Background and objectives: People who are afraid of heights may have a perceptual bias, such that they see heights as higher than they truly are. The current study tested if there is a causal relationship between treatments for height fear and changes in perceptual bias.
Methods: Specifically, the effects on perceptual bias following three height fear interventions (exposure, cognitive bias modification for interpretations, and a combination of exposure and cognitive bias modification) and a control condition were examined in individuals with an extreme fear of heights (N = 107).
Results: Results provided preliminary evidence that some height fear interventions reduce perceptual bias. Specifically, participants that completed exposure had a significant decrease in perceptual bias, and participants in the cognitive bias modification and combination conditions had decreases in perceptual bias at the level of non-significant trends, while no reduction occurred for the control condition.
Limitations: Limitations of this study include that the hypothesis was largely informed by data from a parent study and that the effect sizes were small; thus, replicating these results is warranted.
Conclusions: These findings suggest that there may be a causal relationship between height fear treatments and altered perception of heights.
Keywords: Acrophobia; Cognitive bias modification; Exposure; Height fear; Perceptual bias.
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