A Promising Candidate to Reliably Index Attentional Bias Toward Alcohol Cues–An Adapted Odd-One-Out Visual Search Task
Attentional bias (AB) has been suggested to contribute to the persistence of substance use behavior. However, the empirical evidence for its proposed role in addiction is inconsistent. This might be due to the inability of commonly used measures to differentiate between attentional engagement and at...
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2021-02-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.630461/full |
| _version_ | 1819160492536496128 |
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| author | Janika Heitmann Janika Heitmann Nienke C. Jonker Peter J. de Jong |
| author_facet | Janika Heitmann Janika Heitmann Nienke C. Jonker Peter J. de Jong |
| author_sort | Janika Heitmann |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Attentional bias (AB) has been suggested to contribute to the persistence of substance use behavior. However, the empirical evidence for its proposed role in addiction is inconsistent. This might be due to the inability of commonly used measures to differentiate between attentional engagement and attentional disengagement. Attesting to the importance of differentiating between both components of AB, a recent study using the odd-one-out task (OOOT) showed that substance use was differentially related to engagement and disengagement bias. However, the AB measures derived from the OOOT showed insufficient reliability to be used as a solid measure of individual differences. Therefore, the current study aimed to improve the reliability of the AB measures derived from the OOOT by using more distinct contrast stimuli, adding practice trials, increasing the number of trials, and by having participants perform the task in an alcohol-relevant context. We contrasted the original OOOT with the adapted OOOT (i.e., OOOT-adapt) and assessed AB in low- and high-drinking individuals. Participants were 245 undergraduate students who typically tend to drink either low or high amounts of alcohol. In one condition, AB was measured with the original OOOT in a typical laboratory context, whereas in the other condition, AB was measured with the OOOT-adapt in a bar (i.e., alcohol-relevant) context. The OOOT-adapt showed superior internal consistency, especially for the high-drinking group. Further, specifically the OOOT-adapt differentiated between low- and high-drinking participants showing that high drinkers engaged faster with alcohol cues than did low drinkers. Thus, the OOOT-adapt was found to be a promising candidate to reliably index AB in the context of alcohol use. The OOOT-adapt further showed superior criterion validity as it could differentiate between low- and high-drinking individuals, thereby adding to the evidence that AB might be involved in substance use behavior. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-22T16:57:19Z |
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| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-22T16:57:19Z |
| publishDate | 2021-02-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
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| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-fd0510092d464876a7fe7779ce71afb52022-12-21T18:19:25ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782021-02-011210.3389/fpsyg.2021.630461630461A Promising Candidate to Reliably Index Attentional Bias Toward Alcohol Cues–An Adapted Odd-One-Out Visual Search TaskJanika Heitmann0Janika Heitmann1Nienke C. Jonker2Peter J. de Jong3Verslavingszorg Noord Nederland, Groningen, NetherlandsDepartment of Clinical Psychology and Experimental Psychopathology, University of Groningen, Groningen, NetherlandsDepartment of Clinical Psychology and Experimental Psychopathology, University of Groningen, Groningen, NetherlandsDepartment of Clinical Psychology and Experimental Psychopathology, University of Groningen, Groningen, NetherlandsAttentional bias (AB) has been suggested to contribute to the persistence of substance use behavior. However, the empirical evidence for its proposed role in addiction is inconsistent. This might be due to the inability of commonly used measures to differentiate between attentional engagement and attentional disengagement. Attesting to the importance of differentiating between both components of AB, a recent study using the odd-one-out task (OOOT) showed that substance use was differentially related to engagement and disengagement bias. However, the AB measures derived from the OOOT showed insufficient reliability to be used as a solid measure of individual differences. Therefore, the current study aimed to improve the reliability of the AB measures derived from the OOOT by using more distinct contrast stimuli, adding practice trials, increasing the number of trials, and by having participants perform the task in an alcohol-relevant context. We contrasted the original OOOT with the adapted OOOT (i.e., OOOT-adapt) and assessed AB in low- and high-drinking individuals. Participants were 245 undergraduate students who typically tend to drink either low or high amounts of alcohol. In one condition, AB was measured with the original OOOT in a typical laboratory context, whereas in the other condition, AB was measured with the OOOT-adapt in a bar (i.e., alcohol-relevant) context. The OOOT-adapt showed superior internal consistency, especially for the high-drinking group. Further, specifically the OOOT-adapt differentiated between low- and high-drinking participants showing that high drinkers engaged faster with alcohol cues than did low drinkers. Thus, the OOOT-adapt was found to be a promising candidate to reliably index AB in the context of alcohol use. The OOOT-adapt further showed superior criterion validity as it could differentiate between low- and high-drinking individuals, thereby adding to the evidence that AB might be involved in substance use behavior.https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.630461/fullattentional biasalcohol useaddictionreliabilityinternal consistencyvisual search |
| spellingShingle | Janika Heitmann Janika Heitmann Nienke C. Jonker Peter J. de Jong A Promising Candidate to Reliably Index Attentional Bias Toward Alcohol Cues–An Adapted Odd-One-Out Visual Search Task Frontiers in Psychology attentional bias alcohol use addiction reliability internal consistency visual search |
| title | A Promising Candidate to Reliably Index Attentional Bias Toward Alcohol Cues–An Adapted Odd-One-Out Visual Search Task |
| title_full | A Promising Candidate to Reliably Index Attentional Bias Toward Alcohol Cues–An Adapted Odd-One-Out Visual Search Task |
| title_fullStr | A Promising Candidate to Reliably Index Attentional Bias Toward Alcohol Cues–An Adapted Odd-One-Out Visual Search Task |
| title_full_unstemmed | A Promising Candidate to Reliably Index Attentional Bias Toward Alcohol Cues–An Adapted Odd-One-Out Visual Search Task |
| title_short | A Promising Candidate to Reliably Index Attentional Bias Toward Alcohol Cues–An Adapted Odd-One-Out Visual Search Task |
| title_sort | promising candidate to reliably index attentional bias toward alcohol cues an adapted odd one out visual search task |
| topic | attentional bias alcohol use addiction reliability internal consistency visual search |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.630461/full |
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