Targeting negative flashforward imagery in speech anxiety with a visuospatial dual-task: Impact on anxiety and avoidance

Description

Onderdeel van symposium: Modifying negative mental imagery of the past and the future: Processes and outcomes relevant to anxiety treatment
Abstract: Introduction: Speech anxiety is an intense, persistent social fear related to speaking or performing in public. It has been proposed that negative mental imagery plays an important role in the persistence of social fears. Experiencing vivid and distressing ‘flashforward’ images of a potential social catastrophe appears to be of relevance in speech anxiety. To clarify the role of these images in speech anxiety, the current experimental study tested if reducing the vividness and distressing properties of recurring negative flashforward images subsequently reduces anxiety and avoidance tendencies regarding a speech. Thereby, we used a visuospatial dual-task or eye-movement intervention to target negative imagery.
Method: Participants were female undergraduates high in speech anxiety (N = 134) who joined our study online. They were interviewed on their typical speech-related flashforward image of feared outcome and were then randomly assigned to a control condition or to the online eye-movement intervention to reduce image vividness and distress. In the control condition, participants received no imagery manipulation. All participants then performed an actual speech via videoconferencing. Primary outcomes were participants’ self-reported anxiety and avoidance ratings in anticipation of and during the speech. As a secondary outcome, we used observer ratings of participants’ anxiety during the speech.
Results: Participants reported moderate to high frequency and interference of their vivid and distressing flashforward images in daily life. The manipulation check showed that the eye-movement intervention had indeed resulted in reductions in vividness and distress, with a moderate to small imagery manipulation effect. However, when evaluating the effects of attenuated flashforwards on speech anxiety, we found no differences between conditions in anxiety and avoidance ratings before and during the speech. Similarly, observer-rated anxiety did not differ between conditions.
Discussion: Reducing negative flashforward imagery vividness and distress with an eye-movement intervention did not directly lead to less anxiety and avoidance tendencies related to a later speech. Thus, findings provided no support for a causal impact of experiencing highly vivid and distressing flashforward images on speech anxiety, and for using a short eye-movement intervention with these images to aid individuals in facing their fears. Future studies using more intensive or different imagery manipulations and replications in clinical samples are necessary to arrive at firmer conclusions on the relevance of these images in the maintenance and treatment of social fears.

Period	4-Jun-2023
Event title	10th World Congress of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapies
Event type	Conference
Location	Seoul, Korea, Democratic People's Republic ofShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International