Deb Vansteenwegen

Evaluative conditioning in the picture-picture paradigm with random assignment of conditioned stimuli to unconditioned stimuli.

Human participants were allocated to 1 of 3 groups. In the conditioning group, each conditioned stimulus (CS)-unconditioned stimulus (US) pair was presented 7 times during the acquisition phase. Participants who were assigned to the extinction group saw 5 additional presentations of each CS in isolation after the 7 presentations of each CS-US pair. In the latent inhibition group, the CS-only trials were presented before the CS-US trials. Overall, a significant evaluative conditioning effect was observed. This effect cannot be dismissed on the basis of the arguments developed by A. P. Field and G. C. L. Davey (1997, 1998, 1999), and the results thus provide strong evidence for the associative nature of evaluative conditioning. The results are also in line with other findings, which showed that evaluative conditioning is resistant to extinction.

Do not worry, be mindful: effects of induced worry and mindfulness on respiratory variability in a nonanxious population.

Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is characterized by chronic worry. Mindfulness-based stress reduction is thought to remediate excessive worry, because it counteracts a permanent defense state of enhanced vigilance to potential threats. The present study aimed to compare respiratory variability (RV) during worry and mindfulness. Following an 8-minute baseline, 37 healthy participants underwent 11-min worry and mindfulness inductions, in randomized order, using auditory scripts. Respiration was measured by chest and abdominal inductance belts. RV was quantified by (1) autocorrelation to assess linear breathing variability and (2) sample entropy to assess nonlinear breathing variability. Compared to baseline and mindfulness, worry showed decreased autocorrelation in all respiratory parameters and compared to mindfulness, worry showed decreased entropy in respiratory rate. These results suggest that, in contrast to mindfulness, worry is characterized by decreased respiratory stability and flexibility, and therefore worry and mindfulness seem to have countering effects on RV and respiratory regulation.