The relationship between Intolerance of Uncertainty and conditioned fear acquisition: Evidence from a large sample.

Despite being considered a valid model for the etiology of anxiety disorders, the fear conditioning paradigm does not always show clear correlations with anxious personality traits that constitute risk factors for the development of anxiety disorders. This may in part due to error variance and the fact that fear conditioning studies are typically underpowered to investigate inter-individual differences. In the current study, we focus on the relationship between conditioned fear acquisition and Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU). In a re-analysis of a large previous study (N = 120), which was conducted using a healthy student sample and a partial reinforcement procedure (75%) with words as Conditioned Stimuli (CSs), the relationship between IU and several outcome measures (i.e., fear ratings, expectancy ratings, skin conductance responses, and startle responses) during fear acquisition was examined. We find that IU is positively related to fear ratings towards the CS+ (r = 0.29), even when controlling for the shared variance with trait anxiety. Furthermore, we find a subtle relationship between IU and startle responses to the CS- (r = -0.23), though this correlation did not survive correction for the shared variance with trait anxiety. Taken together, we replicate some of the correlations previously reported in the literature. However, we recommend that future studies employ even larger samples and more advanced statistical techniques such as structural equation modelling to investigate the correlations between fear acquisition indices and anxious traits in a fine-grained manner.

Conceptual fear generalization gradients and their relationship with anxious traits: Results from a Registered Report.

A hallmark symptom of fear and anxiety disorder is generalization of fear to essentially innocuous stimuli and situations. Such generalization can occur through both perceptual and conceptually similarities. Recent studies indicate that perceptual generalization is inflated in anxiety patients and individuals prone to develop anxiety disorders, suggesting that perceptual generalization may be involved in the etiology of anxiety disorders. In the current Registered Report, we wanted to address whether conceptual generalization is potentially implicated in the development of anxiety disorders as well. Therefore, we used a novel paradigm in which the Dutch word mini [tiny] or enorm [enormous] was paired with an electric shock and assessed fear to the conceptually related words klein [small], medium [medium], and groot [large]. The sample (N = 120) consisted of healthy university students. As hypothesized, we observed clear conceptual fear generalization gradients using both self-report and psychophysiological measures. However, in contrast to our expectations, these conceptual generalization gradients were not correlated with different anxious traits (i.e., trait anxiety, intolerance of uncertainty, and behavioral inhibition). These results show that fear can generalize conceptually along a gradient, without requiring perceptual errors as postulated by traditional models of fear generalization. Instead, our results correspond well with inferential reasoning theories of fear generalization. Additionally, we discuss potential reasons for the absence of the expected correlations between conceptual fear generalization and anxious traits, such as restricted variability in both the generalization task and the sample. We conclude that the paradigm has promise for further research on conceptual fear generalization.

Rescripting experimental trauma: Effects of imagery and writing as a way to reduce the development of intrusive memories.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Imagery rescripting is an effective treatment strategy for trauma related disorders, but its underlying mechanisms are still largely unknown. The aim of the present study was to test whether a) imagery (versus writing) is essential in the process of rescripting, and b) rescripting affects emotional memories on an implicit level. METHODS: Healthy participants were subjected to an experimental trauma ('trauma film'), and randomly allocated to four conditions: recall of film + Imagery Rescripting (ImRs), recall of film + Writing Rescripting (WRs), recall only (ImRE), or no recall + no manipulation (NM). Next, participants recorded intrusion frequency and distress during one week, after which they executed a visual interference task (VIT) including neutral and trauma film stills, to access implicit emotional memory. RESULTS: Main findings were that ImRs and WRs resulted in fewer intrusions than NM, with no differences between both rescripting conditions. We did not find an effect on intrusion distress and the VIT. LIMITATIONS: Stills in the VIT were distracted from all four film scenes, whereas rescripting was done on one scene only, possibly obscuring the effect. Also, an analogue sample was used, which may limit generalizability to clinical samples. CONCLUSIONS: We replicated previous effects of ImRs on intrusion development. Furthermore, no superior effect of imagery as key modality for rescripting was found; writing seems a viable alternative. Measures for implicit emotional memory such as the VIT may have to be applied relatively soon after the experimental session (e.g., same day as the experimental session).

Changing emotional visual and auditory memories: are modality-matched dual-tasks more effective?

Clinical and laboratory studies have demonstrated that executing a demanding dual-task while recollecting emotional memories weakens the emotional intensity and vividness of these memories. While this approach is generally effective, there is room for improvement. According to multi-component working memory theories, the effectiveness of dual-tasks may be improved by loading specifically the same sensory modality of the emotional memories. So far, however, the evidence for this idea is mixed. In the current report, this idea was tested in a pilot study (N = 36) and a pre-registered experiment (N = 60) by exposing participants to pictures of the International Affective Picture System database and to sounds of the International Affective Digital Sounds database, thus creating single-modality emotional memories. Using a within-subjects design, participants had to recollect their memories of the sounds and pictures while executing a visually-demanding task (i.e. identifying visual letters), an auditory-demanding task (i.e. identifying auditory letters), or no task. Across both studies, we only found limited evidence for modality-specific effects of dual-tasks on single-modality emotional memories. We discuss the relevance of our findings for working memory theories of memory change and therapeutic practices.