title: The psychometric properties of the dot-probe paradigm when used in pain-related attentional bias research.
abstract: In recent years, there has been increasing acknowledgment of the need for psychometric data regarding the dot-probe paradigm. The aim of the present study was to provide some data on the psychometric properties of the dot-probe paradigm in the context of pain-related research. Using the data of a large pain-free sample and a large chronic pain sample, the present study examined the psychometric properties of a picture- and word-based dot-probe task. It also examined the data of idiosyncratically selected stimuli designed to be relevant to each participant and compared this with the data of neutral stimuli and nonsalient pain-related stimuli. Poor levels of internal consistency (α range: -.44 to .28; split-half r range: -.35 to .11) and test-retest reliability (r range: -.14 to .13) were found among the pain-free sample, irrespective of the task used or the stimuli used. There was limited evidence of comparability between the 2 tasks among the chronic pain sample (r range: -.08 to .26) and similarly poor levels of internal-consistency (α range: -.56 to .17; split-half r range: -.20 to .25). The findings of the present study therefore suggest that psychometric issues may be important to pain-related attentional bias research. More research is, however, undoubtedly needed.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The aim of the present study was to provide data regarding the psychometric properties of the dot-probe paradigm within the specific context of pain-related attentional bias research. The findings of this study suggest that psychometric issues may be an important consideration in pain-related attentional biases research.
authors: The Centre for Emotional Health, Department of Psychology, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. blake.dear@mq.edu.au
authors: Blake F
authors: BF
authors: Dear
authors: Louise
authors: L
authors: Sharpe
authors: Michael K
authors: MK
authors: Nicholas
authors: Kathryn
authors: K
authors: Refshauge
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D015982:Bias; D059350:Chronic Pain / Q000523:psychology; D003627:Data Interpretation, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007206:Individuality; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010146:Pain / Q000523:psychology*; D010147:Pain Measurement / Q000379:methods*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult