Jorg Huijding | Erasmus University Rotterdam (original) (raw)

Papers by Jorg Huijding

Research paper thumbnail of A behavioral route to dysfunctional representations: The effects of training approach or avoidance tendencies towards novel animals in children

Behaviour Research and Therapy, 2009

We examined the effects of training to approach or avoid novel animals on fear-related responses ... more We examined the effects of training to approach or avoid novel animals on fear-related responses in children. Ninety-five primary school children (9-13 years old) were instructed to repeatedly push away or pull closer pictures of novel animals. We tested whether this manipulation would lead to changes in self-reported attitudes, implicit attitudes, fear beliefs, and avoidance behaviors towards these animals. The training produced more positive self-reported attitudes towards the pulled animal and more negative attitudes towards the pushed animal. After the training, girls reported more fear and avoidance of the pushed animal than of the pulled animal, while such training effects were absent in boys. No significant training effects were observed on implicit attitudes. Interestingly, the level of anxiety disorder symptoms prior to training was related to some of the training effects: Stronger prior fear was related to stronger changes in self-reported attitudes, and in boys, also to fear beliefs. The finding that a simple approach-avoidance training influences children's fear-related responses lends support to general theories of fear acquisition in children as well as to models that try to explain the intergenerational transmission of anxiety.

Research paper thumbnail of Reduction of verbally learned fear in children: A comparison between positive information, imagery, and a control condition

Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 2011

This study explored the effects of positive information and imagery as ways of reducing a verball... more This study explored the effects of positive information and imagery as ways of reducing a verbally installed fear in children. Seventy-two primary school children aged 9–13 years were first exposed to negative information to induce fear of a novel animal, and were then randomly assigned to three interventions: positive information, imagery, or a control condition. Outcome of various interventions was assessed by means of a standardized scale of fear beliefs and an index of confirmation bias (defined as the tendency to search for threat information in relation to the feared stimulus). Results indicated that both positive information and imagery were more effective in reducing fear than the control condition. Some evidence was also obtained showing that positive information was more effective than imagery, which suggests that this intervention represents the most optimal treatment approach when dealing with verbally acquired fears in children.► Fears can be installed in children via the negative information pathway. ► We examined effects of positive information as an intervention for reducing childhood fear. ► Verbal threat information induces cognitive biases in children. ► Positive information is effective in reducing verbally acquired childhood fears.

Research paper thumbnail of Ground control to Major Tom: Experimental manipulation of anxiety-related interpretation bias by means of the “space odyssey” paradigm and effects on avoidance tendencies in children

Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 2009

Research paper thumbnail of Spider fear and covariation bias in children and adolescents

Behaviour Research and Therapy, 2007

Covariation bias can be defined as phobic people&... more Covariation bias can be defined as phobic people's tendency to overestimate the association between fear-relevant stimuli and negative outcomes. The current article presents two studies that examined this type of cognitive bias in children and adolescents aged 8-16 years. Study 1 was concerned with a thought experiment during which youths (N=150) were asked to imagine that they participated in an experiment during which they had to view a series of pictures showing spiders, guns, and flowers, that were occasionally followed by a negative outcome (i.e., a mild electric shock). Participants were asked to estimate the relation between each type of picture and the negative outcome. The results indicated that youths with higher levels of spider fear displayed a specific tendency to relate spider pictures to a negative outcome. In Study 2, youths (N=220) actually participated in a computer game during which they were confronted with pictures of spiders, guns, and flowers, each of which was equally often followed by a negative (i.e., losing candy), positive (i.e., winning candy), or neutral outcome. After the game, participants had to estimate the relation between each type of picture and various outcomes. It was found that youths with higher levels of spider fear estimated more negative and less positive outcomes in relation to spider pictures. Taken together, these findings provide support for a fear-related covariation bias in youths. Further developmental analyses indicated that this type of cognitive bias seems to be more consistently present among adolescents than among children.

Research paper thumbnail of A dirty animal is a scary animal! Effects of disgust-related information on fear beliefs in children

Behaviour Research and Therapy, 2008

The present study investigated whether disgust-valenced information has an impact on children&amp... more The present study investigated whether disgust-valenced information has an impact on children's fear beliefs about animals. Non-clinical children aged between 9 and 13 years (n=159) were presented with disgust-related and cleanliness-related information about unknown animals (Australian marsupials). Before and after information, beliefs of disgust and fear regarding the animals were assessed. Results showed that disgust-related information not only induced higher levels of disgust but also increased children's fear beliefs in relation to these animals. The other way around, cleanliness-related information decreased levels of disgust and resulted in lower levels of fear. The implications for the role of disgust in the development of animal fear are briefly discussed.

Research paper thumbnail of Training children to approach or avoid novel animals: Effects on self-reported attitudes and fear beliefs and information-seeking behaviors

Behaviour Research and Therapy, 2011

We examined the effects of training to approach or avoid novel animals on fear-related responses ... more We examined the effects of training to approach or avoid novel animals on fear-related responses in children. Ninety-nine primary school children (9-12 years old) were instructed to repeatedly move a manikin toward or away from pictures of novel animals. The training produced more positive self-reported attitudes for the animal that was repeatedly approached and more negative attitudes for the animal that was repeatedly avoided. After the training, children reported more fear of the avoided animal than of the approached animal. Interestingly, children showed a training-congruent confirmation bias effect on an information-seeking task. That is, they displayed a tendency to seek more positive information about the approached animal, whereas they were inclined to search for more negative information about the avoided animal. No significant training effects were observed on implicit attitudes. The finding that a simple approach-avoidance training influences children's fear-related responses and leads to biased information-seeking behaviors lends support to general theories of fear acquisition in children as well as to models that try to explain the intergenerational transmission of anxiety.

Research paper thumbnail of A Space Odyssey: Experimental Manipulation of Threat Perception and Anxiety-Related Interpretation Bias in Children

Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 2008

This study provides a first test of an experimental method, the “space odyssey” paradigm, that wa... more This study provides a first test of an experimental method, the “space odyssey” paradigm, that was designed to manipulate interpretation bias in children. Seventy non-clinical children aged 8–12 years first completed a standardized anxiety questionnaire. Following this, they completed the space odyssey paradigm to induce either a negative or a positive interpretation bias. After this stage of interpretation training, children were presented with a series of ambiguous vignettes for which they had to rate perceived levels of threat as an index of interpretation bias. Results indicated that the space odyssey paradigm was successful in training interpretations: children in the negative training condition quickly learned to choose negative outcomes, while children in the positive training condition rapidly learned to select positive outcomes. Most importantly, children’s subsequent threat perception scores for the ambiguous vignettes were affected by the manipulation. That is, children in the negative training condition perceived more threat than children in the positive training condition. Interestingly, the effects of training were most pronounced in high anxious children. Directions for future research with this paradigm are briefly discussed.

Research paper thumbnail of Global, contingent and implicit self-esteem and psychopathological symptoms in adolescents

Personality and Individual Differences, 2010

Previous research with adolescents has demonstrated that global self-esteem is related to various... more Previous research with adolescents has demonstrated that global self-esteem is related to various types of psychopathology including depression, anxiety and eating problems. In the last decade, other components of self-esteem have been identified, namely contingent and implicit self-esteem. Contingent and implicit self-esteem have not yet been extensively studied among adolescents. Furthermore, the unique and interactive effects of the different components of self-esteem on adolescent mental health have not yet been investigated. ...

Research paper thumbnail of The Effects of Verbal Disgust and Threat-Related Information About Novel Animals on Disgust and Fear Beliefs and Avoidance in Children

Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 2009

Disgust is a basic emotion that is thought to play a role in the etiology of certain types of spe... more Disgust is a basic emotion that is thought to play a role in the etiology of certain types of specific phobias, like animal phobias. Two experiments were conducted in which 9- to 14-year-old children were exposed to disgust-related, cleanliness-related, and threat-related information about unknown animals. It was investigated to what extent these types of information influenced children's fear beliefs, feelings of disgust, and avoidance behavior in relation to the animals. Most important, results suggested a bidirectional relationship between disgust and fear. That is, disgust-related information was found to promote fear beliefs, and conversely threat-related information enhanced feelings of disgust. Repercussions of these findings for the role of disgust in the development and maintenance of anxiety pathology are discussed.

Research paper thumbnail of Does disgust enhance eating disorder symptoms

Research paper thumbnail of Mom told me scary things about this animal: Parents installing fear beliefs in their children via the verbal information pathway

Behaviour Research and Therapy, 2010

This study investigated whether fear beliefs can be installed in children after parents had recei... more This study investigated whether fear beliefs can be installed in children after parents had received negatively tinted information about a novel stimulus. Parents of children aged 8-13 years (N = 88) were presented with negative, positive, or ambiguous information about an unknown animal and then given a number of open-ended vignettes describing confrontations with the animal with the instruction to tell their children what would happen in these situations. Results indicated that children's fear beliefs were influenced by the information that was provided to the parent. That is, parents who had received negative information provided more threatening narratives about the animal and hence installed higher levels of fear beliefs in their children than parents who had received positive information. In the case of ambiguous information, the transmission of fear was dependent on parents' trait anxiety levels. More precisely, high trait anxious parents told more negative stories about the unknown animal, which produced higher fear levels in children.

Research paper thumbnail of Effects of verbal information on fear-related reasoning biases in children

Behaviour Research and Therapy, 2009

The present study made an attempt to induce fear-related reasoning biases by providing children w... more The present study made an attempt to induce fear-related reasoning biases by providing children with negative information about a novel stimulus. For this purpose, non-clinical children aged 9-12 years (N=318) were shown a picture of an unknown animal for which they received either negative, ambiguous, positive, or no information. Then children completed a series of tests for measuring various types of reasoning biases (i.e., confirmation bias and covariation bias) in relation to this animal. Results indicated that children in the negative and, to a lesser extent, the ambiguous information groups displayed higher scores on tests of fear-related reasoning biases than children in the positive and no information groups. Altogether, these results support the idea that learning via negatively tinted information plays a role in the development of fear-related cognitive distortions in youths.

Research paper thumbnail of The assessment of fear-related automatic associations in children and adolescents

Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2010

... confusion, De Houwer (2006) proposed that the terms direct and indirect should be reserved to... more ... confusion, De Houwer (2006) proposed that the terms direct and indirect should be reserved to refer to measurement procedures, while ... Application to child and adolescent anxiety One of the first studies to employ the APP with children was carried ... Implicit Association Test (IAT) ...

Research paper thumbnail of A Pictorial Version of the Extrinsic Affective Simon Task: Sensitivity to Generally Affective and Phobia-Relevant Stimuli in High and Low Spider Fearful Individuals

Experimental Psychology, 2005

This study assessed whether a pictorial, rather than a verbal, Extrinsic Affective Simon Task (EA... more This study assessed whether a pictorial, rather than a verbal, Extrinsic Affective Simon Task (EAST: De Houwer, 2003) is, 1) sensitive to the affective valence of normatively positive, neutral, and negative pictures, 2) sensitive to interindividual differences pertaining to fear-relevant affective associations, and 3) a valid predictor for strategic and/or reflexive fear responses. High (n = 35) and low (n = 35) spider fearful individuals completed an EAST comprising of universal positive, negative, neutral, and spider pictures. The pictorial EAST was sensitive to normatively valenced stimuli, tended to differentiate between high and low fearful individuals with respect to spider pictures, and showed independent predictive validity for avoidance behavior.

Research paper thumbnail of Vulnerability associations and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in soldiers deployed to Iraq

Behaviour Research and Therapy, 2007

The purpose of this prospective study was to examine whether explicit and implicit vulnerability ... more The purpose of this prospective study was to examine whether explicit and implicit vulnerability associations before and after trauma exposure predict the onset and persistence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. The implicit association test (IAT) was modified to assess associations of self with vulnerability related cues. Dutch soldiers completed the IAT 6 weeks before being deployed to Iraq, and again 5 months upon return home. They also rated an explicit vulnerability scale. PTSD symptoms were assessed 5 and 15 months after deployment with a clinical interview and questionnaire. The results showed that (1) the pre-deployment vulnerability measures did not predict PTSD symptoms at 5 months, (2) both explicit and implicit post-deployment vulnerability measures explained unique variance in concurrent PTSD symptoms, over and above pre-existing neuroticism, and (3) only the explicit post-deployment vulnerability measure predicted unique variance in later PTSD symptoms (at 15 months), after controlling for earlier symptoms. This was no longer the case after controlling for neuroticism. The results suggest that strong implicit associations between the self and vulnerability are a consequence rather than a cause of PTSD symptoms.

Research paper thumbnail of Using the Extrinsic Affective Simon Test as a measure of implicit attitudes towards alcohol: Relationship with drinking behavior and alcohol problems

Addictive Behaviors, 2007

Research paper thumbnail of Automatic associations with the sensory aspects of smoking: Positive in habitual smokers but negative in non-smokers

Addictive Behaviors, 2006

To test whether pictorial stimuli that focus on the sensory aspects of smoking elicit different a... more To test whether pictorial stimuli that focus on the sensory aspects of smoking elicit different automatic affective associations in smokers than in non-smokers, 31 smoking and 33 non-smoking students completed a single target IAT. Explicit attitudes were assessed using a semantic differential. Automatic affective associations were positive in smokers but negative in non-smokers. Only automatic affective associations but not self-reported attitudes were significantly correlated with craving. Together these findings are consistent with the idea that positive (automatic) attitudes are involved in smoking behavior and support the view that direct and indirect measures tap different cognitive motivational systems.

Research paper thumbnail of Automatic and Deliberate Affective Associations with Sexual Stimuli in Women with Superficial Dyspareunia

Archives of Sexual Behavior, 2009

Current views suggest that in women with superficial dyspareunia the prospect of penile–vaginal i... more Current views suggest that in women with superficial dyspareunia the prospect of penile–vaginal intercourse automatically activates fear-related associations. The automatic activation of negative associations is assumed to interfere with the development of sexual arousal. In turn, this may further aggravate the dyspareunia-related complaints. To assess whether automatic negative associations are involved in this sexual pain disorder, women with superficial dyspareunia (n = 35) and a control group (n = 35) completed a modified pictorial Affective Simon Task (AST). Questioning the role of dysfunctional automatic associations in superficial dyspareunia, the AST indicated that symptomatic women displayed relatively positive rather than negative automatic associations with sexual stimuli. At the self-report level, however, affective associations with sex cues were significantly more negative for women with dyspareunia than for controls. This discrepancy between “reflective” and “reflexive” affective associations with sexual stimuli in women with dyspareunia points to the relevance of conscious appraisal and deliberate rather than automatic processes in the onset and maintenance of dyspareunia.

Research paper thumbnail of Implicit attitudes and psychopathology

Netherlands Journal of Psychology, 2006

The past 15 years have witnessed an ever-growing interest in the role of implicit attitudes in me... more The past 15 years have witnessed an ever-growing interest in the role of implicit attitudes in mental and health-related problems and disorders. The purpose of the present paper is to provide an introduction to this research area. More specifically, the following issues will be addressed: 1) Why do researchers consider implicit attitudes to be of interest? 2) In what way have researchers in the field of experimental psychopathology studied implicit attitudes? and 3) What has this research yielded so far? Rather than providing an exhaustive review, this last question is addressed by discussing some illustrative studies for several types of psychopathology. It is concluded that this is a promising field of research, but that a number of important questions remain unanswered. The paper is concluded with a short discussion of possible directions for future research. (Netherlands Journal of Psychology, 62, 60-72.)

Research paper thumbnail of Implicit and Explicit Attitudes Toward Spiders: Sensitivity to Treatment and Predictive Value for Generalization of Treatment Effects

Cognitive Therapy and Research, 2009

This study tested whether high spider fearful individuals’ implicit and explicit attitudes toward... more This study tested whether high spider fearful individuals’ implicit and explicit attitudes toward spiders are sensitive to exposure treatment, and whether post-treatment implicit and/or explicit attitudes are related to the generalization of treatment effects. Self-reported explicit and implicit attitudes (indexed with a pictorial Extrinsic Affective Simon Task) were assessed in high spider fearful, treatment-seeking individuals (n = 60) before and after a one-session exposure in vivo treatment and at 2-month follow-up. A group of non-fearful participants (n = 30) completed the same assessments once. Results show that implicit attitudes did not change following treatment over and above test–retest effects. In contrast, explicit attitudes did change favorably following treatment, but negative explicit attitudes at post-treatment were associated with less pronounced overt approach behavior at follow-up. These findings support the idea that residual negative explicit attitudes interfere with the generalization of treatment effects.

Research paper thumbnail of A behavioral route to dysfunctional representations: The effects of training approach or avoidance tendencies towards novel animals in children

Behaviour Research and Therapy, 2009

We examined the effects of training to approach or avoid novel animals on fear-related responses ... more We examined the effects of training to approach or avoid novel animals on fear-related responses in children. Ninety-five primary school children (9-13 years old) were instructed to repeatedly push away or pull closer pictures of novel animals. We tested whether this manipulation would lead to changes in self-reported attitudes, implicit attitudes, fear beliefs, and avoidance behaviors towards these animals. The training produced more positive self-reported attitudes towards the pulled animal and more negative attitudes towards the pushed animal. After the training, girls reported more fear and avoidance of the pushed animal than of the pulled animal, while such training effects were absent in boys. No significant training effects were observed on implicit attitudes. Interestingly, the level of anxiety disorder symptoms prior to training was related to some of the training effects: Stronger prior fear was related to stronger changes in self-reported attitudes, and in boys, also to fear beliefs. The finding that a simple approach-avoidance training influences children's fear-related responses lends support to general theories of fear acquisition in children as well as to models that try to explain the intergenerational transmission of anxiety.

Research paper thumbnail of Reduction of verbally learned fear in children: A comparison between positive information, imagery, and a control condition

Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 2011

This study explored the effects of positive information and imagery as ways of reducing a verball... more This study explored the effects of positive information and imagery as ways of reducing a verbally installed fear in children. Seventy-two primary school children aged 9–13 years were first exposed to negative information to induce fear of a novel animal, and were then randomly assigned to three interventions: positive information, imagery, or a control condition. Outcome of various interventions was assessed by means of a standardized scale of fear beliefs and an index of confirmation bias (defined as the tendency to search for threat information in relation to the feared stimulus). Results indicated that both positive information and imagery were more effective in reducing fear than the control condition. Some evidence was also obtained showing that positive information was more effective than imagery, which suggests that this intervention represents the most optimal treatment approach when dealing with verbally acquired fears in children.► Fears can be installed in children via the negative information pathway. ► We examined effects of positive information as an intervention for reducing childhood fear. ► Verbal threat information induces cognitive biases in children. ► Positive information is effective in reducing verbally acquired childhood fears.

Research paper thumbnail of Ground control to Major Tom: Experimental manipulation of anxiety-related interpretation bias by means of the “space odyssey” paradigm and effects on avoidance tendencies in children

Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 2009

Research paper thumbnail of Spider fear and covariation bias in children and adolescents

Behaviour Research and Therapy, 2007

Covariation bias can be defined as phobic people&... more Covariation bias can be defined as phobic people's tendency to overestimate the association between fear-relevant stimuli and negative outcomes. The current article presents two studies that examined this type of cognitive bias in children and adolescents aged 8-16 years. Study 1 was concerned with a thought experiment during which youths (N=150) were asked to imagine that they participated in an experiment during which they had to view a series of pictures showing spiders, guns, and flowers, that were occasionally followed by a negative outcome (i.e., a mild electric shock). Participants were asked to estimate the relation between each type of picture and the negative outcome. The results indicated that youths with higher levels of spider fear displayed a specific tendency to relate spider pictures to a negative outcome. In Study 2, youths (N=220) actually participated in a computer game during which they were confronted with pictures of spiders, guns, and flowers, each of which was equally often followed by a negative (i.e., losing candy), positive (i.e., winning candy), or neutral outcome. After the game, participants had to estimate the relation between each type of picture and various outcomes. It was found that youths with higher levels of spider fear estimated more negative and less positive outcomes in relation to spider pictures. Taken together, these findings provide support for a fear-related covariation bias in youths. Further developmental analyses indicated that this type of cognitive bias seems to be more consistently present among adolescents than among children.

Research paper thumbnail of A dirty animal is a scary animal! Effects of disgust-related information on fear beliefs in children

Behaviour Research and Therapy, 2008

The present study investigated whether disgust-valenced information has an impact on children&amp... more The present study investigated whether disgust-valenced information has an impact on children's fear beliefs about animals. Non-clinical children aged between 9 and 13 years (n=159) were presented with disgust-related and cleanliness-related information about unknown animals (Australian marsupials). Before and after information, beliefs of disgust and fear regarding the animals were assessed. Results showed that disgust-related information not only induced higher levels of disgust but also increased children's fear beliefs in relation to these animals. The other way around, cleanliness-related information decreased levels of disgust and resulted in lower levels of fear. The implications for the role of disgust in the development of animal fear are briefly discussed.

Research paper thumbnail of Training children to approach or avoid novel animals: Effects on self-reported attitudes and fear beliefs and information-seeking behaviors

Behaviour Research and Therapy, 2011

We examined the effects of training to approach or avoid novel animals on fear-related responses ... more We examined the effects of training to approach or avoid novel animals on fear-related responses in children. Ninety-nine primary school children (9-12 years old) were instructed to repeatedly move a manikin toward or away from pictures of novel animals. The training produced more positive self-reported attitudes for the animal that was repeatedly approached and more negative attitudes for the animal that was repeatedly avoided. After the training, children reported more fear of the avoided animal than of the approached animal. Interestingly, children showed a training-congruent confirmation bias effect on an information-seeking task. That is, they displayed a tendency to seek more positive information about the approached animal, whereas they were inclined to search for more negative information about the avoided animal. No significant training effects were observed on implicit attitudes. The finding that a simple approach-avoidance training influences children's fear-related responses and leads to biased information-seeking behaviors lends support to general theories of fear acquisition in children as well as to models that try to explain the intergenerational transmission of anxiety.

Research paper thumbnail of A Space Odyssey: Experimental Manipulation of Threat Perception and Anxiety-Related Interpretation Bias in Children

Child Psychiatry & Human Development, 2008

This study provides a first test of an experimental method, the “space odyssey” paradigm, that wa... more This study provides a first test of an experimental method, the “space odyssey” paradigm, that was designed to manipulate interpretation bias in children. Seventy non-clinical children aged 8–12 years first completed a standardized anxiety questionnaire. Following this, they completed the space odyssey paradigm to induce either a negative or a positive interpretation bias. After this stage of interpretation training, children were presented with a series of ambiguous vignettes for which they had to rate perceived levels of threat as an index of interpretation bias. Results indicated that the space odyssey paradigm was successful in training interpretations: children in the negative training condition quickly learned to choose negative outcomes, while children in the positive training condition rapidly learned to select positive outcomes. Most importantly, children’s subsequent threat perception scores for the ambiguous vignettes were affected by the manipulation. That is, children in the negative training condition perceived more threat than children in the positive training condition. Interestingly, the effects of training were most pronounced in high anxious children. Directions for future research with this paradigm are briefly discussed.

Research paper thumbnail of Global, contingent and implicit self-esteem and psychopathological symptoms in adolescents

Personality and Individual Differences, 2010

Previous research with adolescents has demonstrated that global self-esteem is related to various... more Previous research with adolescents has demonstrated that global self-esteem is related to various types of psychopathology including depression, anxiety and eating problems. In the last decade, other components of self-esteem have been identified, namely contingent and implicit self-esteem. Contingent and implicit self-esteem have not yet been extensively studied among adolescents. Furthermore, the unique and interactive effects of the different components of self-esteem on adolescent mental health have not yet been investigated. ...

Research paper thumbnail of The Effects of Verbal Disgust and Threat-Related Information About Novel Animals on Disgust and Fear Beliefs and Avoidance in Children

Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 2009

Disgust is a basic emotion that is thought to play a role in the etiology of certain types of spe... more Disgust is a basic emotion that is thought to play a role in the etiology of certain types of specific phobias, like animal phobias. Two experiments were conducted in which 9- to 14-year-old children were exposed to disgust-related, cleanliness-related, and threat-related information about unknown animals. It was investigated to what extent these types of information influenced children's fear beliefs, feelings of disgust, and avoidance behavior in relation to the animals. Most important, results suggested a bidirectional relationship between disgust and fear. That is, disgust-related information was found to promote fear beliefs, and conversely threat-related information enhanced feelings of disgust. Repercussions of these findings for the role of disgust in the development and maintenance of anxiety pathology are discussed.

Research paper thumbnail of Does disgust enhance eating disorder symptoms

Research paper thumbnail of Mom told me scary things about this animal: Parents installing fear beliefs in their children via the verbal information pathway

Behaviour Research and Therapy, 2010

This study investigated whether fear beliefs can be installed in children after parents had recei... more This study investigated whether fear beliefs can be installed in children after parents had received negatively tinted information about a novel stimulus. Parents of children aged 8-13 years (N = 88) were presented with negative, positive, or ambiguous information about an unknown animal and then given a number of open-ended vignettes describing confrontations with the animal with the instruction to tell their children what would happen in these situations. Results indicated that children's fear beliefs were influenced by the information that was provided to the parent. That is, parents who had received negative information provided more threatening narratives about the animal and hence installed higher levels of fear beliefs in their children than parents who had received positive information. In the case of ambiguous information, the transmission of fear was dependent on parents' trait anxiety levels. More precisely, high trait anxious parents told more negative stories about the unknown animal, which produced higher fear levels in children.

Research paper thumbnail of Effects of verbal information on fear-related reasoning biases in children

Behaviour Research and Therapy, 2009

The present study made an attempt to induce fear-related reasoning biases by providing children w... more The present study made an attempt to induce fear-related reasoning biases by providing children with negative information about a novel stimulus. For this purpose, non-clinical children aged 9-12 years (N=318) were shown a picture of an unknown animal for which they received either negative, ambiguous, positive, or no information. Then children completed a series of tests for measuring various types of reasoning biases (i.e., confirmation bias and covariation bias) in relation to this animal. Results indicated that children in the negative and, to a lesser extent, the ambiguous information groups displayed higher scores on tests of fear-related reasoning biases than children in the positive and no information groups. Altogether, these results support the idea that learning via negatively tinted information plays a role in the development of fear-related cognitive distortions in youths.

Research paper thumbnail of The assessment of fear-related automatic associations in children and adolescents

Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2010

... confusion, De Houwer (2006) proposed that the terms direct and indirect should be reserved to... more ... confusion, De Houwer (2006) proposed that the terms direct and indirect should be reserved to refer to measurement procedures, while ... Application to child and adolescent anxiety One of the first studies to employ the APP with children was carried ... Implicit Association Test (IAT) ...

Research paper thumbnail of A Pictorial Version of the Extrinsic Affective Simon Task: Sensitivity to Generally Affective and Phobia-Relevant Stimuli in High and Low Spider Fearful Individuals

Experimental Psychology, 2005

This study assessed whether a pictorial, rather than a verbal, Extrinsic Affective Simon Task (EA... more This study assessed whether a pictorial, rather than a verbal, Extrinsic Affective Simon Task (EAST: De Houwer, 2003) is, 1) sensitive to the affective valence of normatively positive, neutral, and negative pictures, 2) sensitive to interindividual differences pertaining to fear-relevant affective associations, and 3) a valid predictor for strategic and/or reflexive fear responses. High (n = 35) and low (n = 35) spider fearful individuals completed an EAST comprising of universal positive, negative, neutral, and spider pictures. The pictorial EAST was sensitive to normatively valenced stimuli, tended to differentiate between high and low fearful individuals with respect to spider pictures, and showed independent predictive validity for avoidance behavior.

Research paper thumbnail of Vulnerability associations and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in soldiers deployed to Iraq

Behaviour Research and Therapy, 2007

The purpose of this prospective study was to examine whether explicit and implicit vulnerability ... more The purpose of this prospective study was to examine whether explicit and implicit vulnerability associations before and after trauma exposure predict the onset and persistence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. The implicit association test (IAT) was modified to assess associations of self with vulnerability related cues. Dutch soldiers completed the IAT 6 weeks before being deployed to Iraq, and again 5 months upon return home. They also rated an explicit vulnerability scale. PTSD symptoms were assessed 5 and 15 months after deployment with a clinical interview and questionnaire. The results showed that (1) the pre-deployment vulnerability measures did not predict PTSD symptoms at 5 months, (2) both explicit and implicit post-deployment vulnerability measures explained unique variance in concurrent PTSD symptoms, over and above pre-existing neuroticism, and (3) only the explicit post-deployment vulnerability measure predicted unique variance in later PTSD symptoms (at 15 months), after controlling for earlier symptoms. This was no longer the case after controlling for neuroticism. The results suggest that strong implicit associations between the self and vulnerability are a consequence rather than a cause of PTSD symptoms.

Research paper thumbnail of Using the Extrinsic Affective Simon Test as a measure of implicit attitudes towards alcohol: Relationship with drinking behavior and alcohol problems

Addictive Behaviors, 2007

Research paper thumbnail of Automatic associations with the sensory aspects of smoking: Positive in habitual smokers but negative in non-smokers

Addictive Behaviors, 2006

To test whether pictorial stimuli that focus on the sensory aspects of smoking elicit different a... more To test whether pictorial stimuli that focus on the sensory aspects of smoking elicit different automatic affective associations in smokers than in non-smokers, 31 smoking and 33 non-smoking students completed a single target IAT. Explicit attitudes were assessed using a semantic differential. Automatic affective associations were positive in smokers but negative in non-smokers. Only automatic affective associations but not self-reported attitudes were significantly correlated with craving. Together these findings are consistent with the idea that positive (automatic) attitudes are involved in smoking behavior and support the view that direct and indirect measures tap different cognitive motivational systems.

Research paper thumbnail of Automatic and Deliberate Affective Associations with Sexual Stimuli in Women with Superficial Dyspareunia

Archives of Sexual Behavior, 2009

Current views suggest that in women with superficial dyspareunia the prospect of penile–vaginal i... more Current views suggest that in women with superficial dyspareunia the prospect of penile–vaginal intercourse automatically activates fear-related associations. The automatic activation of negative associations is assumed to interfere with the development of sexual arousal. In turn, this may further aggravate the dyspareunia-related complaints. To assess whether automatic negative associations are involved in this sexual pain disorder, women with superficial dyspareunia (n = 35) and a control group (n = 35) completed a modified pictorial Affective Simon Task (AST). Questioning the role of dysfunctional automatic associations in superficial dyspareunia, the AST indicated that symptomatic women displayed relatively positive rather than negative automatic associations with sexual stimuli. At the self-report level, however, affective associations with sex cues were significantly more negative for women with dyspareunia than for controls. This discrepancy between “reflective” and “reflexive” affective associations with sexual stimuli in women with dyspareunia points to the relevance of conscious appraisal and deliberate rather than automatic processes in the onset and maintenance of dyspareunia.

Research paper thumbnail of Implicit attitudes and psychopathology

Netherlands Journal of Psychology, 2006

The past 15 years have witnessed an ever-growing interest in the role of implicit attitudes in me... more The past 15 years have witnessed an ever-growing interest in the role of implicit attitudes in mental and health-related problems and disorders. The purpose of the present paper is to provide an introduction to this research area. More specifically, the following issues will be addressed: 1) Why do researchers consider implicit attitudes to be of interest? 2) In what way have researchers in the field of experimental psychopathology studied implicit attitudes? and 3) What has this research yielded so far? Rather than providing an exhaustive review, this last question is addressed by discussing some illustrative studies for several types of psychopathology. It is concluded that this is a promising field of research, but that a number of important questions remain unanswered. The paper is concluded with a short discussion of possible directions for future research. (Netherlands Journal of Psychology, 62, 60-72.)

Research paper thumbnail of Implicit and Explicit Attitudes Toward Spiders: Sensitivity to Treatment and Predictive Value for Generalization of Treatment Effects

Cognitive Therapy and Research, 2009

This study tested whether high spider fearful individuals’ implicit and explicit attitudes toward... more This study tested whether high spider fearful individuals’ implicit and explicit attitudes toward spiders are sensitive to exposure treatment, and whether post-treatment implicit and/or explicit attitudes are related to the generalization of treatment effects. Self-reported explicit and implicit attitudes (indexed with a pictorial Extrinsic Affective Simon Task) were assessed in high spider fearful, treatment-seeking individuals (n = 60) before and after a one-session exposure in vivo treatment and at 2-month follow-up. A group of non-fearful participants (n = 30) completed the same assessments once. Results show that implicit attitudes did not change following treatment over and above test–retest effects. In contrast, explicit attitudes did change favorably following treatment, but negative explicit attitudes at post-treatment were associated with less pronounced overt approach behavior at follow-up. These findings support the idea that residual negative explicit attitudes interfere with the generalization of treatment effects.