Training less threatening interpretations over the Internet: Does the number of missing letters matter?

Background and objectives Cognitive Bias Modification to reduce threat interpretations (CBM-I) trains individuals to resolve ambiguous scenarios via completion of word fragments that assign benign meanings to scenarios. The current study tested: 1) whether Internet-based CBM-I can shift interpretations to be more positive/less negative, and 2) whether varying the number of letters missing in the word fragments (assumed to increase task difficulty) moderates CBM-I's effects. Methods Participants ( N = 350) completed a brief online version of CBM-I, followed by assessments of interpretation bias, fear of negative evaluation, and anticipatory anxiety. Participants were randomly assigned to 1 of 5 conditions: control (half of scenarios ended positively, half negatively), or 4 positive conditions (all scenarios ended positively, but word fragments varied on number of letters missing, from 0 to 3). Results Relative to the control condition, all positive conditions led to more positive/less negative interpretations. When analyses were re-run with only a highly socially anxious subset of the sample ( n = 100), conditions in which the final word of scenarios was missing 0, 1, or 2 letters led to more positive/less negative interpretations compared to the control condition, but the condition missing 3 letters did not differ from the control condition. There were no differences between conditions on other outcome measures. Limitations Training was brief, and an unselected sample was used. Conclusions Results suggest a brief Internet-based CBM-I paradigm can shift interpretation bias, but not necessarily other anxiety-relevant outcomes. Making the task too difficult may blunt effects for highly socially anxious individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]