Information Processing Modification in PTSD (Oct. 18)

The ABM comprised a probe detection paradigm described above, modified to facilitate the allocation of attention away from threatening material. In this task, the probe always replaced the neutral word. Stimuli comprised a different set of 12 threat-neutral word pairs different than those used in the attention bias assessment. Participants completed 288 training trials: 2 (probe type) x 2 (probe location) x 2 (threat location) x 12 (threat-neutral word pairs) x 3 (repetition). Thus, although there were no explicit instructions to direct attention away from threat words, on all trials, the position of the neutral word indicated the position of the probe.

The ACC condition was identical to the ABM procedure with the exception that the probe appeared with equal frequency in the position of the threat and neutral words, such that attention was neither trained towards nor away from threat.