Attentional bias modification in reducing test anxiety vulnerability: a randomized controlled trial

Abstract

Background

A tendency to selectively process a threat to positive information may be involved in the etiology of anxiety disorders. The aim of this study is to examine whether attentional bias modification (ABM) can be used to modify high test-anxiety individuals’ attention to emotional information and whether this change is related to anxiety vulnerability.

Methods

Seventy-seven undergraduates were included: 28 individuals received a 5-day modified dot probe task as ABM training, 29 individuals received a 5-day classic dot probe task as placebo, and 20 individuals did not receive an intervention between the two test sections. In addition to the measure of biased attention, salivary α-amylase (sAA) and the visual analogue scale of anxiety were assessed as emotional reactivity to stress.

Results

A repeated measurement of variance analysis and paired sample t-test indicated that the ABM group showed a significant change in attentional bias scores after the 5-day training, whereas there were no changes in the attentional bias scores in the placebo or waiting list groups. Importantly, anxiety vulnerability with attention to threats was significantly decreased in the training group.

Conclusions

These results suggest that attentional bias toward threat stimuli may play an important role in anxiety vulnerability. The attentional bias modification away from the threat is effective for the individuals preparing for an exam.

Trial registration

This trial was retrospectively registered on June 22, 2017 with the registration number ChiCTR-IOR-17011745 and the title ‘Attentional Bias in high anxiety individuals and its modification’.

Contributors

Wenpeng Cai: [e-mail]

Yu Pan: [e-mail]

Huangyangzi Chai: [e-mail]

Yi Cui: [e-mail]

Jin Yan: [e-mail]

Wei Dong: [phone] , [e-mail]

Guanghui Deng: [phone] , [e-mail]

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): BMC Psychiatry

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): BMC Psychiatry

Title: BMC Psychiatry

Publisher: BioMed Central (London )

ISSN (Electronic): 1471-244X

Publication date (Electronic): 5 January 2018

Publication date PMC-release: 5 January 2018

Publication date Collection: 2018

Volume: 18

Affiliations

[1 ]ISNI 0000 0004 0369 1660, GRID grid.73113.37, Faculty of Psychology and Mental Health, , Second Military Medical University, ; Xiangyin Road 800, Shanghai, 200433 China

[2 ]ISNI 0000 0004 1761 8894, GRID grid.414252.4, Department of Medical Psychology, , General Hospital of PLA, ; Beijing, 100853 China

[3 ]Department of Engineering and Information, Nanjing City Vocational College, Nanjing, 210038 China

Article

Publisher ID: 1517

DOI: 10.1186/s12888-017-1517-6

PMC ID: 5756356

PubMed ID: 29304757

Copyright statement: © The Author(s). 2017

License:

Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver ( http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.

Funding

Funded by: Major Program of the “12th Five-Year Plan” for Medical Development of PLA

Award ID: 14CXZ002

Award Recipient : Guanghui Deng

Funded by: General Program of the “12th Five-Year Plan” for Medical Development of PLA

Award ID: CWS12J015

Award Recipient : Guanghui Deng

Funded by: Second Military Medical University 2016 Annual PhD Innovative Research Fund

Award ID: 20152049

Funded by: FundRef http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100004543, China Scholarship Council;

Award ID: 201603170127

Funded by: the Military Medical Program of Second Military Medical University

Award ID: 2014JS20

Award Recipient : Wei Dong

Funded by: Shanghai Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning

Award ID: 2013Y168

Award Recipient : Wei Dong

Categories

Subject: Research Article

Custom metadata

issue-copyright-statement © The Author(s) 2018