Irene Martin

Classical conditioning of human ‘evaluative’ responses

Abstract Human behaviour includes an important component which may conveniently be called evaluative. Using postcard reproductions as stimulus materials, 10 volunteer subjects selected the two pictures most liked and the two most disliked. These were then used as UCSs with appropriate controls from the neutral category. The conditioning hypothesis—that a neutral stimulus followed by a positively or negatively valued stimulus will acquire the evaluative weight of the second stimulus—was supported at a highly statistically significant level. The effect of negative evaluation was demonstrably stronger than that for positive evaluation, a result consistent with our knowledge of aversive conditioning. The possibility is discussed that evaluation of the UCS by the subject, shown to be a sufficient condition for learning, may also be the only necessary condition. This would imply a model of conditioning based on affective evaluation rather than on response production.

The influence of psychoticism and extraversion on classical eyelid conditioning using a paraorbital shock UCS

Abstract An experiment is described in which the effects of Psychoticism and Extraversion on classical eyelid conditioning were examined using a balanced design involving two levels of paraorbital shock intensity and two levels of response threshold. Questionnaire measures of Anxiety and Impulsivity were also analysed together with subjective ratings of the UCS. Results were broadly consistent with Eysencks personality theory in that subjects scoring high on Psychoticism demonstrated lower levels of conditioning.

Is there—Or is there not—An influence of impulsiveness on classical eyelid conditioning?

Results of an experiment examining the relationship between the Eysencks impulsiveness scale (I5) and classical eyelid conditioning are reported. To this purpose the item content of past and present impulsiveness scales is examined and related to the eyelid conditioning performance of subjects high and low on the various impulsiveness scales. It was found that as long as impulsiveness is used in the narrow sense it is indeed a subscale in the Eysencks personality description that is related to eyelid conditioning performance. Several issues concerning the role and place of impulsiveness in the three-dimensional space of psychoticism, extraversion and neuroticism are raised.

Conditioning, evaluations and cognitions: an axis of integration

Abstract It is proposed that the contributions of cognitive theory and conditioning theory to behaviour therapy can be integrated in a single biologically based framework. This framework recognizes the role of phylogenetically primitive mechanisms of evaluation of the external environment, represented in conditioning theory; it also recognizes the contribution of cognitive summaries of recurring long-term events in the environment, represented by cognitive theory. Learning to anticipate significant events in the immediate and long-term future is a major component of adaptive behaviour. These concepts are discussed and their interactions explored in terms of the implications of learning theory for treatment. The requirements of a theoretical basis for behaviour therapy are outlined and it is concluded that cognitive theory and conditioning theory are not finally in conflict. Applications to the modification of attitudes and behaviour are discussed and the experimental literature briefly reviewed. It is suggested that the clinician will be better prepared to meet client needs by being aware of both cognitive and conditioned components of behaviour than by confining attention to either modality of learning at the expense of the other.

The role of awareness in human conditioning.

The cognitive view of human classical conditioning is that Ss are active in thinking about the pattern of stimulus events which occurs, the demands of the situation, and the kind of responses which they give. A question crucially central to conditioning theory is whether these thoughts and expectations determine conditional responding. This paper reports on two conditioning and personality experiments, employing the standard procedure of a single cue CS-UCS schedule and masking task, which assess awareness of stimulus contingencies and demand characteristics by means of a postexperimental questionnaire. Results were quite clear in showing no significant relationship between measures of awareness and eyelid conditioning.

Conditioned eyelid responses in phobic patients

Abstract Eyelid conditioning was carried out in three groups of phobic patients: (i) animal phobies, (ii) agoraphobics, and (iii) social phobics. Several measures, including anxiety and improvement ratings, the Eysenck Personality Inventory, the Cornell Medical Index, and two other symptom check lists were administered. The groups were found to differ on a large number of variables, including conditioned response frequency during acquisition ( P

Autonomic reactivity, eyelid conditioning and their relationship to neuroticism and extraversion.

Abstract No evidence was found to support the hypothesis that neurotic patients demonstrate over-reactivity of the autonomic nervous system in response to stressful stimuli, or that introverts and extraverts are characterised by ease and difficulty respectively with which they form conditioned responses. Normal controls, instead of showing the least autonomic reactivity as postulated, showed the greatest. The difficulties of measuring autonomic reactivity in relation to pre-stress levels are discussed and in view of these problems the conclusions are interpreted with caution. Factor analysis of the data yielded a primary Anxiety/Neuroticism factor, which had high loadings for ‘basal’ forearm blood flow and heart rate which are thought to reflect anxiety. There was a close relationship between N and Taylor Scale anxiety scores and it is suggested that Eysencks N scale is close to the clinical concept of anxiety.

The influence of psychoticism on classical conditioning

The experiment to be reported is part of a research program into the role of factor-defined dimensions of personality in conditioning. In recent years, the personality framework has been extended to include an independent dimension of Psychoticism (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1976). The present study was designed to examine the relationship between eyelid conditioning and the personality dimensions of Extraversion (E) and Psychoticism (P). Previous eyelid-conditioning studies in this laboratory have mostly been concerned with testing Eysenck’s prediction of a relationship between the dimension of E and conditioning (Eysenck and Levey, 1972; Jones et al., 1981). This states that introverts condition better because of their habitually higher level of cortical arousal, and the predicted relationship holds when conditions of testing are such as to generate inhibition of a sufficient but not supra-optimal degree. For inhibition to accumulate differentially in highand low-E subjects, stimulus parameters in eyelid conditioning include the following: weak unconditioned stimulus (UCS), partial reinforcement, and short interstimulus interval (ISI), i.e. conditions productive of minimal arousal. Under these conditions introverts condition well, while extraverts produce few. if any, conditioned responses (CRs) under conditions of high arousal, E condition as well as I, and sometimes even better, depending on the specific parameter values used. The latter findings have been explained by the concept of transmarginal inhibition, introverts under such conditions reacting as though responding to a subjectively higher level of stimulation (Eysenck and Levey, 1972). Such results emphasize that statements about effects of personality must be made in terms of the stimulus conditions employed to test them (see reviews by Eysenck, 1965 and Levey and Martin, 1981). The present experiment goes beyond previous research in that it considers the role of P as well as E, and also attempts to elucidate the contribution of Impulsivity. The place of Impulsivity within the dimensional framework has been extensively examined in recent years, alongside the development of the P scale and the revision of the E scale. In the most recent questionnaire. the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), Impulsivity items have been largely removed from E. A new 63-item questionnaire of Impulsiveness (1,) has been developed which consists of three subscales: IMP (Narrow), Venturesomeness (VENT) and Empathy (EMP). VENT correlates most strongly with E, and IMP with P; both scales correlate positively with P as well as with E (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1978). High-P high-E people are therefore predisposed to be impulsive and venturesome. Empathy shows appreciable correlations only with Neuroticism (N), high N scorers being more empathic. These developments make it difficult to formulate specific predictions concerning the relationship between P and conditioning. Previous work has suggested that IMP accounts for the differential eyelid-conditioning performance of introverts and extraverts, while Sociabilitythe second subfactor in the dimension of E previously in use+ontributes nothing or very little

Eysenck's incubation of fear hypothesis: an experimental test.

The present experiment was designed to test Eysencks hypothesis that repeated exposure to an unreinforced CS of brief duration following acquisition of a classical aversive CR may lead to a progressive increase in the strength of that CR, provided that the UCS is intense and the CR has drive-like properties. Using a between-groups design, normal human subjects were given identical classical acquisition trials, followed by extinction trials where CS duration was either 2, 8 or 16 sec. The UCS was of fixed high intensity. Dependent measures were tonic and phasic heart rate and skin conductance. No evidence of incubation was found as a function of CS duration. Nor was there any indication that CS duration differentially affected resistance to extinction. A small number of subjects showed evidence of incubation with heart rate measures during extinction. However, there was no indication that this enhancement was governed by the parameters suggested by Eysenck. UCR amplitude, which showed a positive correspondence with CS-bound activity throughout the trials, did not reliably predict incubation. Problems concerning both the definition and the demonstration of incubation are discussed.

Latency of the eyelid UCR during conditioning.

Abstract Changes in UCR latency during eyelid conditioning were investigated on 24 Ss in an orthogonal design involving two levels of CS intensity and CS-UCS interval and three levels of conditioning. Significant decreases in UCR latency over the acquisition trials were found. These were related to level of conditioning such that the good conditioners showed a significantly more rapid decrease. Further, the amount of decrease prior to the first CR significantly predicted the level of conditioning. These findings were entirely supported in a further replication.