Abstract: | 20 treated and 18 untreated spider phobics were exposed to a series of 72 slides. Three different categories of slides were used: phobia-relevant slides (spiders), alternative fear-relevant slides (weapons), and neutral slides (flowers). Slides were randomly paired with either a shock, a tone, or nothing at all. Despite the absence of a systematic correlation between slides and outcomes, untreated phobics strongly overestimated the covariation between spider slides and shock. Treated phobics did not show a covariation bias, suggesting that such bias can be modulated by the behavioral treatment. In addition, untreated Ss were more confident about their contingency estimates than were treated Ss. The present results fit with earlier studies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |