Intolerance of uncertainty and novelty facilitated extinction: The impact of reinforcement schedule

Individuals who score high in Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) display reduced threat extinction learning and retention. Recently, it was shown that replacing threat associations with novel associations (i.e. presenting a novel non-aversive tone 100% of the time vs. presenting nothing) can promote threat extinction retention in individuals with high IU. This effect could be driven by the tone’s novelty or reliability. Here we seek to address this question by adjusting the reliability via the reinforcement schedule of the novel tone. We propose to measure skin conductance response during an associative learning task in which participants (n = 90) will be assigned to one of three conditions; standard extinction, 100% reinforcement NFE or 50% reinforcement NFE. This work will further our understanding of the role novelty, reliability and IU in threat extinction. Ultimately, this research will inform future models of IU and clinical treatments of anxiety and stress disorders.

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How many times do I need to see to believe? The impact of intolerance of uncertainty and exposure experience on safety-learning and retention in young adults

10.31234/osf.io/rpg64 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Jayne Morriss ◽

Shannon Jade Wake ◽

Michael Lindner ◽

Eugene McSorley ◽

Helen Dodd

Keyword(s):

Young Adults ◽

Skin Conductance ◽

Skin Conductance Response ◽

Intolerance Of Uncertainty ◽

Learning Task ◽

Preliminary Evidence ◽

Exposure Condition ◽

The Impact ◽

Extended Exposure

Individuals who score high in self-reported Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) display difficulties updating threat associations to safe associations. Here we sought to determine whether individuals who score high in IU can learn and retain new safety associations if given more exposure. We recorded skin conductance response, pupil dilation and expectancy ratings during an associative threat learning task with acquisition, same-day extinction and next-day extinction phases. Participants (n = 144) were assigned to either a regular exposure (32 trials of same-day and next-day extinction) or extended exposure condition (48 trials of same-day and next-day extinction). We failed to replicate previous work showing that IU is associated with poorer safety-learning indexed via SCR, although the results were at trend and in the expected direction. We found preliminary evidence for promoted safety-retention in individuals with higher Inhibitory IU in the extended exposure condition, relative to individuals with higher Inhibitory IU in the regular exposure condition, indexed via SCR. These findings further our current understanding of the role of IU in safety-learning and -retention, informing models of IU and exposure-based treatments.

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Your guess is as good as mine: Assessing physiological markers of fear and anxiety to the unknown in individuals with varying levels of intolerance of uncertainty

10.31234/osf.io/ys4ju ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Jayne Morriss ◽

Nicolò Biagi ◽

Helen Dodd

Keyword(s):

Skin Conductance Response ◽

Intolerance Of Uncertainty ◽

Blink Reflex ◽

Stress Disorders ◽

Corrugator Supercilii ◽

Startle Blink ◽

N 93 ◽

Fear And Anxiety ◽

Physiological Markers ◽

The Impact

Individuals who score high in Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) have a tendency to find uncertainty and the unknown aversive. However, there is a dearth of literature on the extent to which known vs. unknown threat induce fear and anxiety in individuals with high IU. Here we seek to address this question by varying the level of known and unknown threat using a modified version of the NPU-threat test. We will use the standard instructed conditions of the NPU-threat test (known unpredictable shock, known predictable shock and known no shock), as well as an uninstructed condition (unknown threat). We propose to measure ratings, skin conductance response, pupil dilation, orbicularis occuli (startle blink reflex) and corrugator supercilii activity during the modified NPU-threat test (n = 93). This work will further our understanding of the impact of known and unknown threat upon physiological markers of fear and anxiety in IU. Ultimately, this research will inform future models of IU and clinical treatments of anxiety and stress disorders.

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The impact of intolerance of uncertainty and cognitive behavioural instructions on safety learning

10.31234/osf.io/z5vbn ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Shannon Jade Wake ◽

Carien M. van Reekum ◽

Helen Dodd ◽

Jayne Morriss

Keyword(s):

Skin Conductance Response ◽

Intolerance Of Uncertainty ◽

Learning Task ◽

Behavioural Therapy ◽

Instruction Condition ◽

Cognitive Behavioural ◽

The Impact ◽

Initial Results ◽

Insight Into

Difficulty updating threat associations to safe associations has been observed in individuals who score high in self-reported Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU). Here we sought to determine whether an instruction based on fundamental principles of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) could promote safety learning in individuals with higher levels of IU, whilst controlling for self-reported trait anxiety (STICSA). We measured skin conductance response (SCR), pupil dilation and expectancy ratings during an associative threat learning task in which participants either received a cognitive behavioural instruction (CB) or no instruction prior to threat extinction (n = 92). Analyses revealed that both self-reported IU and STICSA similarly predicted differences in SCR. Only individuals with lower IU/STICSA in the CB instruction condition displayed successful safety learning via SCR. These initial results provide some insight into how simple CB instructions combined with exposure are applied differently in individuals with varying levels of self-reported anxiety. Conclusions. The results further our understanding of the role of basic CBT principles and self-reported anxiety in safety learning.

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Out with the old and in with the new: The role of intolerance of uncertainty in reversal of threat and safety

Journal of Experimental Psychopathology ◽

10.1177/2043808719834451 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 204380871983445 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Jayne Morriss ◽

Francesco Saldarini ◽

Catherine Chapman ◽

Miriam Pollard ◽

Carien M. van Reekum

Keyword(s):

Trait Anxiety ◽

Skin Conductance ◽

Skin Conductance Response ◽

Clinical Intervention ◽

Intolerance Of Uncertainty ◽

Anxiety State ◽

Extinction Learning ◽

Healthy Participants ◽

Direct Threat

Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) is associated with difficulty in updating contingencies from threatening to safe during extinction learning. However, it is unknown whether high IU individuals have difficulty (1) generally with updating threat to safe associations when contingencies change or (2) specifically with updating threat to safe associations during extinction learning, where direct threat is omitted. To address this question, we recorded IU, expectancy ratings, and skin conductance in 44 healthy participants during an associative learning paradigm, where threat and safety contingencies were reversed. During acquisition and reversal, we observed larger skin conductance response (SCR) magnitude and expectancy ratings for threat versus safety cues. However, during reversal, higher IU was associated with larger SCR magnitude to new threat versus new safety cues, compared with lower IU. These results were specific to IU-related variance, over shared variance with trait anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, Trait Version). Overall, these findings suggest that individuals high in IU are able to reverse threat and safety associations in the presence of direct threat. Such findings help us understand the recently revealed link between IU and threat extinction, where direct threat is absent. Moreover, these findings highlight the potential relevance of IU in clinical intervention and treatment for anxiety disorders.

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The role of intolerance of uncertainty in the acquisition and extinction of reward

10.1101/2020.05.18.101212 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Jayne Morriss ◽

Nicolo Biagi ◽

Tina B. Lonsdorf ◽

Marta Andreatta

Keyword(s):

Associative Learning ◽

Conceptual Understanding ◽

Skin Conductance Response ◽

Intolerance Of Uncertainty ◽

Acquisition Training ◽

Learning Task ◽

Partial Reward ◽

Extinction Training ◽

Corrugator Supercilii

AbstractIndividuals, who score high in self-reported intolerance of uncertainty (IU), tend to find uncertainty anxiety-provoking. IU has been reliably associated with disrupted threat extinction. However, it remains unclear whether IU would be related to disrupted extinction to other arousing stimuli that are not threatening (i.e., rewarding). We addressed this question by conducting a reward associative learning task with acquisition and extinction training phases (n = 58). Throughout the associative learning task, we recorded valence ratings (i.e. liking), skin conductance response (SCR) (i.e. sweating), and corrugator supercilii activity (i.e. brow muscle indicative or negative and positive affect) to learned reward and neutral cues. During acquisition training with partial reward reinforcement, higher IU was associated with greater corrugator supercilii activity to neutral compared to reward cues. IU was not related to valence ratings or SCR’s during the acquisition or extinction training phases. These preliminary results suggest that IU-related deficits during extinction may be limited to situations with threat. The findings further our conceptual understanding of IU’s role in the associative learning and extinction of reward, and in relation to the processing of threat and reward more generally.

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I doubt it is safe: A meta-analysis of self-reported intolerance of uncertainty and threat extinction training

10.31234/osf.io/nrqv6 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jayne Morriss ◽

Shannon Jade Wake ◽

Charlotte Elizabeth ◽

Carien M. van Reekum

Keyword(s):

Trait Anxiety ◽

Skin Conductance ◽

Skin Conductance Response ◽

Meta Analysis ◽

Intolerance Of Uncertainty ◽

Mental Health Disorders ◽

Extinction Training ◽

The Self ◽

Target Uncertainty ◽

Health Disorders

Intolerance of uncertainty (IU), the tendency to find uncertainty distressing, is an important transdiagnostic dimension in mental health disorders. Higher self-reported IU has been linked to poorer threat extinction training (i.e., the updating of threat to safe associations), a key process that is targeted in exposure-based therapies. However, it remains to be seen whether IU-related effects during threat extinction training are reliably and specifically driven by the IU construct or a particular subcomponent of the IU construct over other self-reported measures of anxiety. A meta-analysis of studies from different laboratories (experiment n = 18; sample n = 1006) was conducted on associations between different variants of self-reported IU (i.e., 27-item, 12-item, inhibitory and prospective subscales), trait anxiety and threat extinction training via skin conductance response. The specificity of IU and threat extinction training was assessed against measures of trait anxiety. All of the self-reported variants of IU, but not trait anxiety, were associated with threat extinction training via skin conductance response (i.e., continued responding to the old threat cue). Specificity was observed for the majority of self-reported variants of IU over of trait anxiety. The findings suggest that the IU construct broadly accounts for difficulties in threat extinction training and is specific over other measures of self-reported anxiety. These findings demonstrate the robustness and specificity of IU-related effects during threat extinction training and highlight potential opportunities for translational work to target uncertainty in therapies that rely on threat extinction principles such as exposure therapy.

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An examination of intolerance of uncertainty effects on subjective, psychophysiological, and neural markers during uninstructed and instructed threat acquisition and extinction training

10.31234/osf.io/bnw53 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Julia Wendt ◽

Jayne Morriss

Keyword(s):

Skin Conductance ◽

Skin Conductance Response ◽

Secondary Analysis ◽

Intolerance Of Uncertainty ◽

Extinction Training ◽

Fmri Data ◽

Future Research ◽

Functional Magnetic Resonance ◽

Resonance Imaging ◽

Tentative Evidence

Individuals who score high in self-reported Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) tend to find uncertainty aversive. Prior research has demonstrated that under uncertainty individuals with high IU display difficulties in updating learned threat associations to safety associations. Importantly, recent research has shown that providing contingency instructions about threat and safety contingencies (i.e. reducing uncertainty) to individuals with high IU promotes the updating of learned threat associations to safety associations. Here we aimed to conceptually replicate IU and contingency instruction-based effects by conducting a secondary analysis of self-reported IU, ratings, skin conductance, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data recorded during uninstructed/instructed blocks of threat acquisition and threat extinction training (n = 48). Self-reported IU was not associated with differential responding to learned threat and safety cues for any measure during uninstructed/instructed blocks of threat acquisition and threat extinction training. There was some tentative evidence that higher IU was associated with greater ratings of unpleasantness and arousal to the safety cue after the experiment and greater skin conductance response to the safety cue during extinction generally. Potential explanations for these null effects and directions for future research are discussed.

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Intolerance of uncertainty and threat reversal: A conceptual replication of Morriss et al. (2019)

10.31234/osf.io/qdjp9 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Gaëtan Mertens ◽

Jayne Morriss

Keyword(s):

Skin Conductance ◽

Electric Shock ◽

Skin Conductance Response ◽

Intolerance Of Uncertainty ◽

Conditioning Phase ◽

Fear Potentiated Startle ◽

Threat Cues ◽

Adaptive Ability ◽

Current Report

The ability to update responding to threat cues is an important adaptive ability. Recently, Morriss and colleagues (2019) demonstrated that participants scoring high in Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) were more capable of threat reversal. The current report aimed to conceptually replicate these results of Morriss et al. (2019) in an independent sample using a comparable paradigm (n = 102). Following a threat conditioning phase, participants were told that cues associated with threat and safety from electric shock would reverse. Responding was measured with skin conductance and fear potentiated startle. We failed to replicate the results of Morriss et al., (2019). Instead, we found that individuals with lower IU, relative to higher IU, who received contingency instructions prior to acquisition were more capable of threat reversal, indexed via skin conductance response. These results suggest that IU and contingency instructions differentially modulate the course of threat reversal.

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The Role of Sleep in Retention of New Words in Habitually and Non-Habitually Napping Children

Brain Sciences ◽

10.3390/brainsci11101320 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (10) ◽

pp. 1320

Author(s):

Katherine Esterline ◽

Rebecca L. Gómez

Keyword(s):

Word Learning ◽

Learning Task ◽

Mixed Effects ◽

The Novel ◽

Retention Performance ◽

Novel Object ◽

New Words ◽

The Impact ◽

Better Than

Daytime napping contributes to retention of new word learning in children. Importantly, children transition out of regular napping between ages 3–5 years, and the impact of this transition on memory is unclear. Here, we examined the performance of both non-habitually napping children (nap 0–3 days per week, n = 28) and habitually napping children (nap 4–7 days per week, n = 30) on a word learning task after a delay including either sleep or wakefulness. Children ages 3.5–4.5 years old experienced a brief exposure to two novel labels and their referents during training, a scenario that replicates learning experiences children encounter every day. After a 4-h delay, children were tested on the object-label associations. Using mixed effects logistic regression, we compared retention performance. Non-habitual nappers and habitual nappers displayed a different pattern of retention such that non-habitually napping children did equally well on a test of retention regardless of whether they napped or stayed awake during the delay. In contrast, habitually napping children needed a nap after learning to retain the novel object-label associations 4 h later. As a group, habitual nappers who remained awake after learning performed no better than chance on the retention test. As children transition out of naps, they may be less susceptible to interference and are better able to retain newly learned words across a delay including wakefulness.

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Intolerance of uncertainty and physiological responses during instructed uncertain threat: a multi-lab investigation

10.31234/osf.io/5xdsy ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jayne Morriss ◽

Daniel E. Bradford ◽

Nicolò Biagi ◽

Shannon Wake ◽

Ema Tanovic ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Skin Conductance ◽

Skin Conductance Response ◽

Physiological Responses ◽

Intolerance Of Uncertainty ◽

Orbicularis Oculi ◽

Physiological Measure ◽

Corrugator Supercilii ◽

Secondary Analyses ◽

Threat Of Shock

Individuals with high self-reported Intolerance of uncertainty (IU) tend to interpret uncertainty negatively. Recent research has been inconclusive on evidence of an association between IU and physiological responses during instructed uncertain threat. To address this gap, we conducted secondary analyses of IU and physiology data recorded during instructed uncertain threat tasks from two lab sites (Wisconsin-Madison; n = 128; Yale, n = 103). Higher IU was associated with: (1) greater corrugator supercilii activity to predictable and unpredictable threat of shock, compared to the safety from shock, and (2) poorer discriminatory skin conductance response between the unpredictable threat of shock, relative to the safety from shock. No IU-related effects were observed for the orbicularis oculi. These findings suggest that IU-related biases may be captured differently depending on the physiological measure during instructed uncertain threat. Implications of these findings for neurobiological models of uncertainty and anticipation in anxiety are discussed.

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