TY - JOUR
T1 - Statistical learning as a predictor of attention bias modification outcome
T2 - A preliminary study among socially anxious patients
AU - Alon, Yaron
AU - Arad, Gal
AU - Pine, Daniel S.
AU - Bar-Haim, Yair
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2019/1
Y1 - 2019/1
N2 - Attention bias modification (ABM) is a novel therapy designed to modulate attentional biases towards threat typically observed among anxious individuals. Bias modification is allegedly achieved via extraction of a statistical regularity embedded within the treatment task. However, no prior study examined prediction of ABM therapeutic response in relation to patients’ capacity to extract statistical properties from the environment, a capacity known as “statistical learning”. Here, 30 treatment-seeking patients with social anxiety disorder completed a gold-standard statistical learning task at baseline and then received six sessions of ABM therapy. Results indicate that baseline statistical learning capacity predicts treatment outcome: the better patients’ statistical learning capacity, the greater their reduction in clinician-rated and self-reported social anxiety symptoms. Restricted capacities for statistical learning could account for the moderate effect sizes of ABM therapy in clinical trials. Poor response may occur in patients who fail to extract the underlying contingency embedded in ABM.
AB - Attention bias modification (ABM) is a novel therapy designed to modulate attentional biases towards threat typically observed among anxious individuals. Bias modification is allegedly achieved via extraction of a statistical regularity embedded within the treatment task. However, no prior study examined prediction of ABM therapeutic response in relation to patients’ capacity to extract statistical properties from the environment, a capacity known as “statistical learning”. Here, 30 treatment-seeking patients with social anxiety disorder completed a gold-standard statistical learning task at baseline and then received six sessions of ABM therapy. Results indicate that baseline statistical learning capacity predicts treatment outcome: the better patients’ statistical learning capacity, the greater their reduction in clinician-rated and self-reported social anxiety symptoms. Restricted capacities for statistical learning could account for the moderate effect sizes of ABM therapy in clinical trials. Poor response may occur in patients who fail to extract the underlying contingency embedded in ABM.
KW - Attention bias modification
KW - Social anxiety
KW - Statistical learning
KW - Treatment outcomes
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85057090397&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.brat.2018.11.013
DO - 10.1016/j.brat.2018.11.013
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AN - SCOPUS:85057090397
SN - 0005-7967
VL - 112
SP - 36
EP - 41
JO - Behaviour Research and Therapy
JF - Behaviour Research and Therapy
ER -