Eye-Tracking Based Visual Search Training in Social Anxiety: Effects on Attentional Bias, Attentional Control, Gaze Behavior, and Anxious Responses to a Speech Task

Attentional bias modification (ABM) is a computerized treatment for anxiety. Most ABMs using a dot-probe task aim to direct anxious individuals’ attention away from threats. Recently, a new ABM approach using a visual search task (i.e., ABM-positive-search) has been developed to facilitate the allocation of attention toward positive stimuli. This study examined the efficacies of two versions of ABM-positive-search in socially anxious individuals.

Eighty-six participants were randomly assigned to the search positive in threat (SP-T; n = 28), search positive in neutral (SP-N; n = 29), or control training (CT) (n = 29) group. All participants completed four training sessions within two weeks. Attentional bias, attentional control, self-report social anxiety, and anxiety responses (i.e., subjective anxiety, psychophysiological reactivity, and gaze behavior) to the speech task were assessed pre-training and post-training.

Results showed that ABM-positive-search trainings facilitated disengagement from threats compared to CT. Regardless of group, participants exhibited a reduction in attention allocation to negative feedback during speech. However, only SP-N increased attention allocation to positive feedback. Participants in three groups showed a decrease in subjective anxiety but no changes in psychophysiological reactivity to speech challenge from pre-training to post-training. ABM-positive-search trainings had no beneficial effects on attentional control or self-report social anxiety when compared with CT.

The findings do not support the efficacy of ABM-positive-search trainings for social anxiety.