Perspectives on Modifying Attentional Biases Amongst Individuals with Tobacco Use Disorder Using Technology: A Review

Smoking remains a significant health problem. Attentional biases influence smoking behaviours, but have not been the target of psychosocial interventions. The first part of this perspective article will provide an overview of the theoretical constructs underlying attentional biases, methods of measuring attentional biases, and evidence for attentional bias modification amongst individuals with tobacco use disorders. The second part of this article will outline how the advent of technological advances could be harnessed in attentional bias modification for smokers. As there is potential for attentional bias training to be delivered via mobile app, literature was reviewed over the recent decade, 2009 to 2019, to examine available research evidence. The search terms were “web-based” or “mobile based”, and “attention bias modification” or “attentional bias” and “smoking” or “tobacco use”. The PsycINFO, Scopus, and PubMed databases were initially used to identify papers with the above-mentioned inclusion criteria. Five papers were included in the review. Lastly, an integrated perspective will be provided, from both clinical and research standpoints. In conclusion, more research is needed to address the gaps in knowledge and to provide an evidence base for the implementation of mobile phone technologies for attention retraining in smokers.

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Predictive attentional bias modification induces stimulus-evoked attentional bias for threat

10.31234/osf.io/z6y53 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Thomas Gladwin

Keyword(s):

Attentional Bias ◽

Attentional Biases ◽

Cognitive Response ◽

Attention Bias Modification ◽

Attentional Bias Modification ◽

Stimulus Response ◽

Visual Probe ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Primary Test ◽

Bias Modification

Attention Bias Modification (ABM) aims to modulate attentional biases, but questions remain about its efficacy and there may be new variants yet to explore. The current study tested effects of a novel version of ABM, predictive ABM (predABM), using visually neutral cues predicting the locations of future threatening and neutral stimuli that had a chance of appearing after a delay. Such effects could also help understand anticipatory attentional biases measured using cued Visual Probe Tasks. 102 participants completed the experiment online. We tested whether training Towards Threat versus Away from Threat contingencies on the predABM would cause subsequent attentional biases towards versus away from threat versus neutral stimuli, respectively. Participants were randomly assigned and compared on attentional bias measured via a post-training Dot-Probe task. A significant difference was found between the attentional bias in the Towards Threat versus Away from Threat group. The training contingencies induced effects on bias in the expected direction, although the bias in each group separately did not reach significance. Stronger effects may require multiple training sessions. Nevertheless, the primary test confirmed the hypothesis, showing that the predABM is a potentially interesting variant of ABM. Theoretically, the results show that automatization may involve the process of selecting the outcome of a cognitive response, rather than a simple stimulus-response association. Training based on contingencies involving predicted stimuli affect subsequent attentional measures and could be of interest in future clinical studies.

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Does a Single Session of Training Modify Emotion-Induced Blindness?

10.31234/osf.io/5j4sf ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Sandersan Onie ◽

Chris Donkin ◽

Steven Most

Keyword(s):

Attentional Bias ◽

Strong Evidence ◽

Attentional Biases ◽

Target Interval ◽

Single Session ◽

Attentional Bias Modification ◽

Task Irrelevant ◽

The Impact ◽

Bias Modification ◽

Negative Stimuli

Emotion-Induced Blindness (EIB) is a robust phenomenon in which people fail to see targets that appear in spatiotemporal proximity to task-irrelevant emotional distractors. Evidence suggests that it involves different mechanisms than tasks widely used to assess attentional biases and their modification. To assess the utility of EIB as an attentional bias modification task, we investigated its malleability in two experiments. In Experiment 1, participants trained to ignore negative distractors, ignore neutral distractors, or simply received equivalent exposure to negative distractors over 720 trials. Analyses revealed strong evidence against effects of training condition. Experiment 2 investigated whether training effects might emerge with EIB was tested at a longer distractor-target interval and added an additional, no-distractor comparison condition. Analyses of Experiment 2 provided some evidence that exposure to negative stimuli may reduce the impact of novel negative stimuli, which may hold implications for the wider attentional literature.

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A Multiple Case Series Analysis of Six Variants of Attentional Bias Modification for Depression

ISRN Psychiatry ◽

10.1155/2013/414170 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 2013 ◽

pp. 1-8 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Anne-Wil Kruijt ◽

Peter Putman ◽

Willem Van der Does

Keyword(s):

Attentional Bias ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Case Series ◽

Specific Effect ◽

Attention Bias Modification ◽

Attentional Bias Modification ◽

Positive Effects ◽

Multiple Case ◽

New Treatment ◽

Bias Modification

Background. Attention bias modification (ABM) is a new treatment for affective disorders. A meta-analysis of ABM for anxiety disorders showed that the effect size may be large but the number of studies is low. The working mechanism is still unclear, and little is known about the optimal treatment parameters. ABM for depression is much less studied. A few studies claimed positive effects but the sample sizes are low. Furthermore, the treatment parameters varied widely and differed from the anxiety literature. Aim. To select the most promising version of ABM for depression for further evaluation in clinical trials. Methods. Multiple case series design. We tested six versions of ABM that varied on stimulus duration and training direction. Thirty students with mild to moderate symptoms of depression underwent four sessions of ABM. Change of attentional bias was measured during each session. Generalization of treatment effects and the role of awareness of receiving training were also investigated. Results. None of the investigated versions of ABM had a consistent effect on attentional bias. Changes of attentional bias in individual participants the effects did not generalize to untrained stimuli. Conclusion. It is unlikely that any of these ABM versions will have a specific effect on symptoms in controlled studies.

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Barking up the wrong tree in attentional bias modification? Comparing the sensitivity of four tasks to attentional biases

Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry ◽

10.1016/j.jbtep.2015.01.005 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 48 ◽

pp. 9-16 ◽

Cited By ~ 14

Author(s):

Ólafía Sigurjónsdóttir ◽

Sólrún Sigurðardóttir ◽

Andri S. Björnsson ◽

Árni Kristjánsson

Keyword(s):

Attentional Bias ◽

Attentional Biases ◽

Attentional Bias Modification ◽

Bias Modification

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Predictive attentional bias modification induces stimulus-evoked attentional bias for threat

Europe’s Journal of Psychology ◽

10.5964/ejop.v15i3.1633 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 15 (3) ◽

pp. 479-490 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Thomas E. Gladwin ◽

Martin Möbius ◽

Eni S. Becker

Keyword(s):

Attentional Bias ◽

Attentional Biases ◽

Cognitive Response ◽

Attentional Bias Modification ◽

Stimulus Response ◽

Probe Task ◽

Visual Probe ◽

Significant Difference ◽

Primary Test ◽

Bias Modification

Attentional Bias Modification (ABM) aims to modulate attentional biases, but questions remain about its efficacy and there may be new variants yet to explore. The current study tested effects of a novel version of ABM, predictive ABM (predABM), using visually neutral cues predicting the locations of future threatening and neutral stimuli that had a chance of appearing after a delay. Such effects could also help understand anticipatory attentional biases measured using cued Visual Probe Tasks. One hundred and two participants completed the experiment online. We tested whether training Towards Threat versus Away from Threat contingencies on the predABM would cause subsequent attentional biases towards versus away from threat versus neutral stimuli, respectively. Participants were randomly assigned and compared on attentional bias measured via a post-training Dot-Probe task. A significant difference was found between the attentional bias in the Towards Threat versus Away from Threat group. The training contingencies induced effects on bias in the expected direction, although the bias in each group separately did not reach significance. Stronger effects may require multiple training sessions. Nevertheless, the primary test confirmed the hypothesis, showing that the predABM is a potentially interesting variant of ABM. Theoretically, the results show that automatization may involve the process of selecting the outcome of a cognitive response, rather than a simple stimulus-response association. Training based on contingencies involving predicted stimuli affect subsequent attentional measures and could be of interest in future clinical studies.

Download Full-text