THE ATTENTIONAL CONTROL OF PAIN - METHODOLOGICAL AND THEORETICAL CONCERNS

Although it is now well accepted that attention-based cognitive coping strategies are effective in altering pain perception and have potenti ally useful analgesic qualities, there exists contradiction and equivo cation as to the role of various factors in the production of that ana lgesia. Cioffi (1991) has suggested that the response to this equivoca tion has been a 'collective ennui' on the part of researchers. This ar ticle seeks to explore methodological and theoretical reasons for this reigning equivocation and offers some suggestions for moving beyond i t. In particular, critical attention is focussed upon four possible so urces of variance in experimental pain procedures: the choice of the p ain induction procedure, the instructions given, the measures taken an d the content of the taught strategy.