Work

Pinpointing Mechanisms of a Mechanistic Treatment: Dissociable Roles for Overt and Covert Attentional Processes in Acute and Long-Term Outcomes Following Attention-Bias Modification

Year: 2019

Type: article

Abstract: Biased patterns of attention towards threat are implicated as key mechanisms in anxiety which can be modified through automated intervention (Attention Bias Modification; ABM). Intervention refinement and personalized dissemination efforts are substantially hindered by gaps in understanding the precise attentional components that underlie ABM's effects on symptoms-particularly with respect to longer-term outcomes. Seventy adults with transdiagnostic anxiety were randomized to receive 8 sessions of active ABM (n=49) or sham training (n=21). Reaction time and eyetracking data, collected at baseline, post-training, and 1-month follow-up, dissociated multiple core attentional processes, spanning overt and covert processes of engagement and disengagement. Self-reported symptoms were collected out to 1-year follow-up. Covert disengagement bias was specifically reduced by ABM, unlike all other indices. Overt disengagement bias at baseline predicted acute post-ABM outcomes, while covert engagement bias was non-specifically predictive of symptom trajectories out to 1-year follow-up. Results suggest unique and dissociable roles for each discrete mechanism.

Source: Clinical Psychological Science

DOI: 10.1177/2167702619842556

Authors: Rebecca B. Price, Mary L. Woody, Benjamin Panny, Greg J. Siegle

Institution: University of Pittsburgh

Language: English

Topic: Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes

Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

SDG: Good health and well-being

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Institutes of Health, National Institute of Mental Health