TY - JOUR
T1 - Effects of verbal information on fear-related reasoning biases in children
AU - Muris, Peter
AU - Rassin, Eric
AU - Mayer, Birgit
AU - Smeets, Guus
AU - Huijding, Jorg
AU - Remmerswaal, Daniëlle
AU - Field, Andy
PY - 2009/3
Y1 - 2009/3
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Children
KW - Confirmation bias
KW - Covariation bias
KW - Fear-related reasoning biases
KW - Verbal pathway to fear-acquisition
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=61349097199&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.brat.2008.12.002
DO - 10.1016/j.brat.2008.12.002
M3 - Article
C2 - 19135650
AN - SCOPUS:61349097199
SN - 0005-7967
VL - 47
SP - 206
EP - 214
JO - Behaviour Research and Therapy
JF - Behaviour Research and Therapy
IS - 3
ER -