Hostile Bias Modification Training Online Study II (HBMT II)

The purpose of this study is to see how people respond on a word completion task relates to how they behave and respond to situations in the real world. This is a two part research study. At time-point one, participants will fill out some brief personality surveys. They will also read several short scenarios and imagine how they would react and/or interpret these situations in real life. They will also complete a vocabulary task where they will sort word fragments based on type as quickly as they are able. Participants will be asked to return in 24-96 hours for part two where they will repeat a similar scenario reading activity as during time one and fill out a brief questionnaire about your recent behaviors.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Anger; Aggression; Stress; Emotion Regulation; Self-Control
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: HBMT; Behavioral: Other Training

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 229
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Maryland
    • Silver Spring, Maryland, United States, 20910
      • Sleep Research Center

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

1. Adult aged 18 and older
2. Located in the United States or other primarily English speaking country.
3. Active Amazon Account.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Less than 18 years old.
• Not located in the United States or other primarily English speaking country.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Other
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Placebo Comparator: Placebo	Behavioral: Other Training; Alternative to HBMT training
Experimental: HBMT	Behavioral: HBMT; Individual is presented with words with some letters missing and told to complete the word.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Hostile Attribution Bias	Adapted from the "Angry Cognitions Scale" (Martin and Dahlen 2007). Volunteers read hypothetical scenarios where another person acted aggressively but with unclear intent (e.g., "You are driving through a residential area when someone backs their car out of a driveway and nearly hits you."). Volunteers respond to items (from "Very Unlikely" to "Very Likely") to indicate how they would think about the situation (e.g., "He/she did that just so I'd have to stop. He/she was trying to scare me."). Volunteers responded to one set (4 scenarios) at time point one and a second set (5 scenarios) at time point two. Reponses were summed within each scenario and averaged across scenarios to indicate level of hostile attribution bias. Individual scores at each time point could range from 0 (no hostile attribution bias) to 24 (high hostile attribution bias).	24-96 hours post HBMT
Driving Aggression	State Aggression Survey: This survey is adapted from several others in the literature to measure variance along the normal spectrum of aggressive behaviors in daily life that the average person might display (Álvarez-García, et al., 2016; Deffenbacher, et al., 2001; Deffenbacher, J. et al., 2002). The survey specifically asks about driving behaviors (e.g., yelling at other drivers). Scoring is count of aggressive behaviors during reporting period.	24-96 hours post HBMT
Aggression On Social Media	Seven items adapted from the Cyber-Aggression Questionnaire for Adolescents by Álvarez-García et al. (2016). Volunteers reported at time point two how often (during preceding 24 h) they engaged in various aggressive online behaviors (e.g., posted rude comments about someone on a social network). Response choices ranged from 1 = never to 4 = always. Scores were recorded dichotomously to represent whether a volunteer reported any online aggression during the reporting period (i.e. "never" was recoded as "0" to indicate no aggression, and all other responses were recoded as "1" to indicate at least some aggression. A higher percentage of volunteers in a study condition reporting usage of aggression on social media indicates a worse outcome for that study condition.	24-96 hours post treatment

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Anger	Trait Anger Scale: Brief measure of trait anger validated by Wilk et al., (2015). Scale (1-5, strongly disagree to strongly agree); Two questions regarding individual's perspective on their anger. Higher values indicate greater anger.	24-96 hours post HBMT

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR)
• Collaborators: Army Research Laboratory

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): July 30, 2019
• Primary Completion (Actual): December 31, 2019
• Study Completion (Actual): December 31, 2019

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: July 8, 2019
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 8, 2019
• First Posted (Actual): July 11, 2019

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): September 8, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: August 11, 2021
• Last Verified: August 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: attention bias; hostile attribution bias; hostile bias modification
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Behavioral Symptoms; Aggression
• Other Study ID Numbers: WRAIR #2628

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No