The Impact of the Attention Training Technique on Attention Control and High Worry
Condition: Excessive Worry
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Excessive and uncontrollable worry has been associated with deficits in attention control.
      The Attention Training Technique (ATT; Wells, 1990) is a 12-minute audio recording that was
      developed to train attention control, so that individuals could learn to shift their
      attention away from maladaptive cognitive processes such as worry. The technique has shown to
      be promising at reducing symptoms across a variety of mental disorders (Knowles, Foden,
      El-Deredy, & Wells, 2016) and is recommended for use in people who suffer from chronic worry.
      To date, little research has been conducted examining the benefits of using this technique in
      such a population. The present study aims to examine the immediate and short term effects of
      weekly ATT practice, compared to a control condition, in a population that suffers from high
      levels of worry about a variety of topics. About one-hundred participants who suffer from
      chronic worry will be randomly assigned to listen to the ATT or a control recording, every
      day for a week. Changes in attention control, worry, and cognitive processes will be examined
      over the course of the intervention period.
    

Detailed description: 
      People who suffer from pathological worry report that they worry to an excessive degree and
      that they find it very difficult to control their worry. Deficits in attention control may
      help to explain why people who worry pathologically find it difficult to shift their
      attention away from their worry, and back to the task at hand. The Attention Training
      Technique (ATT; Wells, 1990) was developed to train attentional control, so that individuals
      could learn to shift the focus of their attention away from maladaptive cognitive processes
      such as worry. Despite being recommended for use in populations that suffer from excessive
      worry, there is a dearth of research examining the effects of ATT in such a population. The
      study aims to examine the immediate (during the intervention) and short-term (right after
      finishing the intervention) effects of listening to the ATT, compared to the control
      recording, on attention, worry, and other cognitive processes. This will be the first study
      to our knowledge to examine the effects of 1 week of daily ATT practice in a sample of people
      who suffer from chronic worry, and will provide important information for optimizing the
      treatment of worry in this population.
    

Intervention name(s): Attention Training Technique; Control Condition
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): The ATT is a 12-minute audio recording that includes sounds and a voice guiding attention to the sounds. The sounds play continuously during the training task.; In the control condition, participants listen to an audio recording with the same sounds as the ATT recording, and a voice that delivers placebo instructions.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Intervention model description: Baseline outcome measures will be completed at the first visit to the lab. Participants will then engage in a week of reporting on their worry and attention on their own, before coming back to the lab to recomplete the outcome measures. They will then be randomly assigned to the intervention or control condition and will engage in a week of daily listening to the corresponding recording for their condition on their own, while reporting on their worry and attention again during that week. Outcome measures will be completed again at the lab immediately following the intervention.
Masking: Single (Participant)
Primary purpose: Treatment
Keywords: High worry; Anxiety; Attention Training Technique; Attention Control; Attention; Mindfulness; Attention Bias; Worry; Pathological Worry; Anxiety Disorder