Abstract
Psychotherapy introduces new learning that can retroactively interfere with the expression of initial learning that contributed to psychological dysfunction. However, expression of the initial learning can spontaneously recover with time, and the prevention of this recurrence remains elusive. In a laboratory study, we explored whether having participants focus their attention on the present moment through guided instruction would reduce the recurrence of initial learning with the passage of time. All participants first learned a particular response to a cue before learning a new response. During testing, participants were presented with the cue and asked to provide a response. When tested immediately, participants provided the most recently learned response, but after a 16 min delay they also provided the initially learned response (i.e., spontaneous recovery). The focused-attention intervention significantly reduced the spontaneous recovery of the initial learning. This finding has theoretical value for research on therapeutic intervention.
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Notes
Causal ratings for O1 and O2 each contained one outlier (i.e., 2 standard deviations or more away from the mean) in each group in Phase 1. On test, there was one outlier in Group Unfocused in the ratings of O2. Among the variables containing outliers, the outliers were skewed in a direction opposite to the mean of the group containing it. When average ratings were high (e.g., O1 ratings in Phase 1) outliers were low scores (e.g., 0, 2) and when average ratings were low, outliers were high scores (e.g., 9). Thus, there was no transformation of the data that could uniformly correct the skew without being confounded with the identity of the variable. Overall, no participant produced consistently extreme scores. Outliers increase error variance and decrease differences between outcome means, making any conclusions regarding significant differences between outcomes conservative. Rather than exercise the many degrees of freedom available to the researcher in treating these few scores the outliers were retained and the data remained unmodified.
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Acknowledgments
Preparation of this manuscript was supported by the Center for Excellence on Generalization Research (GRIP.TT; KU Leuven grant PF/10/005) and by Grant No. PSI2011-24231 from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and Grant No. T-694-13 from the Basque Ministry of Science.
Conflict of Interest
Holly C. Miller, Olivier Lefebvre, Pierre Lyon, James B. Nelson, Mikaël Molet declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Informed Consent
The study was conducted in accordance with the ethical guidelines of the American Psychological Association and written informed consent was obtained from each participant.
Animal Rights
No animal studies were carried out by the authors for this article.
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Appendices
Appendix 1: Focused Attention Induction
Much of the emotional distress people experience is the result of thinking about upsetting things that have already happened or anticipating negative events that have yet to occur.
Distressing emotions such as anger, anxiety, guilt and sadness are much easier to bear if you only focus on the present—one moment at a time.
This is an exercise to increase your mindfulness of the present moment so that you can clear away any thoughts about past and future events.
Start by focusing on your breathing.
Don’t try to change anything about your breathing, just notice the air moving in and out of your body.
Try to focus all of your attention on your breathing.
Notice the sensation of breathing air in. Notice the sensation of breathing air out.
As you breath air into your body, fill your mind with the thought “just this one breath”.
As you breathe air out of your body, fill your mind with the thought “just this one exhale”.
Focus on the actual sensation of breath entering and leaving your body.
Just this one breath in.
Just this one exhale out.
If you notice that your awareness is no longer on your breath, gently bring your awareness back.
Just this one breath.
Just this one exhale.
Continue focusing only on each breath in and each breath out, do not anticipate anything—even your next breath.
Only focus on one breath at a time.
If anything else pops into your mind, push it aside and refocus your attention to each breath.
Continue focusing on each breath in and each exhale out until you hear the sound of the bell.
Appendix 2 Unfocused Attention Induction
Much of the emotional distress people experience is the result of thinking about upsetting things that have already happened or anticipating negative events that have yet to occur.
Distressing emotions such as anger, anxiety, guilt and sadness are often brought to mind.
With this exercise let your mind wander freely amongst thoughts about past and future events.
Start by allowing your mind to roam.
Don’t try to focus on your thoughts, just let them drift without hesitation.
There is no need to focus on anything in particular.
Allow yourself to think freely.
Try not to focus on any one thing.
Just let your mind wander.
Openly let your thoughts flow.
Continue to let yourself think freely.
There is no need to think of anything in particular.
Just let your mind wander.
Think about whatever comes to mind.
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Miller, H.C., Lefebvre, O., Lyon, P. et al. A Focused Attention Intervention for Preventing the Recovery of Initial Learning. Cogn Ther Res 38, 652–659 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-014-9625-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10608-014-9625-9