Delaying in vivo exposure to a tarantula with very brief exposure to phobic stimuli

Research has documented the very brief exposure (VBE) effect: the reduction of phobic fear by continuous presentation of masked phobic pictures. In prior studies, phobic participants approached a live tarantula immediately after the masked stimuli were presented. This study tested the hypothesis that VBE would reduce phobic avoidance of the tarantula 24 h later.

86 spider-phobic participants were identified with a fear questionnaire and Behavioral Avoidance Test (BAT) with a live tarantula indicative of a DSM-IV diagnosis of Specific Phobia. One week later, they were randomly assigned in double-blind fashion to presentation of a continuous series of 25 trials of masked images of either spiders or flowers (33-ms each), i.e., to VBE or control exposure. The participants gave subjective distress ratings just before and after these exposures. Then they engaged in the BAT again either immediately thereafter or 24 h later to measure changes in avoidance of the tarantula.

Masked images of spiders reduced avoidance of the tarantula both immediately after exposure and 24 h later without causing subjective distress. The effect sizes at these two time points did not significantly differ from each other.

We did not manipulate awareness of the spider images by presenting them unmasked to a third group. Conclusions about the effect of awareness of the stimuli cannot be drawn.

VBE induces a process of fear reduction before phobic individuals engage in in vivo exposure, which is more distressing. Thus, VBE may help phobic-resistant individuals start treatment more gradually.