NCT07406321

Brief Interpretation Bias Modification for Social Anxiety Disorder in Pakistani Young Adults: An Experimental Evaluation

Efficacy of Cognitive Bias Modification Itervention in Young Adult With Social Anxiety

• Status: Not Yet Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 130 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Ather Mujitaba · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 25 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

This randomized, single-blind trial tests whether one session of interpretation bias modification reduces immediate social-evaluative anxiety and shifts interpretation bias in Pakistani university students aged 18 to 25 years with elevated social anxiety. Participants are assigned to either feedback-contingent interpretation bias modification or a structurally matched interpretation control condition. Primary and secondary outcomes are assessed before and after the intervention session using short-form state-trait anxiety measures and Word-Sentence Association Paradigm endorsement indices.

Detailed description

Social anxiety in young adults is maintained in part by a tendency to interpret ambiguous social information as threatening. The study evaluates a behavioral interpretation training procedure delivered with OpenSesame, using trial-by-trial responses to ambiguous social sentences preceded by threat or benign prime words. In the experimental arm, feedback contingently reinforces benign endorsements and threat rejections. In the control arm, exposure and timing are matched but feedback is noncontingent and presented on half of trials. The design is a parallel two-arm randomized pretest-posttest trial with participant masking to assignment. Assessment includes the 5-item state and 5-item trait short-form State-Trait Anxiety Inventory totals and Word-Sentence Association Paradigm threat and benign endorsement proportions. The mechanistic hypothesis is that feedback-consistent learning increases benign interpretations and reduces threat interpretations, which is associated with lower post-session state anxiety. The trial was conducted as part of a PhD thesis at the University of Gujrat under formal institutional approvals.

Conditions

• Social Anxiety Disorder
• Interpretation Bias

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	WSAP-based interpretation bias modification	Single-session Word-Sentence Association Paradigm training with performance-contingent feedback across 220 trials in two 110-trial blocks; each block includes 70 social ambiguity trials and 40 non-social fillers. Correct feedback follows benign endorsement or threat rejection; incorrect feedback follows threat endorsement or benign rejection.
BEHAVIORAL	WSAP interpretation control condition	Matched Word-Sentence Association Paradigm exposure with identical stimulus timing and response demands, feedback delivered on 50 percent of trials without contingency favoring benign over threat interpretations.

Timeline

• Start date: 2026-02-01
• Primary completion: 2026-04-01
• Completion: 2026-04-01
• First posted: 2026-02-12
• Last updated: 2026-02-12

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Pakistan