The Differential Effect of Masked Counterconditioning and Masked Exposure on the Subjective Evaluation of Spiders by Women with Spider Fear and the Role of Contingency Awareness

Schipper, Lieke (2025) The Differential Effect of Masked Counterconditioning and Masked Exposure on the Subjective Evaluation of Spiders by Women with Spider Fear and the Role of Contingency Awareness. Bachelor thesis, Psychology.

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Abstract

Fear of spiders, or arachnophobia, is a highly prevalent specific phobia and although exposure therapy is widely recognised as an effective treatment, it is often experienced as distressing and aversive. Moreover, exposure therapy has shown limited effectiveness in modifying the negative subjective evaluation of phobic stimuli. This experimental study investigated whether masked counterconditioning (CC) (i.e., pairing subliminal spider images with positive stimuli) would lead to more positive evaluations of spiders than masked exposure (EXP) or a control condition. Additionally, it examined whether participants’ awareness of the CS-US pairing was associated with changes in the subjective evaluatuon of spider stimuli following the intervention. A total of 152 female participants with high levels of spider fear completed two blocks of masked stimuli presentation in one of the three conditions (CC, EXP or control). Subjective spider valence ratings were measured before and after the intervention. The results demonstrated no significant differences in valence change between conditions, and participants’ ability to report the contingency pairing was not related to changes in spider valence from pre- to post manipulation. The findings highlight the complexity of updating the subjective evaluation of feared stimuli and underscore a difficult trade off: masking phobic stimuli may reduce distress, increase treatment adherence, and enhance automatic affective learning, but it may also impair the formation of new positive associations necessary for long-term evaluative change. Future research should aim to optimize masked interventions to balance this trade-off.

Item Type:	Thesis (Bachelor)
Supervisor name:	Masselman, I.
Degree programme:	Psychology
Differentiation route:	None [Bachelor Psychology]
Date Deposited:	12 Aug 2025 13:54
Last Modified:	12 Aug 2025 13:54
URI:	http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/5844

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