Short-term desensitization therapy

R has raised the possibility that behavior therapy procedures can benefit from even further departures from traditional psychotherapy formats. Although behavioral approaches such as desensitization therapy are distinctive departures from the verbal psychotherapies, there is still an implicit commitment to one traditional approach: the reliance upon one or two weekly appointments. Clients being treated for phobias, for example, are typically seen for desensitization sessions twice weekly. Yet, both theory and current research argue for more frequent meetings as being more effective. Robinson and Suinn (1969) saw clients with spider phobia daily for five consecutive days, meeting one hr per day. Clients were tested on a behavioral task prior to and following massed treatment. Results showed that prior to therapy, none of 20 clients were able to place their hands near the spider; following massed treatment, all clients improved, 13 clients placed their hands within 12 in. of the spider, 2 touched the spider and 1 client stroked the 4 in. spider twice as it moved across the cage. Suinn and Hall (1970) relied upon an even shorter treatment period: students with test-taking anxiety were desensitized completely within 24 hr. These clients were trained to relax and exposed to hierarchy items from 1–4 p.m. on Friday and 8–12 noon the next day. Results showed that the marathon treated clients showed recoveries to the same degree as that achieved in a group treated over a course of 4 weeks. Theoretically, massed treatment should be more effective than spaced treatment. This is based on the view that massed practice would lead to the extinction of fear or anxiety responses since this method capitalizes upon two factors: (1) counterconditioning, whereby the fear stimulus becomes conditioned to relaxation instead of anxiety, and (2) conditioned inhibition, whereby the anxiety responses become ‘fatigued’ and non-responding is reinforced. Implosive therapy (Stampfl and Levis, 1967) appears to be basically a type of massed practice in which the client is continuously exposed to extremely frightening scenes to extinguish the fear. In implosive therapy the client is kept anxious during the treatment; in massed or marathon desensitization, the client is relaxed throughout the sessions. The purpose of this report is to summarize some results achieved through massed desensitization.     

Massed vs. spaced exposure sessions in the treatment of agoraphobia

The differential effects of massed and spaced sessions of exposure in vivo were investigated with 11 agoraphobics in a crossover design. Clients were randomly assigned to one of the following two groups: (a) 10 daily sessions followed by 10 weekly sessions, or (b) 10 once-weekly sessions followed by 10 daily sessions. The results indicated that both massed and spaced sessions of exposure in vivo effected changes in avoidance behavior and subjective anxiety of agoraphobics, massed practice being superior especially with respect to avoidance. It was suggested that the superiority of massed practice is due to the lack of opportunity to engage in avoidance or escape during short inter-session intervals. The relationship between subjective anxiety and avoidance were considered and the differences between clinical and statistical significance were discussed.     

Distributed rereading can hurt the spacing effect in text memory

The spacing effect refers to the commonly observed phenomenon that memory for spaced repetitions is better than for massed repetitions. In the present study, we examined this effect in students' memory for a lengthy expository text. Participants read the text twice, either in immediate succession (massed repetition), with a 4‐day interstudy interval (spaced short), or with a 3.5‐weeks interstudy interval (spaced long). Two days after the second study trial, all participants were tested. The results demonstrated that students in the spaced‐short condition remembered more of the content than those in the massed condition. By contrast, students in the spaced‐long condition remembered as much as students in the massed condition. These results were interpreted in terms of a theoretical framework, which combines mechanisms of encoding variability and study‐phase retrieval to account for the spacing effect. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Spacing effects on the memory for faces

25 undergraduate women studied 12 stimulus pictures of female faces successively presented in spaced or massed conditions and made affective judgments for the pictures along a dimension of like to dislike. One week after the exposure (study) period, subjects were given an identification test comprised of photographs of the same female faces with different expressions. Analysis showed that the pictures presented in the spaced condition were more frequently and accurately identified than those presented under the massed condition and that affective judgment was unrelated to conditions of presentation.     

Encoding richness of self-generated elaboration and spacing effects on incidental memory

The present study investigated encoding variability in self-generated elaboration on incidental memory as a function of the type of presentation which was either massed or spaced. The subjects generated different answers to a "why" question for the first and the second presentations of a target sentence in a self-generated elaboration condition. In an experimenter-provided elaboration condition they then rated the appropriateness of the different answers provided by the experimenter for the first and second presentations. This procedure was followed by two free recall tests, one of which was immediate and the other delayed. A self-generated elaboration effect was observed in both the spaced and the massed presentations. These results indicated that the self-generated elaboration effect was facilitated, even in the massed presentation because the different answers to the first and the second presentations led to a richer encoding of each target.     

Contrasting reduced overshadowing and blocking

Preexposure of a cue without an outcome (X-) prior to compound pairings with the outcome (XZ-->O) can reduce overshadowing of a target cue (Z). Moreover, pairing a cue with an outcome (X-->O) before compound training can enhance its ability to compete with another cue (i.e., blocking). Four experiments were conducted in a conditioned bar-press suppression preparation with rats to determine whether spacing of the X- or X-->O trials would differentially affect reduced overshadowing and blocking. Experiment 1a showed that reduced overshadowing was larger with massed trials than with spaced trials. Experiment 1b found that blocking was larger with spaced trials than with massed trials. Experiments 2a and 2b indicated that these effects of trial spacing were both mediated by the associative status of the context at test. The results are interpreted in the framework of contemporary learning theories.     

Spreading the words: A spacing effect in vocabulary learning

The spacing effect refers to the frequently observed finding that distributing learning across time leads to better retention than massing it into one single study session. In the present study, we examined whether the spacing effect generalises to primary school vocabulary learning. To this aim, children from Grade 3 were taught the meaning of 15 new words using a massed procedure and 15 other new words using a spaced procedure. The 15 words in the massed condition were divided into three sets of five words, and each set was taught three times in one of three learning sessions. In the spaced condition, learning was distributed across the three sessions: All 15 words were practised once in each of the three learning sessions. At the retention tests after 1 week and after 5 weeks we observed that the meaning of spaced words was remembered better than the meaning of massed words.     

Spacing Simultaneously Promotes Multiple Forms of Learning in Children's Science Curriculum

The spacing effect refers to the robust finding that long‐term memory is promoted when learning events are distributed in time rather than massed in immediate succession. The current study extended research on the spacing effect by examining whether spaced learning schedules can simultaneously promote multiple forms of learning, such as memory and generalization, in the context of an educational intervention. Thirty‐six early elementary school‐aged children were presented with science lessons on one of three schedules: massed, clumped, and spaced. At a 1‐week delayed test, children in the spaced condition demonstrated improvements in both memory and generalization, significantly outperforming children in the other conditions. However, there was no observed relationship between children's memory performance and generalization performance. The current study highlights directions for future research and contributes to a growing body of work demonstrating the benefits of spaced learning for educational curriculum. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

难度与分值对高一学生选择停止、集中或分散学习的影响

选取50名高一学生,选用反义词对和人工词对两种学习材料,赋予学习材料不同的分值,探讨项目难度和分值对学习者集中学习或分散学习选择及其效果的影响,并通过问卷调查被试对不同学习方式的认识。结果发现:(1)只有44%的被试报告分散学习更有效,被试总体上也更多地选择了集中学习;(2)在困难项目上,分散学习比集中学习的效果更好;(3)被试对容易项目更多选择停止学习,对困难项目更少选择停止学习,特别是困难高分项目;对困难项目比对容易项目更多选择分散学习,而在困难与容易项目上,对集中学习的选择不存在显著差异。     

Compliance during sessions and homework in exposure-based treatment of agoraphobia

The relationship between compliance with cognitive-behavioral treatment instructions and outcome was examined for 56 agoraphobic clients treated with in vivo exposure and training in anxiety management strategies. Clients who complied more often with anxiety management instructions during treatment sessions tended to improve more on a behavioral avoidance test than those who were less compliant, but did not differ on three other outcome variables. Compliance with instructions for self-directed exposure between sessions was examined in a subset of 28 of these Ss. Clients who spent more time doing homework reported significantly greater decrements in fear of fear than less compliant clients and also tended to report larger changes on avoidance behavior. However, a quasi-experimental comparison of homework vs no-homework treatment protocols yielded no difference in outcome. Less compliant clients were more symptomatic pretreatment and rated their therapists as less caring and less self-confident.     

Does mediator use contribute to the spacing effect for cued recall? Critical tests of the mediator hypothesis

When study is spaced across sessions (versus massed within a single session), final performance is greater after spacing. This spacing effect may have multiple causes, and according to the mediator hypothesis, part of the effect can be explained by the use of mediator-based strategies. This hypothesis proposes that when study is spaced across sessions, rather than massed within a session, more mediators will be generated that are longer lasting and hence more mediators will be available to support criterion recall. In two experiments, participants were randomly assigned to study paired associates using either a spaced or massed schedule. They reported strategy use for each item during study trials and during the final test. Consistent with the mediator hypothesis, participants who had spaced (as compared to massed) practice reported using more mediators on the final test. This use of effective mediators also statistically accounted for some – but not all of – the spacing effect on final performance.     

Distinct episodic contexts enhance retrieval-based learning

Spaced retrieval practice results in better long-term retention than massed retrieval practice. The episodic context account of this effect suggests that updated representations of the more distinct temporal contexts associated with spaced retrievals facilitate later recall. We examined whether environmental context, in addition to temporal context, may also play a role in retrieval-based learning. Participants studied and then attempted to retrieve the English translations of Swahili words during four acquisition blocks of trials. They were then randomly assigned to practice retrieving items three more times in one of the following conditions: massed practice with the same environmental context scene; massed practice with different environmental context scenes; spaced practice with the same environmental context scene; or spaced practice with different environmental context scenes. After a one-week delay, measures of recall, forgetting, and the joint probabilities between study session recall and final recall performance all indicated enhanced retention for both the spaced and different environmental context conditions. Indeed, after retrieving items in the study session, forgetting them during final recall was 371% more likely in the same context than in the different context conditions. These findings redefine and refine previous accounts of the episodic context model of retrieval-based learning.     

An open trial of a transdiagnostic cognitive-behavioral group therapy for anxiety disorder

Transdiagnostic models of anxiety, and cognitive-behavioral treatments based on these models, have been gaining increased attention in recent years. Preliminary efficacy studies generally suggest strong treatment effects, although few of these studies have examined to what extent treatment effects are similar across clients with different anxiety disorders. The purpose of the current study was to examine the efficacy of a 12-week transdiagnostic group cognitive-behavioral therapy for anxiety disorders and compare outcome across diagnoses. Mixed-effect regression modeling of data from 52 participants with anxiety disorders (predominantly panic disorder and social phobia) participating in an open outcome trial indicated that participants tended to improve over treatment, with no differential outcome for any primary or comorbid disorders. The results of this study add to the growing evidence base for transdiagnostic anxiety treatment models and provide preliminary support for the assumption that individuals with different anxiety diagnoses can be treated equally within the same treatment protocol.     

Vicarious desensitization of test anxiety

students fail in the university environment due to an inability to perform in testing situations because of anxiety associated with tests (Suinn, 1968). Systematic desensitization has been found to be effective in the treatment of test anxiety, and attempts are being made to improve both the efficiency and effectiveness of this procedure (Mann and Rosenthal, 1969; Suinn and Hall, 1970). This study evaluates the relative effectiveness of four methods of systematic desensitization in the treatment of test anxiety. Specifically, two changes were investigated which may lead to: (a) more rapid forms of treatment (massed treatment versus distributed treatment); (b) more easily administered forms of treatment (vicarious desensitization versus active desensitization).     

Massed extinction trials produce better short-term but worse long-term loss of context conditioned fear responses than spaced trials

A series of experiments studied the effects of the interval between extinction trials on the loss of context conditioned freezing responses. Rats were shocked in one context (A) but not in another (B) and subjected to extinction trials in context A. In Experiment 1, massed trials produced more rapid loss than spaced trials. A shift from spaced to massed trials maintained this loss, but the shift from massed to spaced trials restored lost responses. Experiments 2-5 examined this effect of massed trials on responding across spaced trials. They provided evidence that (a) a single trial was as effective as multiple daily massed trials, (b) learning occurred on the first of the massed trials but not on later ones, and (c) the first trial reduced the amount learned across subsequent massed trials. Finally, alternating extinction trials in A and B produced more response loss across spaced trials than blocks of trials in A and B. The results were discussed in terms of the role accorded to self-generated priming in the models developed by A. R. Wagner (1978, 1981).     

Neurogenesis and the spacing effect: learning over time enhances memory and the survival of new neurons

Information that is spaced over time is better remembered than the same amount of information massed together. This phenomenon, known as the spacing effect, was explored with respect to its effect on learning and neurogenesis in the adult dentate gyrus of the hippocampal formation. Because the cells are generated over time and because learning enhances their survival, we hypothesized that training with spaced trials would rescue more new neurons from death than the same number of massed trials. In the first experiment, animals trained with spaced trials in the Morris water maze outperformed animals trained with massed trials, but there was not a direct effect of trial spacing on cell survival. Rather, animals that learned well retained more cells than animals that did not learn or learned poorly. Moreover, performance during acquisition correlated with the number of cells remaining in the dentate gyrus after training. In the second experiment, the time between blocks of trials was increased. Consequently, animals trained with spaced trials performed as well as those trained with massed, but remembered the location better two weeks later. The strength of that memory correlated with the number of new cells remaining in the hippocampus. Together, these data indicate that learning, and not mere exposure to training, enhances the survival of cells that are generated 1 wk before training. They also indicate that learning over an extended period of time induces a more persistent memory, which then relates to the number of cells that reside in the hippocampus.     

Temporally massed CS presentations generate more fear extinction than spaced presentations

Rodent fear conditioning models both excitatory learning and the pathogenesis of human anxiety, whereas extinction of conditional fear is a paradigm of inhibitory learning and the explicit model for behavior therapy. Many studies support a general learning rule for acquisition: Temporally spaced training is more effective than massed training. The authors asked whether this rule applies to extinction of conditional fear in mice. The authors find that both short- and long-term fear extinction are greater with temporally massed presentations of the conditional stimulus (CS). The data also indicate that once CS presentations are sufficiently massed to initiate, or "induce," extinction learning, further CS presentations are more effective when spaced.     

The pattern of subjective anxiety during in-session exposures over the course of cognitive-behavioral therapy for clients with social anxiety disorder

Exposure-based therapies are efficacious treatments for social anxiety disorder (i.e., Gould et al., 1997). Much of the theory behind these treatments is derived from Foa and colleagues' (Foa, Huppert, & Cahill, 2005; Foa & Kozak, 1986) work on emotional processing. However, there has been little research examining individual differences in emotional processing patterns within and between treatment sessions among clients with social anxiety disorder. This study utilized longitudinal data analytic methods to examine changes in subjective anxiety during the first 3 exposure sessions in group and individual cognitive-behavioral therapy for social anxiety disorder. The results of this study provide preliminary evidence that, although anxiety generally decreases across exposures, some individuals experience considerable fluctuations in anxiety during a single exposure. Although anxiety during the first exposure was not significantly related to outcome, the relationship between anxiety during exposure and outcome became stronger during subsequent exposures. Overall, this study highlights the need to conduct more fine-grained analyses to better understand the mechanisms underlying exposure-based therapies for social anxiety disorder.     

Extinction of a running response as a function of reinforcement magnitude

Four groups of rats were trained on different sucrose solutions in a straight runway. Terminal running speed was a monotonic function of reinforcement magnitude. After training each group was subdivided, one subgroup being extinguished under spaced, the other under massed conditions. In spaced extinction the animals trained on non extreme reward magnitudes showed most resistance to extinction. It was concluded that resistance to extinction is an inverted U-shaped function of reinforcement magnitude found in training. The massed extinction trials were conducted with a very short inter-trial interval. The animals showed an immediate drop in running speed followed by a gradual recovery and a subsequent decline. The number of trials taken to reach the peak recovery speed was a function of reinforcement magnitude found in training. Results on both massed and spaced extinction trials were interpreted in terms of the facilitatory and inhibitory effects of momentary and conditioned frustration.     

Context Shift and Protein Synthesis Inhibition Disrupt Long-Term Habituation after Spaced,but Not Massed,Training in the CrabChasmagnathus

An opaque screen moving overhead elicits an escape response in the crabChasmagnathusthat after a few presentations habituates for a long period (long-term habituation, LTH). Previous results suggested that spaced (15 trials separated by 171 s) and massed training (300 trials without rest interval) were correlated with two different memory components of LTH. The present experiments were aimed at further studying the mechanisms subserving these components. Results indicate that LTH acquired by spaced but not by massed training is blocked either by a training-to-testing context shift or by cycloheximide (15–25 μg) pre- or posttraining injection and that LTH after spaced training persists for longer time (5 days) than after massed training (2 days). A model based on these results that distinguishes two LTH-memory components is proposed: a (context-signal) LTH yielded by spaced training, dependent of context, sensitive to cycloheximide (CYX), and long lasting; and a (signal) LTH yielded by massed training, dependent only on the signal invariance, insensitive to CYX, and shorter lasting.