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Spider Fear and Avoidance: A Preliminary Study of the Impact of Two Verbal Rehearsal Tasks on a Behavior–Behavior Relation and Its Implications for an Experimental Analysis of Defusion

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Abstract

The current study examined the impact of a brief verbal rehearsal task on performance on two Implicit Relational Assessment Procedures (IRAPs), actual approach behavior towards a live spider (a behavioral approach task; BAT), and the relationship between the IRAPs and the BAT. Participants first completed the Fear of Spiders Questionnaire (FSQ) followed by one of two verbal rehearsal tasks, one of which focused on fear acceptance and the other on fear reduction as ways of coping with fear. All participants then completed two IRAPs similar to those employed by Leech, Barnes-Holmes, and Madden (The Psychological Record, 66(3), doi:10.1007/s40732-016-0176-1, 2016). Finally, participants completed the BAT using a live common house spider. Broadly similar findings were obtained for performance on the IRAPs as were reported by Leech et al. No significant differences between the two verbal-rehearsal conditions emerged on the self-report measures, the IRAPs, or the BAT. However, correlations between performances on the IRAPs and the BAT were concentrated in the reduce-fear condition. When considered in the context of the results previously reported by Leech et al., the differential pattern of correlations observed in the current study suggest that the verbal rehearsal task impacted upon a behavior–behavior relation that may be directly relevant to the concept of defusion in the acceptance and commitment therapy literature.

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Notes

  1. The concept of prediction is assumed to be synonymous with correlation throughout the current article and is not used to infer, unless explicitly stated, a causal relationship.

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Authors’ note

This article was prepared with the support of an Odysseus Group 1 Grant (2015–2020) awarded to the second author by the Flanders Science Foundation (FWO) and a doctoral research scholarship awarded to the first author.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Experimental, Clinical, and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, B-9000, Ghent, Belgium

    Aileen Leech, Dermot Barnes-Holmes & Ciara McEnteggart

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  1. Aileen Leech
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  2. Dermot Barnes-Holmes
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  3. Ciara McEnteggart
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Correspondence to Aileen Leech.

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Conflict of interest

Aileen Leech declares that she has no conflict of interest. Dermot Barnes-Holmes declares that he has no conflict of interest. Ciara McEnteggart declares that she has no conflict of interest.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Leech, A., Barnes-Holmes, D. & McEnteggart, C. Spider Fear and Avoidance: A Preliminary Study of the Impact of Two Verbal Rehearsal Tasks on a Behavior–Behavior Relation and Its Implications for an Experimental Analysis of Defusion. Psychol Rec 67, 387–398 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40732-017-0230-7

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