Attention Disengagement Training for Social Phobia

Those assigned to ADT condition will receive a computer delivered attention retraining protocol designed to enhance attention disengagement from socially threatening stimuli. The ADT protocol includes eight 30-min sessions delivered over a 6-week period (i.e., bi-weekly sessions). During each session, participants will see 320 trials that consist of the various combinations of probe type (E or F) probe position (top or bottom), and emotion type (Neutral, Disgust, Anger). 256 trials will include one neutral face and one disgust face or one angry face: 2 (probe type) X 2 (probe position) X 16 (person) X 4 (repetitions). On trials where participants see one neutral face and one disgust or angry face (i.e., 80% of the trials), the probe will always follow the neutral face.

The placebo condition (PC) will be identical to the AMP condition except that during the presentation of the trials where a threat picture is present, the probe will appear with equal frequency in the position of threat and neutral pictures. Thus, neither threat nor neutral pictures have signal value with regard to the position of the probe.