Resistance to Extinction of Conditioned Electrodermal Responses: A Study of the Incubation Fear Hypothesis

2002 ◽  
Vol 91 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bonifacio Sandin ◽  
Paloma Chorot
Keyword(s):  
Skin Conductance ◽  
Differential Conditioning ◽  
Skin Conductance Response ◽  
Conditioned Stimuli ◽  
Incubation Effect ◽  
Conditioning Paradigm ◽  
Resistance To Extinction ◽  
Undergraduate Women ◽  
Electrodermal Responses ◽  
Delay Differential

In the present study we examined Eysenck's incubation hypothesis of fear. Probability of skin conductance response (SCR) was analyzed for a sample of 79 undergraduate women, ranging in age from 18 to 25 years. Different groups of participants were conditioned to two levels of unconditioned stimuli (UCS) intensity and presented to three levels of unreinforced conditioned stimuli (CS) exposures (extinction phase) in a delay differential conditioning paradigm. The CSs were fear-relevant slides (snakes and spiders) and the UCSs were aversive tones. Analysis did not show a clear incubation effect; instead an increased resistance to extinction of SCR probability in association to the high-UCS and the short unreinforced CS presentation was evident. Findings support partially Eysenck's incubation theory of fear/anxiety.

Effects of UCS Intensity and Duration of Exposure of Nonreinforced CS on Conditioned Electrodermal Responses: An Experimental Analysis of the Incubation Theory of Anxiety

1993 ◽  
Vol 73 (3_part_1) ◽  
pp. 931-941 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paloma Chorot ◽  
Bonifacio Sandín
Keyword(s):  
Skin Conductance ◽  
Experimental Analysis ◽  
High Intensity ◽  
Conditioned Fear ◽  
Conditioned Stimuli ◽  
Conditioning Paradigm ◽  
Conditioning Experiment ◽  
Skin Conductance Responses ◽  
Electrodermal Responses ◽  
Delay Differential

Eysenck's incubation theory of fear or anxiety was examined in a human Pavlovian conditioning experiment with skin-conductance responses as the dependent variable. The conditioned stimuli (CSs) were fear-relevant slides (snakes and spiders) and the unconditioned stimuli (UCSs) were aversive tones. Different groups of subjects were presented two tone intensities during the acquisition phase and three durations of nonreinforced CS (extinction phase) in a delay differential conditioning paradigm. Resistance to extinction of conditioned skin-conductance responses (conditioned fear responses) exhibited was largest for high intensity of tone and short presentations of the nonreinforced CS (CS + presented alone). The result tends to support Eysenck's incubation theory of anxiety.

The Effects of Postconditioning Revaluation of CS1 and UCS Following Pavlovian Second-Order Electrodermal Conditioning in Humans

1983 ◽  
Vol 35 (2b) ◽  
pp. 125-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
Graham C. L. Davey ◽  
Imelda McKenna
Keyword(s):  
Skin Conductance ◽  
Skin Conductance Response ◽  
Human Subjects ◽  
Aversive Conditioning ◽  
Second Order ◽  
Conditioning Paradigm ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
Conditioning Extinction

An experiment is described which uses various inferential post-conditioning revaluation techniques in order to clarify the associative substructure underlying Pavlovian electrodermal conditioning in human subjects. This study established a second-order skin conductance response (SCR) by pairing a CS1 with an aversive 115 dB tone (UCS), and then pairing a different stimulus (CS2) with CS1. The second-order SCR survived post-conditioning extinction of the response to CS1, but was abolished when (i) a post-conditioning habituation procedure resulted in a favourable revaluation of the tone UCS, or (ii) when subjects were given instructions which informed them that there would be no more UCS presentations. These results suggest that in the second-order electrodermal conditioning paradigm described, CR2 is not mediated by S-R links–-as it appears to be in second-order aversive conditioning in nonhuman animals–-but is affected by manipulations which modify the subject's cognitions concerning the UCS.

Empathy Does Not Amplify Vicarious Threat Learning

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander Lane Williams ◽  
Christopher C Conway
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Skin Conductance ◽  
Defensive Response ◽  
Conditioned Stimuli ◽  
Defensive Reaction ◽  
Direct Exposure ◽  
Conditioned Responses ◽  
Clinically Significant ◽  
Stimulus Materials ◽  
Dispositional Empathy

Clinically significant fears and phobias can be acquired vicariously. Witnessing a demonstrator’s defensive reaction to potentially dangerous objects and situations can instill conditioned threat responses in the observer. The present study concentrates on individual differences in this social learning process. Specifically, we hypothesized that dispositional empathy modulates vicarious threat conditioning. We examined university students’ (N = 150) conditioned threat responding after they observed strangers undergo Pavlovian threat conditioning. There was evidence of a substantial conditioned defensive response (Cohen’s d = 0.66), as indexed by elevated skin conductance reactions during participants’ direct exposure to the vicariously conditioned stimuli. Contrary to expectations, indices of dispositional empathy were weakly related to the size of conditioned responses (median r = .04). Our results confirm that vicarious threat learning can be evaluated experimentally, but they do not support the hypothesis that empathy amplifies this process. The preregistration, stimulus materials, data, and analysis code for this study are available at https://osf.io/h6hm2.

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