Paulewicz, B. 1 , Blaut, A. 2 & Gronostaj, A. 2
1 Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Katowice, Poland
2 Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland
Attentional bias training seems to be effective in altering social anxiety but the mechanism of changes induces is currently unknown. In order to investigate weather interpretive bias could be part of this mechanism 50 students with high level of social anxiety (SAS) were divided into attentional training (AT, n=25) and control groups (n=25). The dot-probe task with neutral and angry faces was used to measure or train attentional bias. At pretesting mood and cognitive biases were measured with PANAS, STAI, Attentional Control Scale, dot-probe and (verbal) emotional version of the Posner's task. Before the first session of the dot-probe task participants rated neutral facial expressions on the threatening-friendly continous scale. Later both groups performed 3 sessions of the dot-probe task, one in the laboratory and two at home during a 10 day period. In the posttest phase effects of training were assesed with PANAS, STAI, Interpretive Bias Scale, dot-probe, emotional version of the Posner's task and facial expressions interpretation task. The results seem to indicate that effectiveness of attentional bias training in social anxiety depends interactively on at least several affective and cognitive factors.