Another promising pathway afforded by conceiving of CBT as a set of components is using single, highly targeted interventions to focus on single core features of addictive behaviors. Examples of this approach are proliferating and include the use of strategies designed to modify attentional biases in individuals with addictive behaviors (Leeman, Robinson, Waters, & Sofuoglu, 2014; Schoenmakers et al., 2010; Wiers, Eberl, Rinck, Becker, & Lindenmeyer, 2011; Wiers et al., 2015). Bickel has evaluated intensive working memory training as a means of reducing delay discounting in substance users and fostering greater future orientation (Bickel, Yi, Landes, Hill, & Baxter, 2011). Another example is an ongoing trial building an online intervention for craving based on Kober’s Regulation of Craving Task (Kober, Kross, Mischel, Hart, & Ochsner, 2010), wherein smokers are trained over several weeks in either mindfulness-based (experience craving) or cognitive-based (think about consequences) strategies in response to visual smoking cues (ongoing, clinicaltrials.gov NCT 02153749).
