Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, UK.
Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, The Netherlands.
Behav Res Ther. 2018 Apr;103:1-11. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2018.01.005. Epub 2018 Jan 31.
Worry refers to the experience of uncontrollable negative thoughts. Cognitive models suggest that the combination of negative information processing biases along with diminished attentional control contribute to worry. In the current study we investigate whether promoting a) adaptive interpretation bias and b) efficient deployment of attentional control would influence the tendency to worry. Worry-prone individuals (n = 60) received either active cognitive bias modification for interpretation bias (CBM-I) combined with sham working memory training (WMT), adaptive WMT combined with sham CBM-I, or sham WMT combined with sham CBM-I. Neither of the active training conditions reduced worry during a breathing focus task relative to the control condition. However, when considering inter-individual differences in training-related improvements, we observed a relation between increases in positive interpretation bias and a decrease in negative intrusions. Moreover, increases in working memory performance were related to a reduction in reactivity of negative intrusions to a worry period. Our findings show that facilitating a more benign interpretation bias and improving working memory capacity can have beneficial effects in terms of worry, but also highlight that transfer related gains from existing training procedures can be dependent upon improvement levels on the training task.
担忧是指无法控制的消极想法的体验。认知模型表明，消极信息处理偏见的结合以及注意力控制的减弱，导致了担忧。在当前的研究中，我们调查了促进以下两个方面是否会影响担忧的倾向：（a）适应性解释偏差和（b）注意力控制的有效部署。易担忧的个体（n=60）接受了积极的认知偏差修正（CBM-I）与假工作记忆训练（WMT）相结合、适应性 WMT 与假 CBM-I 相结合、或假 WMT 与假 CBM-I 相结合的训练。与对照组相比，在呼吸专注任务中，两种积极的训练条件都没有减少担忧。然而，当考虑到与训练相关的个体差异时，我们观察到积极解释偏差的增加与负面闯入的减少之间存在关系。此外，工作记忆表现的提高与负面闯入对担忧期的反应性降低有关。我们的研究结果表明，促进更良性的解释偏差和提高工作记忆能力可以在担忧方面产生有益的影响，但也强调了从现有训练程序中获得的转移相关收益可能取决于训练任务的提高水平。
