Open AccessAttentional bias modification for chocolate: Sham-n training as a new control group
Author(s) -
Eva Kemps,
Marika Tiggemann
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0260294
Subject(s) - attentional bias , audiology , stimulus (psychology) , psychology , dark chocolate , chocolate milk , cognitive psychology , developmental psychology , medicine , neuroscience , food science , cognition , biology
Although attentional bias modification has been shown effective in several appetitive domains, results have been mixed. A major contributor seems to be the choice of control condition. The aim of the present study was to compare attentional bias modification for chocolate against a new control condition, sham-n (neutral or no-contingency) training. Using a modified dot probe protocol, participants (N = 192; 17–30 years) were randomly trained to attend to chocolate pictures, avoid chocolate pictures, or received sham-n training. In the attend and avoid conditions, stimulus pairs consisted of one chocolate and one non-chocolate picture, and probes replaced most often (90/10) chocolate or non-chocolate pictures, respectively. In the sham-n training condition, stimulus pairs consisted of two chocolate or two non-chocolate pictures, and probes replaced pictures within pairs with equal frequency (50/50). Attentional bias for chocolate increased following attend training, decreased following avoidance training, and did not change following sham-n training. The findings clearly demonstrate that both attend and avoidance training alter (in opposite direction) attentional bias for chocolate, whereas sham-n training is inert. This makes sham-n training particularly promising for use in clinical samples who tend to show strong initial biases.