Targeting separate specific learning parameters underlying cognitive behavioral therapy can improve perceptual judgments of anger.

J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry

New York University School of Medicine, One Park Avenue 8th Floor, New York, NY, 10016, USA; Center for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Disorders, Massachusetts General Hospital, 1 Bowdoin St., Boston, MA, 02114, USA. Electronic address:

Published: December 2019

Background And Objectives: Anxiety disorders are characterized by biased perceptual judgment. An experimental model using simple verbal instruction to target specific decision parameters that influence perceptual judgment was developed to test if it could influence anger perception, and to examine differences between individuals with social anxiety disorder (SAD) relative to generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) or non-psychiatric controls.

Methods: Anger perception was decomposed into three decision parameters (perceptual similarity of angry vs. not-angry facial expressions, base rate of encountering angry vs. not-angry expressions, payoff for correct vs. incorrect categorization of face stimuli) using a signal detection framework. Participants with SAD (n = 97), GAD (n = 90), and controls (n = 98) were assigned an instruction condition emphasizing one of the three decision parameters. Anger perception pre-vs. post-instruction and its interaction with diagnosis were examined.

Results: For all participants, base rate instructions impacted response bias over and above practice effects, supporting the validity of this instructional task-based approach to altering response bias. We failed to find a similarity or payoff instruction effect, nor a diagnosis interaction.

Limitations: Future instructional tasks may need to more closely target core cognitive and perceptual biases in anxiety disorders to identify specific deficits and how to optimally influence them.

Conclusions: This study demonstrates that specific decision parameters underlying perceptual judgment can be experimentally manipulated. Although our study failed to show diagnosis specific effects, it suggests that individual parameter "estimation" deficits may be experimentally isolated and potentially targeted, with the ultimate goal of developing an objective approach to personalized intervention targeting biased perceptual judgments in anxiety disorders.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7458134PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbtep.2019.101498DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

decision parameters
16
anxiety disorders
12
perceptual judgment
12
anger perception
12
parameters underlying
8
perceptual judgments
8
biased perceptual
8
specific decision
8
anxiety disorder
8
three decision
8

Similar Publications

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!