Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2020 Feb 3;68(2):86-101.
doi: 10.1080/20473869.2020.1720156. eCollection 2022.

Inclusiveness of cognitive bias modification research toward children and young people with neurodevelopmental disorders: A systematic review

Nora B Schmidt  1 , Leen Vereenooghe  1
Affiliations
Review

Inclusiveness of cognitive bias modification research toward children and young people with neurodevelopmental disorders: A systematic review

Nora B Schmidt et al. Int J Dev Disabil. .

Abstract

Cognitive bias modification (CBM) is increasingly used to target cognitive biases related to internalising or externalising problems, which are common in neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD). This systematic review assesses the available evidence for using CBM in children and young people with NDD, in particular regarding ambiguous interpersonal information, and the extent of their exclusion from this type of intervention research. PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, MEDLINE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and Science Citation Index were consulted using MeSH terms and synonyms of "neurodevelopmental disorders", "mental health problems", "cognitive bias", "modification" and "review". Data extraction focused on the efficacy of CBM for NDD, how CBM was delivered, whether studies adopted exclusion criteria relating to NDD and the rationale for such criteria. The search identified 2270 records, of which twenty-nine studies assessed CBM for interpretations and were included in the qualitative synthesis. Three studies targeted bias in NDD, whereas a third of studies explicitly excluded participants based on NDD-related criteria: most frequently intellectual impairment, reading or learning difficulties and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Only one study provided a rationale for excluding NDD which related to the reading demands of their intervention. There is tentative evidence for the feasibility of using CBM to reduce interpretation bias in children and young people with mild intellectual disability, ASD or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). We recommend that CBM research should consider including participants with NDD, use CBM tasks and adaptations that enable this group's inclusion, or provide a sufficient rationale for their exclusion.

Keywords: Cognitive bias; cognitive bias modification; developmental disorder; interpretation bias; neurodevelopmental disorders; systematic review.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Flow diagram for study selection, following the PRISMA statement.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. American Psychiatric Association. 2013. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. 5th ed. Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Association.
    1. Bar-Haim, Y., Lamy, D., Pergamin, L., Bakermans-Kranenburg, M. J. and van IJzendoorn, M. H.. 2007. Threat-related attentional bias in anxious and nonanxious individuals: A meta-analytic study. Psychological Bulletin, 133, 1–24. - PubMed
    1. Belli, S. R. and Lau, J. Y. F.. 2014. Cognitive bias modification training in adolescents: persistence of training effects. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 38, 640–651.
    1. Boendermaker, W. J., Boffo, M. and Wiers, R. W.. 2015. Exploring elements of fun to motivate youth to do cognitive bias modification. Games for Health Journal, 4, 434–443. - PubMed
    1. Bowler, J. O., Mackintosh, B., Dunn, B. D., Mathews, A., Dalgleish, T. and Hoppitt, L.. 2012. A comparison of cognitive bias modification for interpretation and computerized cognitive behavior therapy: Effects on anxiety, depression, attentional control, and interpretive bias. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 80, 1021–1033. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources