http://repub.eur.nl/res/aut/17817/ List of Publications en http://repub.eur.nl/static-eur/img/logo.png http://repub.eur.nl http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/40069/ 2013-06-01T00:00:00Z Using an experimental approach, we examined the effects of verbal information as provided by the mothers on children's fear of real novel animals. Mothers of children aged 8 to 12. years (N=47) were shown a cage containing a pair of exotic rodents (i.e., Mongolian gerbils) and then received either positive or negative information about these animals. Mothers were told that their child would have to approach the animals and had the opportunity to prepare their children for this confrontation. Results showed that mothers spontaneously passed over the information they had received to their children. Most importantly, this information to some extent determined children's fear reactions towards the animals. That is, whereas no clear effects of information were found on subjective fear ratings, the data did indicate that children of mothers in the negative information condition were more reluctant to approach the animals as compared to children of mothers who had received positive information. The findings provide further support for the idea that verbal information as provided by parents may induce fear in their offspring. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/37530/ 2012-12-01T00:00:00Z The present study examined the psychometric properties of the Disgust Emotion Scale for Children (DES-C). Principal components analysis of the DES-C data revealed five factors reflecting disgust toward (a) rotting foods, (b) injection and blood, (c) odors, (d) mutilation and death, and (e) animals, which were largely in keeping with the intended subscales. The DES-C showed good reliability, excellent convergent validity (as established by correlations with an alternative self-report index of disgust), fairly good predictive validity (as assessed by correlations with measures of fear/anxiety and a behavioral index of disgust), and acceptable parent-child agreement (in particular with the mothers). Importantly, the DES-C proved to perform better on some psychometric indicators than an age-downward version of the Disgust Scale. These findings indicate that the DES-C should be regarded as the preferred scale for measuring disgust sensitivity and its role in the etiology and maintenance of anxiety problems in children. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/39989/ 2012-11-01T00:00:00Z The Behavioral Inhibition Questionnaire-Short Form (BIQ-SF) is a 14-item parent-rating scale for assessing an inhibited, anxiety-prone temperament in preschool children. This study examined the psychometric properties of the BIQ-SF scores in a multi-ethnic community population of Dutch boys and girls aged 2.5-6 years (total N = 2,343, from which various subsamples were derived). Results revealed that the factor structure of the BIQ-SF was as hypothesized: a model with six correlated factors representing children's inhibited behaviors in various social and non-social contexts provided a good fit for the data. The internal consistency of the BIQ-SF was generally satisfactory and scores on the scale were found to be fairly stable over a time period of up to 2 years. Parent-teacher agreement was acceptable, and relations between the BIQ-SF and observations of an inhibited temperament were moderate. Finally, BIQ-SF scores were positively associated with measures of anxiety and internalizing symptoms, whereas no significant links were found with externalizing symptoms. Altogether, these results provide support for the reliability and validity of the BIQ-SF as an economical method for assessing behavioral inhibition and anxiety proneness in young children. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/30964/ 2011-10-01T00:00:00Z We examined the effects of training to approach or avoid novel animals on fear-related responses in children. Ninety-nine primary school children (9-12 years old) were instructed to repeatedly move a manikin toward or away from pictures of novel animals. The training produced more positive self-reported attitudes for the animal that was repeatedly approached and more negative attitudes for the animal that was repeatedly avoided. After the training, children reported more fear of the avoided animal than of the approached animal. Interestingly, children showed a training-congruent confirmation bias effect on an information-seeking task. That is, they displayed a tendency to seek more positive information about the approached animal, whereas they were inclined to search for more negative information about the avoided animal. No significant training effects were observed on implicit attitudes. The finding that a simple approach-avoidance training influences children's fear-related responses and leads to biased information-seeking behaviors lends support to general theories of fear acquisition in children as well as to models that try to explain the intergenerational transmission of anxiety. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/22996/ 2011-06-01T00:00:00Z This study explored the effects of positive information and imagery as ways of reducing a verbally installed fear in children. Seventy-two primary school children aged 9-13 years were first exposed to negative information to induce fear of a novel animal, and were then randomly assigned to three interventions: positive information, imagery, or a control condition. Outcome of various interventions was assessed by means of a standardized scale of fear beliefs and an index of confirmation bias (defined as the tendency to search for threat information in relation to the feared stimulus). Results indicated that both positive information and imagery were more effective in reducing fear than the control condition. Some evidence was also obtained showing that positive information was more effective than imagery, which suggests that this intervention represents the most optimal treatment approach when dealing with verbally acquired fears in children. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/26616/ 2011-06-01T00:00:00Z Previous eye movement studies of attentional bias in spider fear reported inconsistent results with respect to early attentional capture, suggesting that overt attentional capture only reliably occurs under specific circumstances. In addition, none of these studies explored covert attention. The present study examined attentional bias in spider phobia using a change detection paradigm that was expected to provide good conditions for documenting attentional capture. In contrast to our expectations, eye movement data showed that all participants' first fixations were fastest on general negative targets, whereas participants' first fixations on spider targets were slower in the spider fearful than in the nonfearful group. In addition, spider fearful participants made more nontarget fixations before fixating on a spider target than did nonfearful participants. Thus, we found that participants' overt attention was more quickly focused on general negative targets, whereas covert attentional processes enabled initial avoidance of fear-relevant (i.e. spider) stimuli. The present findings have important implications for research on attention and fear as they indicate that fearful individuals are not characterized by static attentional orienting toward threat but, under certain conditions, may avert attention from threat automatically. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/22754/ 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z This study explored the effects of positive information and imagery as ways of reducing a verbally installed fear in children. Seventy-two primary school children aged 9-13 years were first exposed to negative information to induce fear of a novel animal, and were then randomly assigned to three interventions: positive information, imagery, or a control condition. Outcome of various interventions was assessed by means of a standardized scale of fear beliefs and an index of confirmation bias (defined as the tendency to search for threat information in relation to the feared stimulus). Results indicated that both positive information and imagery were more effective in reducing fear than the control condition. Some evidence was also obtained showing that positive information was more effective than imagery, which suggests that this intervention represents the most optimal treatment approach when dealing with verbally acquired fears in children. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/31732/ 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z Studies obtaining implicit measures of associations in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., Text Revision; American Psychiatric Association, 2000) Axis I psychopathology are organized into three categories: (a) studies comparing groups having a disorder with controls, (b) experimental validity studies, and (c) incremental and predictive validity studies. In the first category, implicit measures of disorder-relevant associations were consistent with explicit beliefs for some disorders (e.g., specific phobia), but for other disorders evidence was either mixed (e.g., panic disorder) or inconsistent with explicit beliefs (e.g., pain disorder). For substance use disorders and overeating, expected positive and unexpected negative associations with craved substances were found consistently. Contrary to expectation, implicit measures of self-esteem were consistently positive for patients with depressive disorder, social phobia, and body dysmorphic disorder. In the second category, short-term manipulations of disorder-relevant states generally affected implicit measures as expected. Therapeutic interventions affected implicit measures for one type of specific phobia, social phobia, and panic disorder, but not for alcohol use disorders or obesity. In the third category, implicit measures had predictive value for certain psychopathological behaviors, sometimes moderated by the availability of cognitive resources (e.g., for alcohol and food, only when cognitive resources were limited). The strengths of implicit measures include (a) converging evidence for dysfunctional beliefs regarding certain disorders and consistent new insights for other disorders and (b) prediction of some psychopathological behaviors that explicit measures cannot explain. Weaknesses include (a) that findings were inconsistent for some disorders, raising doubts about the validity of the measures, and (b) that understanding of the concept " implicit" is incomplete. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/20950/ 2010-01-01T00:00:00Z The present study examines the relative contributions of changes in state fear and disgust emotions to improvements in spider phobia observed with exposure-based treatment. Sixty-one treatment-seeking spider fearful individuals underwent a one-session exposure in vivo treatment. Growth curve analyses indicated that treatment was associated with significant improvements in state fear and disgust reactions to a live spider and self-reported trait spider phobia symptoms. Mediation analyses demonstrated that changes over time in state fear and disgust each explained unique variance in improvements in phobic symptoms over time. Examination of the effect size of the mediated pathways suggests that changes in fear and changes in disgust are important to reductions in the severity of spider phobia symptoms during exposure-based treatment. The implications of these findings for conceptualizing the role of fear and disgust emotions in the maintenance and treatment of spider phobia are discussed. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/17582/ 2009-07-01T00:00:00Z Disgust is a basic emotion that is thought to play a role in the etiology of certain types of specific phobias, like animal phobias. Two experiments were conducted in which 9- to 14-year-old children were exposed to disgust-related, cleanliness-related, and threat-related information about unknown animals. It was investigated to what extent these types of information influenced children's fear beliefs, feelings of disgust, and avoidance behavior in relation to the animals. Most important, results suggested a bidirectional relationship between disgust and fear. That is, disgust-related information was found to promote fear beliefs, and conversely threat-related information enhanced feelings of disgust. Repercussions of these findings for the role of disgust in the development and maintenance of anxiety pathology are discussed. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/17256/ 2009-06-01T00:00:00Z We examined the effects of training to approach or avoid novel animals on fear-related responses in children. Ninety-five primary school children (9–13 years old) were instructed to repeatedly push away or pull closer pictures of novel animals. We tested whether this manipulation would lead to changes in self-reported attitudes, implicit attitudes, fear beliefs, and avoidance behaviors towards these animals. The training produced more positive self-reported attitudes towards the pulled animal and more negative attitudes towards the pushed animal. After the training, girls reported more fear and avoidance of the pushed animal than of the pulled animal, while such training effects were absent in boys. No significant training effects were observed on implicit attitudes. Interestingly, the level of anxiety disorder symptoms prior to training was related to some of the training effects: Stronger prior fear was related to stronger changes in self-reported attitudes, and in boys, also to fear beliefs. The finding that a simple approach–avoidance training influences children’s fear-related responses lends support to general theories of fear acquisition in children as well as to models that try to explain the intergenerational transmission of anxiety. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/18163/ 2009-04-01T00:00:00Z This study tested whether high spider fearful individuals' implicit and explicit attitudes toward spiders are sensitive to exposure treatment, and whether post-treatment implicit and/or explicit attitudes are related to the generalization of treatment effects. Self-reported explicit and implicit attitudes (indexed with a pictorial Extrinsic Affective Simon Task) were assessed in high spider fearful, treatment-seeking individuals (n = 60) before and after a one-session exposure in vivo treatment and at 2-month follow-up. A group of non-fearful participants (n = 30) completed the same assessments once. Results show that implicit attitudes did not change following treatment over and above test-retest effects. In contrast, explicit attitudes did change favorably following treatment, but negative explicit attitudes at post-treatment were associated with less pronounced overt approach behavior at follow-up. These findings support the idea that residual negative explicit attitudes interfere with the generalization of treatment effects. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/18279/ 2009-04-01T00:00:00Z The "space odyssey" paradigm refers to an experimental method that can be used to manipulate interpretation bias in youths. In this study, the "space odyssey" paradigm was employed to induce either a negative or a positive interpretation bias in a sample of 120 non-clinical children aged 9-13 years. The results indicated that children's interpretation bias and avoidance tendencies scores were successfully manipulated during the experiment. That is, children in the negative training group showed an increase in negative interpretation bias and avoidance tendencies, whereas children in the positive training group exhibited a decrease in interpretation bias and avoidance tendencies, although it should be admitted that these effects in general were rather weak. Further, no support was found for the idea that high-anxious children were more affected by the experimental manipulation than low-anxious children. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/18051/ 2009-03-04T00:00:00Z The early posterior negativity (EPN) reflects early selective visual processing of emotionally significant information. This study explored the association between fear of spiders and the EPN for spider pictures. Fifty women completed a Spider Phobia Questionnaire and watched the random rapid serial presentation of 600 neutral, 600 negatively valenced emotional, and 600 spider pictures (three pictures per second). The EPN was scored as the mean activity in the 225-300-ms time window at lateral occipital electrodes. Participants with higher scores on the phobia questionnaire showed larger (i.e. more negative) EPN amplitudes in response to spider pictures. The results suggest that the attentional capture of spider-related stimuli is an automatic response, which is modulated by the extent of spider fear. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/18343/ 2009-03-01T00:00:00Z The present study made an attempt to induce fear-related reasoning biases by providing children with negative information about a novel stimulus. For this purpose, non-clinical children aged 9-12 years (N = 318) were shown a picture of an unknown animal for which they received either negative, ambiguous, positive, or no information. Then children completed a series of tests for measuring various types of reasoning biases (i.e., confirmation bias and covariation bias) in relation to this animal. Results indicated that children in the negative and, to a lesser extent, the ambiguous information groups displayed higher scores on tests of fear-related reasoning biases than children in the positive and no information groups. Altogether, these results support the idea that learning via negatively tinted information plays a role in the development of fear-related cognitive distortions in youths. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/17224/ 2009-01-01T00:00:00Z This study tested whether high spider fearful individuals’ implicit and explicit attitudes toward spiders are sensitive to exposure treatment, and whether post-treatment implicit and/or explicit attitudes are related to the generalization of treatment effects. Self-reported explicit and implicit attitudes (indexed with a pictorial EAST) were assessed in high spider fearful, treatment-seeking individuals (n = 60) before and after a one-session exposure in vivo treatment and at 2-months follow-up. A group of non-fearful participants (n = 30) completed the same assessments once. Results show that implicit attitudes did not change following treatment over and above test-retest effects. In contrast, explicit attitudes did change favorably following treatment, but negative explicit attitudes at post-treatment were associated with less pronounced overt approach behavior at follow-up. These findings support the idea that residual negative explicit attitudes interfere with the generalization of treatment effects. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/15117/ 2008-12-01T00:00:00Z This study provides a first test of an experimental method, the "space odyssey" paradigm, that was designed to manipulate interpretation bias in children. Seventy non-clinical children aged 8-12 years first completed a standardized anxiety questionnaire. Following this, they completed the space odyssey paradigm to induce either a negative or a positive interpretation bias. After this stage of interpretation training, children were presented with a series of ambiguous vignettes for which they had to rate perceived levels of threat as an index of interpretation bias. Results indicated that the space odyssey paradigm was successful in training interpretations: children in the negative training condition quickly learned to choose negative outcomes, while children in the positive training condition rapidly learned to select positive outcomes. Most importantly, children's subsequent threat perception scores for the ambiguous vignettes were affected by the manipulation. That is, children in the negative training condition perceived more threat than children in the positive training condition. Interestingly, the effects of training were most pronounced in high anxious children. Directions for future research with this paradigm are briefly discussed. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/17239/ 2008-01-01T00:00:00Z Cognitive models assume that dysfunctional associations between anxiogenic stimuli and unrealistic negative attributes and consequences are a core feature in the onset and persistence of anxiety disorders. This treatise describes a dual process approach to anxiety disorders that, with respect to such ‘associations’, differentiates into associations that are automatically activated upon encountering the anxiogenic stimulus, and more deliberated beliefs concerning this stimulus. The emergence of dual process models and indirect measures of automatic associations yielded a series of new insights and testable hypotheses with respect to the factors that are involved in the onset and persistence of anxiety disorders. In this treatise these hypotheses and possible implications for clinical practice will be discussed. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/17227/ 2007-06-01T00:00:00Z This study explored the role of threat and contamination-related associations in spider phobia. Treatment-seeking (n=60) and non-phobic (n=30) individuals completed threat and disgust-related Implicit Association Tests (IATs). Phobic individuals were assessed before and after one session of 2.5 h in vivo exposure. To differentiate actual treatment effects from test–retest effects on the IAT, half of the phobic individuals completed the IAT twice before treatment. Results showed that: (1) threat and contamination associations similarly distinguished between phobic and non-phobic participants on self-reports and IATs; (2) only self-reported threat associations incrementally predicted participants’ overt avoidance behavior next to self-reported global affective associations; (3) self-reported associations were significantly reduced following treatment; (4) IAT-effects showed no significant reduction following treatment, and no evidence was found for an additional treatment-induced change over and above test–retest effects. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/17225/ 2007-01-01T00:00:00Z This study explored the role of threat and contamination-related associations in spider phobia. Treatment-seeking (n = 60) and non-phobic (n = 30) individuals completed threat and disgust-related Implicit Association Tests (IATs). Phobic individuals were assessed before and after one session of 2.5 hrs in vivo exposure. To differentiate actual treatment effects from test-retest effects on the IAT, half of the phobic individuals completed the IAT twice before treatment. Results showed that: 1) threat and contamination associations similarly distinguished between phobic and non-phobic participants on self-reports and IATs; 2) only self-reported threat associations incrementally predicted participants’ overt avoidance behavior next to self-reported global affective associations; 3) self-reported associations were significantly reduced following treatment; 4) IAT-effects showed no significant reduction following treatment, and no evidence was found for an additional treatment-induced change over and above test-retest effects. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/17243/ 2007-01-01T00:00:00Z Bij 133 basisschoolkinderen (9-13 jaar) werd onderzocht of een evaluatieve conditioneringstaak de impliciete zelfwaardering kan verhogen. Impliciete en expliciete zelfwaardering werden gemeten na het uitvoeren van een evaluatieve (experimentele) of een neutrale (controle) conditioneringstaak. Tevens voerden de kinderen een agressietaak uit. Kinderen in de experimentele conditie hadden een significant hogere impliciete zelfwaardering en reageerden minder agressief dan kinderen in de controle conditie. De relatie tussen impliciete zelfwaardering en agressie bleek echter niet significant. De mogelijkheid om de impliciete zelfwaardering van kinderen te veranderen biedt interessante perspectieven voor verder onderzoek en mogelijke interventies. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/17249/ 2006-12-01T00:00:00Z The past 15 years have witnessed an ever-growing interest in the role of implicit attitudes in mental and health-related problems and disorders. The purpose of the present paper is to provide an introduction to this research area. More specifically the following issues will be addressed: 1) Why do researchers consider implicit attitudes to be of interest? 2) In what way have researchers in the field of experimental psychopathology studied implicit attitudes? and 3) What has this research yielded so far? Rather than providing an exhaustive review, this last question is addressed by discussing some illustrative studies for several types of psychopathology. It is concluded that this is a promising field of research, but that a number of important questions remain unanswered. The paper is ended with a short discussion of possible directions for future research. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/17258/ 2006-02-01T00:00:00Z This study examined the predictive power of automatically activated spider-related affective associations for automatic and controllable fear responses. The Extrinsic Affective Simon Task (EAST; De Houwer, 2003) was used to indirectly assess automatic spider fear-related associations. The EAST and the Fear of Spiders Questionnaire (FSQ) were used to predict fear responses in 48 female students from Maastricht University with varying levels of spider fear. Results showed that: (i) the EAST best predicted automatic fear responses, whereas (ii) the FSQ best predicted strategic avoidance behavior. These results suggest that indirect measures of automatic associations may have specific predictive power for automatic fear responses. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/17245/ 2006-01-01T00:00:00Z To test whether pictorial stimuli that focus on the sensory aspects of smoking elicit different automatic affective associations in smokers than in non-smokers, 31 smoking and 33 non-smoking students completed a single target IAT. Explicit attitudes were assessed using a semantic differential. Automatic affective associations were positive in smokers but negative in non-smokers. Only automatic affective associations but not self-reported attitudes were significantly correlated with craving. Together these findings are consistent with the idea that positive (automatic) attitudes are involved in smoking behavior and support the view that direct and indirect measures tap different cognitive motivational systems. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/17246/ 2006-01-01T00:00:00Z To test whether pictorial stimuli that focus on the sensory aspects of smoking elicit different automatic affective associations in smokers than in non-smokers, 31 smoking and 33 non-smoking students completed a single target IAT. Explicit attitudes were assessed using a semantic differential. Automatic affective associations were positive in smokers but negative in non-smokers. Only automatic affective associations but not self-reported attitudes were significantly correlated with craving. Together these findings are consistent with the idea that positive (automatic) attitudes are involved in smoking behavior and support the view that direct and indirect measures tap different cognitive motivational systems. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/17248/ 2006-01-01T00:00:00Z The past 15 years have witnessed an ever-growing interest in the role of implicit attitudes in mental and health-related problems and disorders. The purpose of the present paper is to provide an introduction to this research area. More specifically the following issues will be addressed: 1) Why do researchers consider implicit attitudes to be of interest? 2) In what way have researchers in the field of experimental psychopathology studied implicit attitudes? and 3) What has this research yielded so far? Rather than providing an exhaustive review, this last question is addressed by discussing some illustrative studies for several types of psychopathology. It is concluded that this is a promising field of research, but that a number of important questions remain unanswered. The paper is ended with a short discussion of possible directions for future research. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/17257/ 2006-01-01T00:00:00Z This study examined the predictive power of automatically activated spider-related affective associations for automatic and controllable fear responses. The Extrinsic Affective Simon Task (EAST; De Houwer, 2003) was used to indirectly assess automatic spider fear-related associations. The EAST and the Fear of Spiders Questionnaire (FSQ) were used to predict fear responses in 48 female students from Maastricht University with varying levels of spider fear. Results showed that: (i) the EAST best predicted automatic fear responses, whereas (ii) the FSQ best predicted strategic avoidance behavior. These results suggest that indirect measures of automatic associations may have specific predictive power for automatic fear responses. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/17288/ 2005-11-24T00:00:00Z This study assessed whether a pictorial, rather than a verbal, Extrinsic Affective Simon Task (EAST: De Houwer, 2003) is, i) sensitive to the affective valence of normatively positive, neutral and negative pictures, ii) sensitive to interindividual differences pertaining to fear-relevant affective associations, and iii) a valid predictor for strategic and/or reflexive fear responses. High (n = 35) and low (n = 35) spider fearful individuals completed an EAST comprising of universal positive, negative, neutral, and spider pictures. The pictorial EAST was sensitive to normatively valenced stimuli, tended to differentiate between high and low fearful individuals with respect to spider pictures, and showed independent predictive validity for avoidance behaviour. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/17292/ 2005-06-01T00:00:00Z To test whether global smoking attitudes may be a driving factor in smoking behavior, Experiment 1 assessed smoking associations with the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Although smokers’ attitudes (n = 24) were less negative than those of non-smokers (n = 24) both displayed negative associations with smoking. To test whether these findings may be an artifact of measurement setting and/or the indirect measure that was used, Experiment 2 assessed attitudes in a smoking (n=20) or a non-smoking setting (n = 20) using the IAT and an Affective Simon Task. In both settings negative attitudes emerged, suggesting that global (implicit) attitudes may be a moderating rather than a driving factor in smoking behavior. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/17252/ 2005-01-01T00:00:00Z There is a range of concepts that are relevant to emotion research that may not be readily captured in words. Therefore, this experiment tested whether the Extrinsic Affective Simon Task (EAST: De Houwer, 2003) can be modified to assess automatic affect using pictorial stimuli. In addition, since the EAST is a relatively complex task, we tested whether the EAST can also be successfully employed in community samples. Participants (n = 60) who varied considerably in age and educational level completed a pictorial version of the EAST. Results show that the pictorial EAST is sensitive to the valence of pictorial stimuli and has an acceptable reliability. However, this pattern of results emerged most clearly in the error data. A task-shifting account for these findings is discussed. The findings underline the potential usefulness of the EAST as a tool for assessing automatic affect, but urge caution with interpreting data that include high error rates. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/17254/ 2005-01-01T00:00:00Z There is a range of concepts that are relevant to emotion research that may not be readily captured in words. Therefore, this experiment tested whether the Extrinsic Affective Simon Task (EAST: De Houwer, 2003) can be modified to assess automatic affect using pictorial stimuli. In addition, since the EAST is a relatively complex task, we tested whether the EAST can also be successfully employed in community samples. Participants (n = 60) who varied considerably in age and educational level completed a pictorial version of the EAST. Results show that the pictorial EAST is sensitive to the valence of pictorial stimuli and has an acceptable reliability. However, this pattern of results emerged most clearly in the error data. A task-shifting account for these findings is discussed. The findings underline the potential usefulness of the EAST as a tool for assessing automatic affect, but urge caution with interpreting data that include high error rates. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/17285/ 2005-01-01T00:00:00Z This study assessed whether a pictorial, rather than a verbal, Extrinsic Affective Simon Task (EAST: De Houwer, 2003) is, i) sensitive to the affective valence of normatively positive, neutral and negative pictures, ii) sensitive to interindividual differences pertaining to fear-relevant affective associations, and iii) a valid predictor for strategic and/or reflexive fear responses. High (n = 35) and low (n = 35) spider fearful individuals completed an EAST comprising of universal positive, negative, neutral, and spider pictures. The pictorial EAST was sensitive to normatively valenced stimuli, tended to differentiate between high and low fearful individuals with respect to spider pictures, and showed independent predictive validity for avoidance behaviour. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/17290/ 2005-01-01T00:00:00Z To test whether global smoking attitudes may be a driving factor in smoking behavior, Experiment 1 assessed smoking associations with the Implicit Association Test (IAT). Although smokers’ attitudes (n = 24) were less negative than those of non-smokers (n = 24) both displayed negative associations with smoking. To test whether these findings may be an artifact of measurement setting and/or the indirect measure that was used, Experiment 2 assessed attitudes in a smoking (n=20) or a non-smoking setting (n = 20) using the IAT and an Affective Simon Task. In both settings negative attitudes emerged, suggesting that global (implicit) attitudes may be a moderating rather than a driving factor in smoking behavior.