176 Don’t Let A nxiety Run Your Life
of the time, whereas in the attend to negative (A N) condi-
tion, they were trained to notice disapproving faces 80
percent of the time. The last condition was a control in which
people were trained to attend to both faces 50 percent of the
time and to receive no particular bias one way or the other.
The researchers measured both subjective anxiety, as expe-
rienced in the speech task, and behavioral displays of anxiety.
It was found that the AP condition led to reductions in both
subjective distress and behavioral displays of anxiety com-
pared to the A N condition. Moreover, the AP condition
resulted in far fewer behavioral displays of anxiety relative to
the control condition.
Overall, these results are consistent with the picture we
presented earlier. Attention biases toward threatening
stimuli aren’t productive by any means. A mind that’s too
vigilant for danger is unable to assess its environment accu-
rately. By using mindfulness and attention training pro-
grams to address these biases, you will be in a better position
to process the positive experiences that are part and parcel
of your everyday environment.
Using Attention Games to Quell
Yo u r A n x i e t y
The therapeutic effect of cognitive bias modification has
roots in the science of emotions. Moreover, this type of help
is easily implementable in the context of other treatments. It
can complement techniques that span mindfulness medita-
tion to exposure exercises, which you will learn more about
in the next chapter.