Covariation detection in treated and untreated spider phobics.

Twenty treated and 18 untreated spider phobics were exposed to a series of 72 slides. Three different categories of slides were used: phobia-relevant slides (spiders), alternative fear-relevant slides (weapons), and neutral slides (flowers). Slides were randomly paired with either a shock, a tone, or nothing at all. Despite the absence of a systematic correlation between slides and outcomes, untreated phobics strongly overestimated the covariation between spider slides and shock. Treated phobics did not show a covariation bias, suggesting that such bias can be modulated by behavioral treatment. In addition, untreated subjects were more confident about their contingency estimates than were treated subjects. The present results fit with earlier studies.     

Recall bias for stimulus and response anxiety words in spider phobics

Abstract

Experiments on memory bias in patients with anxiety disorders have produced inconsistent results. It is suggested that results may depend on whether the words studied relate to anxiety-inducing stimulus features or to the anxiety response. It was predicted, following previous results, that phobic subjects would show diminished recall of stimulus words, but that recall of response words might be enhanced. In fact, for both stimulus and response words, phobics showed better recall of phobia-related words than of control words. The results are consistent with the hypothesis that phobic anxiety is associated with a bias towards recall of phobia-related words. However, it seems likely that phobic anxiety has several potentially conflicting effects on recall, and that this accounts for the inconsistent results in literature.     

Conditioning experiences in spider phobics.

Using the Phobic Origin Questionnaire (Ost, L. G. & Hugdahl, K. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 19, 439-477, 1981), the present study examined the extent to which severe spider phobics (N = 42) attributed their phobia to conditioning experiences, modeling experiences and/or informational learning experiences. Modeling was most often reported (71%), followed by conditioning (57%), and informational learning experiences (45%). It was also found that patients with a conditioning background reported less extreme cognitive symptoms when confronted with the phobic stimulus than patients with an indirect mode of acquisition (modeling and/or informational learning).     

Emotional responding to fearful and disgusting stimuli in specific phobics

Individuals with small animal and blood-injection-injury (BII) phobias respond to phobia-relevant stimuli with both fear and disgust. However, recent studies suggest that fear is the dominant emotional response in animal phobics whereas disgust is the primary emotional response in BII phobics. The present study examined emotional responding toward pictures of spiders, surgical procedures, and two categories of general disgust elicitors (rotting food and body products) among analogue spider phobics, BII phobics, and nonphobics. Dominant emotional responses to phobia-relevant stimuli clearly differentiated the groups. as spider phobics were more likely to be classified as primarily fearful when rating pictures of spiders (74%), whereas BII phobics were more likely to be classified as primarily disgusted when rating pictures of surgical procedures (78%). Discriminant function analyses revealed that disgust ratings, but not fear ratings, of the phobic pictures were significant predictors of phobic group membership. Both phobic groups were characterized by elevated disgust sensitivity toward video and pictorial general disgust elicitors. Implications and suggestions for continued research examining fearful and disgusting stimuli in specific phobia are outlined.     

Eyeblink startle responses in spider phobies before and after treatment: A pilot study

Before and after treatment, acoustic probes eliciting eyeblink startles were presented to 41 female spider phobies during a behavioral approach test (BAT). During this test, subjects pulled a glass jar containing a live spider as nearby as they normally would tolerate. In order to obtain baseline startles, the subjects also carried out a BAT with a basket containing attractive food items. Startle responses were found to be relatively larger during the spider BAT than during the food BAT. This difference in relative magnitude decreased as a result of one-session treatment. The startle response appeared to be relatively independent of other outcome measures (i.e., Spider Questionnaire, BAT, and heart rate). Taken together, the results sustain findings previously reported by Lang and co-workers.     

The potential role of state-dependent learning in cognitive therapy with spider phobics

Investigated the potential role of state-dependent learning in cognitive therapy with spider phobics. It was hypothesized that one strategy for increasing the effectiveness of cognitive therapy for anxiety would be to induce anxiety in subjects while they were learning the cognitive restructuring principles (i.e., during treatment). Thirty-two undergraduate volunteers were randomly assigned to one of six experimental conditions. Subjects in the five treatment conditions (the sixth was a no-treatment control condition) met for three sessions of cognitive restructuring,in vivo exposure, or a facts lecture (i.e., the placebo group). Results indicated that when working with spider phobics, three sessions of cognitive restructuring,in vivo exposure, or a facts lecture resulted in equal effectiveness immediately following treatment, but are more effective than no-treatment at all.     

Covariation bias,classical conditioning,and phobic fear

The present study investigated whether phobics show an illusory correlation (IC) between phobia-relevant stimuli and aversive events. Nineteen treated and 19 untreated spider phobics were exposed to a series of 72 slides. Three different categories were used: Phobia-relevant slides (spiders), alternative fear-relevant slides (weapons), and neutral slides (flowers). Slides were randomly paired with either a shock, a siren, or nothing at all. All slide/outcome combinations occurred equally frequently. A posteriori recorded contingency estimates indicated that untreated phobics dramatically overestimate the covariation of spiders and shock. On-line recorded outcome expectancies revealed that the bias to overestimate the spider-shock contingency is highly resistant to extinction. The covariation bias was accompanied by differentially heightened electrodermal first interval responses (FIR) and unconditioned electrodermal responses (third interval responses: TIR) on phobia-relevant trials. Treated phobics did not show a covariation bias, indicating that such bias can be modulated by behavioral treatment. The present findings sustain the hypothesis that phobic subjects process information in a fear-confirming way.     

A comparison of repeated exposure to fearful and disgusting stimuli among spider phobics

This study examined the role of fear and disgust in repeated exposure among spider phobics. Thirty spider phobics were randomly assigned to one of two experimental groups. Both groups completed measures of fear and disgust and performed two initial standardized Behavioral Avoidance Tests (BATs; one with a fear stimulus – live tarantula, and one with a disgust stimulus – dead rat). One group was then repeatedly exposed to the tarantula and the other to the dead rat. Results of the study indicated that exposure to either the disgust stimulus or the live tarantula was associated with significant decreases in fear, avoidance, and disgust. However, it was found that repeated exposure to the fear stimulus produced a greater decrease in avoidance behavior. Results suggest that both types of exposure can be effective in alleviating associated symptoms and provide additional evidence that disgust sensitivity plays a role in the treatment of spider phobia. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Threat-based cognitive biases in anxious children: comparison with non-anxious children before and after cognitive behavioural treatment

Attention and interpretation biases for threat stimuli were assessed in 19 anxious (ANX) children before and after cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), and compared with responses from 19 non-anxious (NA) control children collected over the same period. Attentional bias was assessed using a picture version of the visual probe task with threat, neutral and pleasant pictures. Threat interpretation bias was assessed using both a homographs task in which children used homograph words in a sentence and their neutral or threatening meaning was assessed, and a stories task in which children rated their negative emotion, danger judgments, and influencing ability in ambiguous situations. ANX children showed attention biases towards threat on the visual probe task and threat interpretation biases on the stories task but not the homographs task at pre-treatment in comparison with NA children. Following treatment, ANX children's threat interpretation biases as assessed on the stories task reduced significantly to within levels comparable to NA children. However, ANX children continued to show larger attentional biases towards threat than pleasant pictures on the visual probe task at post-treatment, whereas NA children did not show attentional biases. Moreover, a residual threat interpretation style on the stories task at post-treatment was associated with higher anxiety symptoms in both ANX and NA children.     

UCS expectancy biases in spider phobics: underestimation of aversive consequences following fear-irrelevant stimuli

This paper reports the results of two studies investigating judgements made by spider phobics about the potential threatening consequences (unconditioned stimulus, UCS, expectancies) associated with their phobic stimulus, fear-relevant (FR) stimuli, and fear-irrelevant (FI) stimuli. Using a 'thought experiment' UCS expectancy paradigm, the studies reported found that (1) spider phobics reported significantly higher UCS expectancies to spider stimuli than nonphobics, (2) spider phobics consistently underestimated the probability of aversive consequences following FI stimuli and (3) this underestimation of UCS expectancies to FI stimuli in phobics was not the result of a contrast effect resulting from sequential FR and FI judgements. This differential effect may have important implications for the kind of mechanism which mediates judgements about phobic consequences. These findings suggest that the dimensions on which phobic stimuli are categorised may be 'stretched' in the case of phobics and that this gives rise to the comparative underestimation of threat associated with FI stimuli but also makes phobics more vulnerable to acquiring other phobias.     

Agentic and communal bias in socially desirable responding

This research was designed to investigate Paulhus' communion management (CM) and self‐deceptive enhancement (SDE), socially desirable responding (SDR) scales as measures of general SDR, communal bias and agentic bias. The CM and SDE scales, as well as the Schwartz values survey (SVS), were administered to four samples drawn from different cultures and subcultures (N = 900). Participants completed the questionnaires in ‘honest’ and ‘fake good’ conditions. Although conceptions of which values were desirable varied strongly between samples and instructional sets, the CM scale was consistently related to general SDR and to communal bias. In contrast, the SDE scale was only related to general SDR. Contrary to expectations, neither scale could identify participants who ‘faked good’ under normal instructions. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Sensitization and aversive conditioning: Effects on the startle reflex and electrodermal responding

Animal data suggest that shock sensitization as well as aversive learning potentiates the acoustic startle reflex. The present experiment tested, whether this shock sensitization also occurs in human subjects and whether it precedes aversive conditioning. Sixty subjects viewed—prior to conditioning—a series of slides of different emotional contents including the to be conditioned stimuli (CSs). Afterwards, the experimenter attached the shock electrodes and initiated shock exposure. Then, subjects were randomly assigned to view a series of two slides, each for eight acquisition trials in which one slide was followed by a shock. Subsequently, extinction trials (12 for each slide) were administered. During preconditioning, acquisition, and extinction, startle probes occurred unpredictably during and between slide viewing. Preconditioning data replicated previous results by Lang and his associates, showing that the startle response magnitude is directly related to the affective valence induced by the slides. Shock exposure strongly facilitated the startle reflex magnitude. This shock sensitization was absent for the skin conductance response. Course of learning also varied for both response systems. The data suggest that startle reflex potentiation indexes the acquisition of an avoidance disposition, which is preceded by a general sensitization of the protective reflexes. Skin conductance learning follows arousal changes and is modulated by cognitive processes.     

Attentional and behavioural responses of spider fearfuls to virtual spiders

This study employed an immersed virtual environment (IVE) in the Nijmegen RIVERlab to study spider fearfuls’ attentional and motor reactions to virtual spiders. The participants were exposed to virtual spiders while completing an unrelated task, walking freely through a virtual museum. Compared to non-fearful controls, spider fearfuls showed an increase in state anxiety, they spent more time looking at spiders, and they exhibited spontaneous behavioural avoidance of spiders and visually similar objects. The results extend, and to some degree contradict, those of earlier studies with static pictures, and they speak to the usefulness of state-of-the-art IVEs in fundamental anxiety research.     

Effects of stimulus preexposure on omission responding and omission-produced dishabituation of the human electrodermal response

As a test of Wagner's (1981) theory of habituation, three experiments examined the effects of stimulus preexposure on electrodermal responding to the absence of a stimulus and on omission-produced dishabituation. The general procedure for all experiments consisted of a preexposure phase in which one stimulus (S1) was presented 20 times, followed by a pairing phase in which S1 was followed by a second event, S2. After a number of S1-S2 pairings, S2 was omitted for one trial and was then represented following S1 on the next trial. Electrodermal activity was measured in all experiments, and in Experiments 2 and 3, a measure of expectancy of S2 in the presence of S1 was also obtained to provide a putative index of S2 priming by S1. Experiments 1 (N=48) and 2 (N=72) employed 15 S1-S2 pairings prior to S2 omission. Significant omission responding and dishabituation to S2 were obtained in both experiments. However, omission effects were not influenced by preexposure presentations of S1. Experiment 3, on the other hand, demonstrated that omission responding and dishabituation were attenuated by 20 preexposures of S1 when only 4 S1-S2 pairings were employed. In addition, Experiments 2 and 3 revealed that although expectation of S2 developed as a function of S1-S2 pairings, it too was reduced by preexposure to S1. Only Experiment 3 provided preexposure effects that are consistent with Wagner's (1981) theory.     

Contamination vs. harm-relevant outcome expectancies and covariation bias in spider phobia

There is increasing evidence that spiders are not feared because of harmful outcome expectancies but because of disgust and contamination-relevant outcome expectancies. This study investigated the relative strength of contamination- and harm-relevant UCS expectancies and covariation bias in spider phobia. High (n=25) and low (n=24) spider fearful individuals saw a series of slides comprising spiders, pitbulls, maggots, and rabbits. Slides were randomly paired with either a harm-relevant outcome (electrical shock), a contamination-related outcome (drinking of a distasting fluid), or nothing. Spider fearful individuals displayed a contamination-relevant UCS expectancy bias associated with spiders, whereas controls displayed a harm-relevant expectancy bias. There was no evidence for a (differential) postexperimental covariation bias; thus the biased expectancies were not robust against refutation. The present findings add to the evidence that contamination ideation is critically involved in spider phobia.     

Autobiographical memory in posttraumatic stress disorder before and after treatment

Although overgeneral retrieval of autobiographical memories has been repeatedly demonstrated in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), no studies have indexed overgeneral retrieval before and after treatment of PTSD. Autobiographical memory was assessed in PTSD participants (n=20) prior to commencing cognitive behaviour therapy and 6 months after therapy completion. Fifteen participants completed both assessments. Improvement in PTSD symptoms was significantly associated with improved retrieval of specific memories and decreased retrieval of categoric memories in response to positive cues. These data suggest that symptom reduction during treatment of PTSD leads to greater access to specific memories of positive experiences.     

Self-focused attention before and after treatment of social phobia

It has been hypothesized that effective psychological treatment for social phobia changes the person's representation of the self in a more positive direction. In order to test this hypothesis, we analyzed 506 thoughts that were endorsed by 23 social phobic individuals while anticipating socially stressful situations before and after exposure therapy. Treatment efficacy was assessed with the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory (SPAI) [Turner, S. M., Beidel, D. C., Dancu, C. V., & Stanley M. A. (1989) An empirically derived inventory to measure social fears and anxiety: the Social Phobia and Anxiety Inventory. Psychological Assessment, 1, 35-40)]. Subjects endorsed significantly fewer negative self-focused thoughts after treatment (on average 8.7% of the thoughts) than before treatment (26.5%, p < 0.005). These changes were highly correlated with pre-post difference scores in the social phobia subscale of the SPAI (r = 0.74, p < 0.0001). Implications of the results for the cognitive model of social phobia will be discussed.     

Post-event rumination and negative self-appraisal in social phobia before and after treatment

This study investigated the relationship between self-appraisals of performance, symptom severity and post-event rumination in social phobia, and evaluated the effect of treatment on these variables. A socially phobic group and a nonanxious control group performed an impromptu speech and were told that their performance would be evaluated. Participants appraised their performance immediately after the speech and 1 week later, and the frequency of post-event rumination during the week following the speech was assessed. The socially phobic group maintained the negative appraisals of their speech over the week, whereas the nonclinical group showed increased positivity about their performance The socially phobic group also engaged in more negative rumination than controls. Treatment improved perceptions of performance and reduced negative rumination. These results are discussed in the light of cognitive models of social phobia.