An K. Raes

Do CS-US Pairings Actually Matter? A Within-Subject Comparison of Instructed Fear Conditioning with and without Actual CS-US Pairings

Previous research showed that instructions about CS-US pairings can lead to fear of the CS even when the pairings are never presented. In the present study, we examined whether the experience of CS-US pairings adds to the effect of instructions by comparing instructed conditioning with and without actual CS-US pairings in a within-subject design. Thirty-two participants saw three fractals as CSs (CS+1, CS+2, CS−) and received electric shocks as USs. Before the start of a so-called training phase, participants were instructed that both CS+1 and CS+2 would be followed by the US, but only CS+1 was actually paired with the US. The absence of the US after CS+2 was explained in such a way that participants would not doubt the instructions about the CS+2-US relation. After the training phase, a test phase was carried out. In this phase, participants expected the US after both CS+s but none of the CS+s was actually paired with the US. During test, self-reported fear was initially higher for CS+1 than for CS+2, which indicates that the experience of actual CS-US pairings adds to instructions about these pairings. On the other hand, the CS+s elicited similar skin conductance responses and US expectancies. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.

The effect of counterconditioning on evaluative responses and harm expectancy in a fear conditioning paradigm.

In fear conditioning, extinction targets harm expectancy as well as the fear response, but it often fails to eradicate the negative affective value that is associated with the conditioned stimulus. In the present study, we examined whether counterconditioning can serve to reduce evaluative responses within fear conditioning. The sample consisted of 70 nonselected students, 12 of whom were men. All participants received acquisition with human face stimuli as the conditioned stimuli and an unpleasant white noise as the unconditioned stimulus. After acquisition, one third of the sample was allocated to an extinction procedure. The other participants received counterconditioning with either a neutral stimulus (neutral tone) or a positive stimulus (baby laugh). Results showed that counterconditioning (with both neutral and positive stimuli), in contrast to extinction, successfully reduced evaluative responses. This effect was found on an indirect measure (affective priming task), but not on self-report. Counterconditioning with a positive stimulus also tended to enhance the reduction of conditioned skin conductance reactivity. The present data suggest that counterconditioning procedures might be a promising approach in diminishing evaluative learning and even expectancy learning in the context of fear conditioning.

Pathways to change in one-session exposure with and without cognitive intervention: an exploratory study in spider phobia

It is well established that exposure therapy is an effective treatment for anxiety disorders. It is less clear, however, which mechanisms are crucial in explaining its success. In previous studies, cognitive change has been identified as a mediating variable. Several theorists have argued that the addition of cognitive interventions will, therefore, result in enhanced treatment effects. We tested this hypothesis by examining cognitive mediation of treatment in a purely behavioral versus a cognitive-behavioral exposure format. Thirty-one spider phobics were randomly assigned to either behavioral exposure or to exposure as a test for maladaptive cognitions (i.e., behavioral experiments). Both treatment formats showed large treatment effects and strong cognitive mediation of these effects. This indicates that, even when cognitions are not explicitly targeted, exposure effects are cognitively mediated. This challenges the idea that cognitions have to be explicitly challenged to elicit cognitive change in exposure treatment.

Mindful Attention and Awareness Mediate the Association Between Age and Negative Affect

OBJECTIVES Later life is often accompanied by experiences of loss and bereavement in several life domains. In spite of this, older adults experience less negative affect than their younger counterparts. Several explanations for this paradoxical finding have been put forward, but the mechanisms underlying the association between age and negative affect remain largely unclear. In the present study, we propose that mindfulness may be an important mediator of this association. METHOD A cross-sectional sample of 507 participants (age range 18-85 years) was used to investigate this question. Participants completed a range of self-report questionnaires on demographic variables, mindfulness, affect, quality of life (QoL), and personality. In our mediation analysis, we used an advanced statistical technique called G-estimation to control for the impact of confounding variables such as personality dimensions and QoL. RESULTS Our findings indicate that the age-related decrease in negative affect is mediated by mindfulness. The results remain significant when we control for QoL and personality. DISCUSSION These findings imply that mindfulness skills may be an important link between age and negative affect. Implications of these findings for the understanding of the well-being paradox are discussed.

Failure to loose fear: the impact of cognitive load and trait anxiety on extinction

Exposure therapy is an effective technique for fear reduction. However, whether effective exposure requires attentional allocation to the feared situation remains a debated clinical issue. In the present study, the impact of attention allocation in extinction was investigated in an experimental conditioning study. Through a between-subjects manipulation of cognitive load, we created a condition in which participants could allocate their attention to the feared stimulus during extinction (low load condition), and a condition in which attentional allocation was impaired (high load condition). The influence of cognitive load on extinction was examined by comparing electrodermal responses and verbal ratings for the conditioned stimuli in the two extinction load conditions. The results show less successful extinction in the high load condition than in the low load condition. However, this effect was found only in low anxious participants, and it was prominent only on the skin conductance responses. The present results suggest that extinction is not automatic but requires cognitive resources.

Return of fear after retrospective inferences about the absence of an unconditioned stimulus during extinction

We examined whether the effect of an extinction phase can be influenced retrospectively by information about the cause of the absence of the unconditioned stimulus (US) during that phase. Participants were subjected to a differential fear conditioning procedure, followed by an extinction procedure. Afterwards, half of the participants were presented with information about a technical failure, which explained why the US had been absent during the extinction phase. The other participants received information that was unrelated to the US. During a subsequent presentation of the target conditioned stimulus (CS), only the former group of participants showed renewed anticipatory skin conductance responding and a return of US expectancy. The results are in accordance with a propositional account of associative learning and highlight the importance of retrospective reasoning as a cause of relapse after exposure therapy.

Aversive conditioning under conditions of restricted awareness: Effects on spatial cueing

In the literature on aversive conditioning there is still debate on the role of awareness. According to some authors, affective learning can occur with or without contingency learning (dual-process model), whereas others argue that a single process produces both affective responses and contingency knowledge. Although many studies have investigated these models, the results to date are inconclusive. Based on a review of the literature, a new series of experiments was designed to examine aversive conditioning in the absence of contingency awareness. In the present study we examined the effects of subliminal aversive conditioning on a spatial cueing task. Awareness was stringently tested after conditioning. Three kinds of awareness were distinguished: contingency awareness (awareness of the CS−US contingencies, where CS is the conditioned stimulus, and US is the unconditioned stimulus), perceptual awareness (awareness of the perceptual differences between the CSs), and US expectancy (awareness of a threat feeling when confronted with the CS+, but not when confronted with the CS−). The results of three experiments demonstrated that responses on the spatial cueing task were modulated by subliminal aversive conditioning. Importantly, none of the participants was contingency aware or able to perceptually discriminate between the conditioned stimuli. However, in Experiment 3, only those participants showing some level of postconditioning expectancy awareness exhibited conditioning effects. These experiments suggest that subliminal aversive conditioning produces small but significant effects, which may be modulated by expectancy awareness.

Does contingency awareness mediate the influence of emotional learning on the cueing of visual attention

Previous research has indicated that conditioning depends on contingency awareness (CA). However, we argue that these studies have examined this issue under methodological conditions that might be insensitive to associative learning without CA. In the present study we examined the effect of an experimental manipulation of CA on attentive processing of classically conditioned stimuli, which is sensitive to associative learning with and without CA. We found that aversive conditioning with additional contingency instructions modulated visual attention, in the sense that the conditioned cues captured and held attention more strongly than the non-conditioned cues. Surprisingly, conditioning under conditions of restricted CA yielded a response pattern that was different from that under full CA. These findings suggest that conditioning with full and restricted CA can lead to qualitatively different effects on attention.

Interoceptive awareness and unaware fear conditioning: Are subliminal conditioning effects influenced by the manipulation of visceral self-perception?

Research has shown repeatedly that attention influences implicit learning effects. In a similar vein, interoceptive awareness might be involved in unaware fear conditioning: The fact that the CS is repeatedly presented in the context of aversive bodily experiences might facilitate the development of conditioned responding. We investigated the role of interoceptive attention in a subliminal conditioning paradigm. Conditioning was embedded in a spatial cueing task with subliminally presented cues that were followed by a masking stimulus. Response times to the targets that were either validly or invalidly predicted by the cues served as index of conditioning. Interoceptive attention was manipulated between-subjects. Half the participants completed a heartbeat detection task before conditioning. This task tunes attention to ones own bodily signals. We found that conditioned responding was facilitated in this latter group of participants. These results are in line with the hypothesis that a rise interoceptive attention enhances unaware conditioned responding.