the control condition. There were no differences between conditions on other outcome measures. LIMITATIONS: Training was brief, and an unselected sample was used. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest a brief Internet-based CBM-I paradigm can shift interpretation bias, but not necessarily other anxiety-relevant outcomes. Making the task too difficult may blunt effects for highly socially anxious individuals.
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