No differences between remote and laboratory-based testing of cardiac interoceptive accuracy using the phase adjustment task.
Spooner R., Bird JM., Clemente R., Izagirre NI., Fueyo EF., Watling D., Plans D., Brewer R., Bird G., Murphy J.
In recent years, there has been an increased interest in remote testing methods for quantifying individual differences in interoception, the perception of the body's internal state. Hampering the adoption of remote methods are concerns as to the quality of data obtained remotely. Using data from several studies, we sought to compare the performance of individuals who completed the Phase Adjustment Task-a new measure of cardiac interoceptive accuracy that can be administered via a smartphone application-supervised in a laboratory against those who completed the task remotely. Across a total sample of 205 individuals (119 remote and 86 laboratory), we observed no significant differences in task performance between the two groups. These results held when matching groups on demographic variables (e.g., age) and considering only individuals who had successfully completed a screener task. Overall, these data attest to the suitability of the Phase Adjustment Task for remote testing, providing an opportunity to collect larger and more diverse samples for future interoception research.