Semantic Priming of Pain-Resilience & Pain-Catastrophising on the Expectation and Experience of Pain - Design & Method

Description

Semantic priming of pain resilience & pain catastrophising on the expectation and experience of pain

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For detailed information see the pre-registration document: https://osf.io/unjke

Design A sequential mixed-methods design was adopted that primarily collected quantitative data through an intervention experiment with self-report surveys, followed by three written open-ended questions. The study used a 3 x 3 mixed factorial design, whereby the between-subjects factor was the prime condition (Catastrophising, Neutral, or Resilience), and the repeated measures factor was the trial (1, 2, and 3). The experiment was created using Gorilla Experiment Builder (www.gorilla.sc), utilising a balanced randomiser node to ensure three equally sized prime conditions in the ratio 1:1:1. This blinded the researcher to the condition prescribed, reducing bias and subconscious manipulation of expectation. Participants were blinded to the purpose of the sentence unscrambling task, although debriefed at the end, where consent was reconfirmed. The study was pre-registered with Open Science Framework (https://osf.io/unjke).

The priming task involved unscrambling 14 sentences, each with six words. Five words formed a correct sentence, leaving one word that did not fit. Participants dragged and dropped the words into the correct order and selected the extra word from a dropdown menu. The Catastrophising group had sentences based on the Pain Catastrophising Scale (PCS) (Sullivan et al., 1995); the Resilience group had sentences based on wording from the Pain Resilience Scale (PRS) (Slepian et al., 2016); and the Neutral group had sentences unrelated to pain, see Appendix A. Content validity pilot testing was conducted with 10 individuals of varying experience, to ensure sentences could be solved (Haynes et al., 1995). Feedback was addressed, involving changing the tense of the extra word to remove ambiguity, correcting grammar, and reducing the complexity of sentences that couldn’t be unscrambled. The Gorilla software randomised the order of sentences, and the words within. Sentences were scored as correct if the erroneous word was correctly selected. Sentence unscrambling, devised by Srull and Wyer (1979), offers an implicit way to activate specific goals, motivations, or values, and has been successfully used in priming studies (Krahé et al., 2022; Viviani et al., 2018).

Pain-Induction Method The tourniquet ischemia pain task followed Ankawi and colleagues’ procedure (2020). A blood pressure cuff was placed on the participant’s bicep. An electronic hand dynamometer was squeezed for 2-minutes, guided by a metronome timer set at 30 beats per minute, at 50% maximal strength. The arm was raised for 15 seconds prior to inflating pressure to 200 mmHg to achieve exsanguination. The arm rested on a table with the cuff inflated, whilst pressure was monitored with a sphygmomanometer. This was endured for 5 minutes. The arm used was alternated each trial, and whether the dominant or non-dominant arm started first was block randomised to ratio 1:1, ensuring balance. Unlike previous studies using short bursts of electrical pain (Richter et al., 2014), this study focused on sustained ischemic pain, predominantly activating C fibres (Maclver & Tanelian, 1992), associated with the dull, aching pain similarly experienced in chronic pain (Melzack & Wall, 1965).