title: Treatment effect on biases in size estimation in spider phobia.
abstract: The current study investigates biases in size estimations made by spider-phobic and healthy participants before and after treatment.
  
  
  
  Forty-one spider-phobic and 20 healthy participants received virtual reality (VR) exposure treatment and were then asked to rate the size of a real spider immediately before and, on average, 15days after the treatment. During the VR exposure treatment skin conductance response was assessed.
  
  
  
  Prior to the treatment, both groups tended to overestimate the size of the spider, but this size estimation bias was significantly larger in the phobic group than in the control group. The VR exposure treatment reduced this bias, which was reflected in a significantly smaller size rating post treatment. However, the size estimation bias was unrelated to the skin conductance response.
  
  
  
  Our results confirm the hypothesis that size estimation by spider-phobic patients is biased. This bias is not stable over time and can be decreased with adequate treatment.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology (Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy), University of Regensburg, Germany. Electronic address: Youssef.Shiban@psychologie.uni-regensburg.de.
authors.forename: Youssef
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Shiban
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy), University of Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Martina B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Fruth
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology (Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology, and Psychotherapy), University of Würzburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pauli
authors.affiliation: Department of Cognitive, Linguistic & Psychological Sciences, Brown University, United States.
authors.forename: Max
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kinateder
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology (Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy), University of Regensburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Jonas
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Reichenberger
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology (Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy), University of Regensburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mühlberger
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000818:Animals; D001143:Arousal; D000070379:Attentional Bias; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response; D006801:Humans; D007171:Implosive Therapy; D008297:Male; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D012858:Size Perception; D013112:Spiders; D014584:User-Computer Interface; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Exposure therapy; Perceptual bias; Size perception; Skin conductance response; Spider phobia; Virtual reality