Alexander Karner

Spider phobia is one of the most common specific phobias and can be highly detrimental to one’s quality of life. To evaluate the efficacy of treatments, reliable pre- and post-treatment assessments are needed. Behavioral avoidance tests (BATs), where one is asked to approach a spider, are commonly used as such measures. With the increasing popularity of computerized interventions, there is a demand for quick assessments for fear of spiders, that can be completed using computers or smartphones. Here, we tested the validity of a novel computerized BAT (cBAT) that we introduced in our previous work. In this cBAT, participants unblurred three images of spiders up to a point where they still felt comfortable viewing them. We expected that the cBAT would be moderately to strongly correlated with established measures for fear of spiders. Our analysis revealed that the cBAT showed moderate convergent and concurrent validity through correlations with self-report questionnaires indicating spider fear, and with a real-life BAT, respectively. However, the latter was no longer observed in a follow-up. While the cBAT facilitates ease of application and has a quick, straightforward participant task, we conclude that the cBAT is a limited measure for fear of spiders and might not fully capture the complexity of spider-related avoidance behavior compared to tasks that simulate real-life scenarios more closely. We propose the development of a refined cBAT that maintains an easily applicable participant task.

Semantic priming has been studied for nearly 50 years across various experimental manipulations and theoretical frameworks. Although previous studies provide insight into the cognitive underpinnings of semantic representations, they have suffered from small sample sizes and a lack of linguistic and cultural diversity. In this Registered Report, we measured the size and the variability of the semantic priming effect across 19 languages (n = 25,163 participants analysed) by creating the largest available database of semantic priming values using an adaptive sampling procedure. We found evidence for semantic priming in terms of differences in response latencies between related word-pair conditions and unrelated word-pair conditions. Model comparisons showed that the inclusion of a random intercept for language improved model fit, providing support for variability in semantic priming across languages. This study highlights the robustness and variability of semantic priming across languages and provides a rich, linguistically diverse dataset for further analysis. The Stage 1 protocol for this Registered Report was accepted in principle on 15 July 2022. The protocol, as accepted by the journal, can be found at https://osf.io/u5bp6 (registration) or https://osf.io/q4fjy (preprint version 6, 31 May 2022).

The SpiderPhy dataset is a dataset of physiological, psychometric, and behavioral data from subclinical spider fearful individuals (N = 54) who underwent exposure to spider stimuli. The physiological data comprises electrocardiograms, electrodermal activity, respiration patterns, and oculometry data including gaze position and pupil size. After each spider-exposure trial, the stimulus was rated on a 0–100 scale on how much fear the stimulus evoked. Demographical data and behavioral data, including pre-post assessment of phobic symptoms, state of exhaustion, or experience of disgust, are also included. This dataset is of particular interest for researchers interested in investigating relationships between multiple physiological responses, current state of fear and/or phobic symptom severity.

Neuroimaging has greatly improved our understanding of phobic mechanisms. To expand on these advancements, we present data on the heterogeneity of neural patterns in spider phobia combined with various psychological dimensions of spider phobia, using spider-relevant stimuli of various intensities. Specifically, we have created a database in which 49 spider-fearful individuals viewed 225 spider-relevant images in the fMRI scanner and performed behavioral avoidance tasks before and after the fMRI scan. For each participant, the database consists of the neuroimaging part, which includes an anatomical scan, five passive-viewing, and two resting-state functional runs in both raw and pre-processed form along with associated quality control reports. Additionally, the behavioral section includes self-report questionnaires and avoidance tasks collected in pre- and post-sessions. The dataset is well suited for investigating neural mechanisms of phobias, brain-behavior correlations, and also contributes to the existing phobic neuroimaging datasets with spider-fearful samples.

Neuroimaging has greatly improved our understanding of phobic mechanisms. To expand on these advancements, we present data on the heterogeneity of neural patterns in spider phobia combined with various psychological dimensions of spider phobia, using spider-relevant stimuli of various intensities. Specifically, we have created a database in which 49 spider-fearful individuals viewed 225 spider-relevant images in the fMRI scanner and performed behavioral avoidance tasks before and after the fMRI scan. For each participant, the database consists of the neuroimaging part, which includes an anatomical scan, 5 passive-viewing and 2 resting-state functional runs in both raw and preprocessed form, along with associated quality control reports. Additionally, a behavioral section includes self-report questionnaires and avoidance tasks collected in pre- and post-sessions. The dataset is well suited for investigating neural mechanisms of phobias, brain-behavior correlations, and also contributes to the existing phobic neuroimaging datasets with spider-fearful samples.

Exposure therapy is an established treatment for anxiety disorders but the mechanisms underpinning its effectiveness remain unclear. Two theories offer contrasting perspectives: the traditional habituation model posits that a form of stimulus desensitization is required during exposure, while the inhibitory learning model emphasizes the formation of new non-fearful associations. Crucially, while the former may manifest as amygdala habituation, the latter may not. To distinguish between the two models, this study uses functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine the amygdala responses of spider-fearful participants during fear exposure. We hypothesized that intervention success might align with stable or even increased amygdala activation – an indicator of active engagement and re-learning as proposed by the inhibitory learning model. Conversely, decreasing amygdala activity might not be a sign of reduced fear memory as proposed by the habituation model, but could signal mental detachment, leading to suboptimal treatment outcomes. Our results corroborated our hypotheses: individuals with escalating amygdala responses during exposure exhibited better clinical progress, while those showing amygdala ‘habituation’ benefited less. Our results strengthen the case for the inhibitory learning model and highlight that therapy may not aim to diminish fear per se but rather to engage patients in active processing and association formation.

This large, international dataset contains survey responses from N = 12,570 students from 100 universities in 35 countries, collected in 21 languages. We measured anxieties (statistics, mathematics, test, trait, social interaction, performance, creativity, intolerance of uncertainty, and fear of negative evaluation), self-efficacy, persistence, and the cognitive reflection test, and collected demographics, previous mathematics grades, self-reported and official statistics grades, and statistics module details. Data reuse potential is broad, including testing links between anxieties and statistics/mathematics education factors, and examining instruments’ psychometric properties across different languages and contexts. Data and metadata are stored on the Open Science Framework website [https://osf.io/mhg94/].