Implicit and Explicit Attitudes Toward Spiders: Sensitivity to Treatment and Predictive Value for Generalization of Treatment Effects

This study tested whether high spider fearful individuals’ implicit and explicit attitudes toward spiders are sensitive to exposure treatment, and whether post-treatment implicit and/or explicit attitudes are related to the generalization of treatment effects. Self-reported explicit and implicit attitudes (indexed with a pictorial Extrinsic Affective Simon Task) were assessed in high spider fearful, treatment-seeking individuals (n = 60) before and after a one-session exposure in vivo treatment and at 2-month follow-up. A group of non-fearful participants (n = 30) completed the same assessments once. Results show that implicit attitudes did not change following treatment over and above test–retest effects. In contrast, explicit attitudes did change favorably following treatment, but negative explicit attitudes at post-treatment were associated with less pronounced overt approach behavior at follow-up. These findings support the idea that residual negative explicit attitudes interfere with the generalization of treatment effects

Implicit attitudes and psychopathology

The past 15 years have witnessed an ever-growing interest in the role of implicit attitudes in mental and health-related problems and disorders. The purpose of the present paper is to provide an introduction to this research area. More specifically the following issues will be addressed: 1) Why do researchers consider implicit attitudes to be of interest? 2) In what way have researchers in the field of experimental psychopathology studied implicit attitudes? and 3) What has this research yielded so far? Rather than providing an exhaustive review, this last question is addressed by discussing some illustrative studies for several types of psychopathology. It is concluded that this is a promising field of research, but that a number of important questions remain unanswered. The paper is ended with a short discussion of possible directions for future research

Snake pictures draw more early attention than spider pictures in non-phobic women: Evidence from event-related brain potentials

Snakes were probably the first predators of mammals and may have been important agents of evolutionary changes in the primate visual system allowing rapid visual detection of fearful stimuli (Isbell, 2006). By means of early and late attention-related brain potentials, we examined the hypothesis that more early visual attention is automatically allocated to snakes than to spiders. To measure the early posterior negativity (EPN), 24 healthy, non-phobic women watched the random rapid serial presentation of 600 snake pictures, 600 spider pictures, and 600 bird pictures (three pictures per second). To measure the late positive potential (LPP), they also watched similar pictures (30 pictures per stimulus category) in a non-speeded presentation. The EPN amplitude was largest for snake pictures, intermediate for spider pictures and smallest for bird pictures. The LPP was significantly larger for both snake and spider pictures when compared to bird pictures. Interestingly, spider fear (as measured by a questionnaire) was associated with EPN amplitude for spider pictures, whereas snake fear was not associated with EPN amplitude for snake pictures. The results suggest that ancestral priorities modulate the early capture of visual attention and that early attention to snakes is more innate and independent of reported fear

Beyond fear and disgust: the role of (automatic) contamination-related associations in spider phobia

This study explored the role of threat and contamination-related associations in spider phobia. Treatment-seeking (n = 60) and non-phobic (n = 30) individuals completed threat and disgust-related Implicit Association Tests (IATs). Phobic individuals were assessed before and after one session of 2.5 hrs in vivo exposure. To differentiate actual treatment effects from test-retest effects on the IAT, half of the phobic individuals completed the IAT twice before treatment. Results showed that: 1) threat and contamination associations similarly distinguished between phobic and non-phobic participants on self-reports and IATs; 2) only self-reported threat associations incrementally predicted participants’ overt avoidance behavior next to self-reported global affective associations; 3) self-reported associations were significantly reduced following treatment; 4) IAT-effects showed no significant reduction following treatment, and no evidence was found for an additional treatment-induced change over and above test-retest effects

Implicit measures of association in psychopathology research

Studies obtaining implicit measures of associations in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., Text Revision; American Psychiatric Association, 2000) Axis I psychopathology are organized into three categories: (a) studies comparing groups having a disorder with controls, (b) experimental validity studies, and (c) incremental and predictive validity studies. In the first category, implicit measures of disorder-relevant associations were consistent with explicit beliefs for some disorders (e.g., specific phobia), but for other disorders evidence was either mixed (e.g., panic disorder) or inconsistent with explicit beliefs (e.g., pain disorder). For substance use disorders and overeating, expected positive and unexpected negative associations with craved substances were found consistently. Contrary to expectation, implicit measures of self-esteem were consistently positive for patients with depressive disorder, social phobia, and body dysmorphic disorder. In the second category, short-term manipulations of disorder-relevant states generally affected implicit measures as expected. Therapeutic interventions affected implicit measures for one type of specific phobia, social phobia, and panic disorder, but not for alcohol use disorders or obesity. In the third category, implicit measures had predictive value for certain psychopathological behaviors, sometimes moderated by the availability of cognitive resources (e.g., for alcohol and food, only when cognitive resources were limited). The strengths of implicit measures include (a) converging evidence for dysfunctional beliefs regarding certain disorders and consistent new insights for other disorders and (b) prediction of some psychopathological behaviors that explicit measures cannot explain. Weaknesses include (a) that findings were inconsistent for some disorders, raising doubts about the validity of the measures, and (b) that understanding of the concept "implicit" is incomplete

Аналіз кількісних та якісних характеристик динаміки наукових кадрів вищої кваліфікації України

Обговорюється проблема кількісних характеристик та індикаторів якості науково-кадрового потенціалу науки, методики їх оцінки. Наведено кількісну оцінку динаміки та сучасного стану науково-кадрового потенціалу вищої кваліфікації України, оцінку динаміки та сучасного стану його якісних показників.Обсуждается проблема количественных характеристик и индикаторов качества научно-кадрового потенциала науки, методики их оценки. Приведены количественная оценка динамики и современного состояния научно -кадрового потенциала высшей квалификации Украины, оценка динамики и современного состояния его качественных показателей.The discussion concerns the problem of quantitative parameters and indicators reflecting the quality of R&D personnel, and their measurement methodology. A quantitative measure is given of the dynamics, current conditions and qualitative indicators of the Ukrainian R&D personnel of the highest qualification

Approach and Avoidance Tendencies in Spider Fearful Children: The Approach-Avoidance Task

Fear in children is associated with the tendency to avoid situations related to the fear. In this study, the Approach-Avoidance Task (AAT) was evaluated as a test of automatic behavioral avoidance tendencies in children. A sample of 195 children aged between 9 and 12 years completed an AAT, a Behavioral Assessment Task (BAT), and two spider fear questionnaires. The results indicate that all children showed an automatic avoidance tendency in response to spider pictures, but not pictures of butterflies or neutral pictures. Girls who reported more fear of spiders on the self-reports and behaved more anxiously during the BAT also showed a greater avoidance tendency in the AAT. These relationships were absent in boys

Testing the Snake-Detection hypothesis: Larger early posterior negativity in humans to pictures of snakes than to pictures of other reptiles, spiders and slugs

According to the snake detection hypothesis (Isbell, 2006), fear specifically of snakes may have pushed evolutionary changes in the primate visual system allowing pre-attentional visual detection of fearful stimuli. A previous study demonstrated that snake pictures, when compared to spiders or bird pictures, draw more early attention as reflected by larger early posterior negativity (EPN). Here we report two studies that further tested the snake detection hypothesis. In Study 1, we tested whether the enlarged EPN is specific for snakes or also generalizes to other reptiles. Twenty-four healthy, non-phobic women watched the random rapid serial presentation of snake, crocodile, and turtle pictures. The EPN was scored as the mean activity at occipital electrodes (PO3, O1, Oz, PO4, O2) in the 225–300 ms time window after picture onset. The EPN was significantly larger for snake pictures than for pictures of the other reptiles. In Study 2, we tested whether disgust plays a role in the modulation of the EPN and whether preferential processing of snakes also can be found in men. 12 men and 12 women watched snake, spider, and slug pictures. Both men and women exhibited the largest EPN amplitudes to snake pictures, intermediate amplitudes to spider pictures and the smallest amplitudes to slug pictures. Disgust ratings were not associated with EPN amplitudes. The results replicate previous findings and suggest that ancestral priorities modulate the early capture of visual attention

Gaze-contingent Attention Bias Modification Training and its Effect on Attention, Interpretations, Mood, and Aggressive Behavior

Cognitive theories propose that aggression is associated with specific patterns of attention to social cues, and suggest that cognitive biases in attention and interpretation are interrelated, The current study tested whether these attention patterns can be altered using a single session of a novel gaze-contingent cognitive bias modification paradigm (CBM-A) and assessed the impact of this on interpretation bias, aggressive behavior and mood. University students (18–31 years) were randomly assigned to either a single session of positive training (n=40) aimed at increasing attention to pro-social cues, or negative training (n=40) aimed at increasing attention to negative cues. Results showed that the positive training indeed resulted in an increase in pro-social attention bias, while the negative training seemed not to have an effect on attention to negative cues. Both groups did not differ on their interpretations, mood levels, self-reported aggression and behavioral aggression. Findings suggest that this novel gaze-contingent CBM-A paradigm can indeed alter biased gaze processes, but may not impact interpretations, aggression and mood. The current study was conducted in a non-clinical sample, further research with a clinical aggressive sample, such as forensic patients is necessary to further explore these issues

The effects of verbal information and approach-avoidance training on children's fear-related responses.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES This study examined the effects of verbal information and approach-avoidance training on fear-related cognitive and behavioural responses about novel animals. METHODS One hundred and sixty children (7-11 years) were randomly allocated to receive: a) positive verbal information about one novel animal and threat information about a second novel animal (verbal information condition); b) approach-avoidance training in which they repeatedly pushed away (avoid) or pulled closer (approach) pictures of the animals (approach-avoidance training), c) a combined condition in which verbal information was given prior to approach-avoidance training (verbal information + approach-avoidance training) and d) a combined condition in which approach-avoidance training was given prior to verbal information (approach-avoidance training + verbal information). RESULTS Threat and positive information significantly increased and decreased fear beliefs and avoidance behaviour respectively. Approach-avoidance training was successful in training the desired behavioural responses but had limited effects on fear-related responses. Verbal information and both combined conditions resulted in significantly larger effects than approach-avoidance training. We found no evidence for an additive effect of these pathways. LIMITATIONS This study used a non-clinical sample and focused on novel animals rather than animals about which children already had experience or established fears. The study also compared positive information/approach with threat information/avoid training, limiting specific conclusions regarding the independent effects of these conditions. CONCLUSIONS The present study finds little evidence in support of a possible causal role for behavioural response training in the aetiology of childhood fear. However, the provision of verbal information appears to be an important pathway involved in the aetiology of childhood fear