1,721,166 research outputs found
Reducing the return of avoidance and fear by directly targeting avoidance:Comparing incentive-based and instructed extinction of avoidance to passive fear extinction
Full text linkEnhancing the reduction of avoidance may optimize treatment for anxiety disorders. Past research focused on boosting fear extinction to reduce avoidance, however, with limited success. Directly extinguishing avoidance may be more promising. This preregistered study tested the impact of incentives and instruction for non-avoidance compared to passive fear extinction on long-term avoidance and fear reduction. On Day 1, participants acquired conditioned fear and avoidance to a conditioned stimulus (CS) paired with an aversive outcome. Next, incentives or instructions encouraged non-avoidance to the CS, which was no longer reinforced by a US regardless of avoidance (Incentives and Instruction group). In a third group, avoidance was unavailable and the CS was passively presented in absence of the US (Passive Fear Extinction group). On Day 2, avoidance retention and reinstatement and return of fear were tested. In the short term, incentives and instruction strongly reduced avoidance with similar fear reduction compared to passive fear extinction. Importantly, incentives and instruction were linked to lower long-term avoidance retention. Avoidance reinstatement was evident in all groups, but avoidance remained higher after passive fear extinction. Finally, incentives yielded a lower return of threat expectancies. Thus, targeting avoidance instead of fear better reduced long-term avoidance and, for incentives, the return of fear. Especially, incentives could be a promising add-on to exposure.</p
Threat belief determines the degree of costly safety behavior:Assessing rule-based generalization of safety behavior with a dimensional measure of avoidance
Full text linkExcessive generalization of safety behavior to innocuous stimuli that resemble a feared stimulus is oftentimes pathological especially with inflicted impairments. Safety behavior is conventionally assessed dichotomously, requiring multiple presentations of each test stimulus for assessing the proportion of safety behavior executed. Thus, the generalization gradient confounds with ongoing extinction learning during non-reinforced test trials. The present study employed a recently developed dimensional measure of avoidance to examine the extent of safety behavior generalization. We found that a dimensional measure of avoidance was able to assess the generalization gradients of safety behavior even when each test stimulus was presented once, thus minimizing the effect of ongoing extinction learning. Of equal importance is whether higher-order cognitive processes shape generalization of safety behavior. We found a range of distinct generalization gradients in safety behavior, which were highly consistent with participants’ verbally reported relational rules. This rule-based generalization parallels to how clinically anxious individuals develop different threat beliefs after trauma exposure, and models how these distinct threat beliefs determine the extent of safety behavior engagement.</p
Reducing avoidance of learnt fear: Extinction of an imminent threat signal partly decreases costly avoidance to a distal threat signal
Full text linkIn the interplay of fear and avoidance, not only imminent threat signals that directly predict potential threat evoke avoidance, but also distal threat signals that predict these imminent threat signals. Avoidance of learnt fear refers to avoidance to a distal threat signal that prevents the occurrence of an imminent threat signal. In clinical anxiety, it is often pathological given its persistence in the absence of threat and the impairments it inflicts. The current study examined whether fear extinction to an imminent threat signal would effectively reduce avoidance of learnt fear in a sensory preconditioning procedure. Three neutral preconditioning stimuli (PSs), serving as distal threat or safety signals, were paired with three neutral to-be conditioned stimuli (CSs), serving as imminent threat or safety signals. After assessing baseline levels of costly avoidance to the PSs, two CSs were paired with threat. One of these CSs then ceased to predict threat during extinction training. In test, participants showed limited avoidance to the PS that signaled the extinguished CS, however, the level of avoidance was still stronger compared to a PS that signaled a safety CS. Results suggest that exposure to an imminent threat signal partly reduces avoidance to a distal threat
Incentive-based, instructed, and social observational extinction of avoidance: Fear-opposite actions and their influence on fear extinction
No full textAvoidance is a transdiagnostic symptom of clinical anxiety and its reduction a major focus of cognitive-behavioral treatments. This study examined the instrumental extinction of goal-directed avoidance by means of incentives, verbal instruction, and social observation and their influence on fear extinction. Participants acquired conditioned fear and instrumental avoidance responses (N = 160). In four randomized groups, the reduction of avoidance by incentives for non-avoidance, instructions to refrain from avoidance, and social observation of non-avoidance was compared to no intervention before removing the aversive outcome. Conditioned fear when avoidance became unavailable subsequently was tested. Incentives, instruction, and observation all reduced avoidance better than no intervention, however, with different degrees and influence on conditioned fear. Incentives and instructions strongly reduced avoidance despite high levels of fear (i.e., fear-opposite actions). This initiated fear extinction, thereby reducing conditioned fear when avoidance became unavailable. Social observation directly reduced conditioned fear, presumably because it conveyed additional information about the absence of the aversive outcome. However, observation only moderately reduced avoidance and resulted in higher fear when avoidance became unavailable. The effects of social observation may depend on the nuances of the demonstrator's behavior. The clear effects of incentive and instructions provide support for clinical interventions to reduce avoidance during exposure therapy and can serve as experimental models for their controlled investigation
Avoiding a feared stimulus: Modelling costly avoidance of learnt fear in a sensory preconditioning paradigm
No full textAvoidance of learnt fear prevents the onset of a feared stimulus and the threat that follows. In anxiety-related disorders, it turns pathological given its cost and persistence in the absence of realistic threat. The current study examined the acquisition of costly avoidance of learnt fear in healthy individuals (n = 45), via a sensory preconditioning paradigm. Two neutral preconditioning stimuli (PSs) were paired with two neutral conditioned stimuli (CSs). One CS then came to predict an aversive outcome whereas the other CS came to predict safety. In test, participants engaged in stronger avoidance to the PS associated with the fear-related CS than the PS associated with the safety-related CS. Of note, executing behavioral avoidance led to missing out a competing reward, thus rendering avoidance costly. The results also provide preliminary evidence that threat anticipation and a negative change in valence play a role in driving costly avoidance of learnt fear. Future studies should examine how avoidance of learnt fear maintains pathological anxiety
The effect of typicality training on costly safety behavior generalization
Full text linkBackground and objectives: Typicality asymmetry in generalization refers to enhanced fear generalization when trained with typical compared to atypical exemplars. Typical exemplars are highly representative of their category, whereas atypical exemplars are less representative. Individual risk factors, such as trait anxiety, attenuate this effect, due to the high level of threat ambiguity of atypical exemplars. Although recent research provided evidence for generalization of safety behavior, it is unclear whether this generalization also follows typicality asymmetry. This study examined (1) whether participants exhibited typicality asymmetry in the generalization of safety behavior and (2) whether this effect would be attenuated by individual risk factors, such as intolerance of uncertainty and trait anxiety. Methods: Participants were trained with either typical (Typical group, n = 53) or atypical (Atypical group, n = 55) exemplars in a fear and avoidance conditioning procedure. Participants acquired differential conditioned fear and costly safety behavior to the threat- and safety-related exemplars. In a following Generalization Test, the degree of safety behavior to novel exemplars of the same categories was tested. Results: The Atypical group showed greater differential safety behavior responses compared to the Typical group. Higher trait anxiety was associated with lower differential safety behavior generalization, driven by an increase in generalized responding to novel safety-related exemplars. Limitations: This study used hypothetical cost instead of real cost. Conclusions: Training with atypical exemplars led to greater safety behavior generalization. Moreover, individuals with high trait anxiety show impaired safety behavior generalization.</p
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
The generalization of threat beliefs to novel safety stimuli induced by safety behaviors
No full texthttp://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100003246 Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoe
Avoidance of learnt fear: Models, potential mechanisms, and future directions
No full textAvoiding stimuli that were previously associated with threat is essential for adaptive functioning, but excessive avoidance that persists in the absence of threat can turn dysfunctional and results in severe impairments. Fear and avoidance conditioning models have substantially contributed to the understanding of safety behaviors towards learnt fear stimuli. Safety behaviors are executed in the presence of a feared stimulus to prevent the upcoming threat and are well-established in laboratory models. Avoidance of learnt fear, i.e., avoidance of the feared stimulus itself, is typically initiated before the onset of a feared stimulus: individuals oftentimes avoid fear stimuli to prevent negative emotions evoked by them or ultimately the associated threat. Avoidance of learnt fear is surprisingly understudied despite its prevalence in pathological anxiety. The current overview proposes potential behavioral mechanisms and neural circuits of avoidance of learnt fear in humans, and discusses findings and paradigms suitable for examining it. Specifically, higher-order conditioning, decision making paradigms, and context-cue conditioning investigate distinct forms of avoidance of learnt fear. We also discuss the clinical prospects and future directions of research in avoidance of learnt fear
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