Relaxation and distraction in experimental desensitization.

Compared experimental desensitization with a procedure that replaced relaxation with a distraction task and with an approach that combined both relaxation and distraction (N = 50). Each of these treatments reduced snake phobia to a greater extent than control procedures; desensitization generally was more effective than the other two procedures. The results are discussed in terms of their relevance for "distraction" or "attentional" accounts of desensitization.