Reduction of conditioned avoidance via contingency reversal.

There is an increased interest in how excessive avoidance can diminish. Avoidance reduction is typically tested by using Extinction with Response Prevention (ExRP) protocols, where feared stimuli are presented without any aversive outcome while avoidance is prevented. These effects, however, often do not persist. Here, we tested whether pairing an avoidance response with the presence of an aversive event would reduce avoidance more than ExRP. Participants (N = 58) first saw a picture of a square (A) being paired with a shock whereas another picture of a square (B) not being paired with a shock. Then, they learned to press a button during the presentation of A to avoid the shock. Afterwards, the ExRP group saw unreinforced presentations of A and B without being able to press the avoidance button, whereas the Contingency Reversal group (ConR) received a shock whenever they pressed the button in presence of A. In the test phase, participants saw unreinforced presentations of A and B. Results showed that after successful acquisition of fear and avoidance, in the test phase the ConR group avoided A less often than did the ExRP group. Research on contingency reversal could prove helpful for developing avoidance reduction protocols.

Changing negative autobiographical memories in the lab: a comparison of three eye-movement tasks.

There is strong evidence that executing eye-movement (EM) tasks that load working memory (WM) while thinking of an emotional memory reduces the emotionality and vividness of this memory. According to WM theory, EM tasks that load WM more should be more effective to devalue emotional memories. In this study, we compared three EM tasks: dot tracking, letter identification, and a combination of dot tracking and letter identification. First, participants completed a reaction time (RT) task to assess the WM load of the three EM tasks relative to a control task (viewing a black screen). Then, participants were asked to think of a negative autobiographical memory while executing one of these EM tasks and asked to recall another negative memory while executing the control task. Before and after each task, participants rated emotionality and vividness of the memory. All EM tasks slowed down RTs relative to the control task, and the letter identification task induced the largest RTs. Reductions of vividness relative to the control task, however, were comparable across the EM tasks, and there were no reliable reductions of emotionality. We discuss these findings in light of the WM theory and alternative theories for the effects of dual-task interventions.

Targeting avoidance via compound extinction.

Avoidance towards innocuous cues is a key diagnostic criterion across anxiety-related disorders. Importantly, the most effective intervention for anxiety-related disorders, exposure therapy with response prevention, sometimes does not prevent the relapse of anxiety's symptomatology. We tested whether extinction effects, the experimental proxy of exposure, are enhanced by increasing the discrepancy between the prediction of an unpleasant event happening (shock presentation), and the actual event (shock omission). Forty-eight individuals first saw pictures of three stimuli. Two pictures (CSA, CSB) were followed by a shock (US) and one (CS-) was not. Next, participants learned to avoid the US by pressing a computer key. An extinction and response prevention procedure followed. In the first part of it, participants saw unreinforced presentations of all CSs. In the second part, the single group saw unreinforced presentations of the CSA and CS-. The compound group encountered compound unreinforced presentations of the CSA and CSB, and separate presentations of the CS-. Return of avoidance and fear was tested after unsignalled presentations of the US. Compound extinction resulted in comparable reduction of fear and avoidance compared to standard extinction. We discuss how future research could enhance extinction effects by adding costs to the avoidance behaviour.

A principled method to identify individual differences and behavioral shifts in signaled active avoidance.

Signaled active avoidance (SigAA) is the key experimental procedure for studying the acquisition of instrumental responses toward conditioned threat cues. Traditional analytic approaches (e.g., general linear model) often obfuscate important individual differences, although individual differences in learned responses characterize both animal and human learning data. However, individual differences models (e.g., latent growth curve modeling) typically require large samples and onerous computational methods. Here, we present an analytic methodology that enables the detection of individual differences in SigAA performance at a high accuracy, even when a single animal is included in the data set (i.e., n = 1 level). We further show an online software that enables the easy application of our method to any SigAA data set.

Manipulating affective state influences conditioned appetitive responses.

Affective states influence how individuals process information and behave. Some theories predict emotional congruency effects (e.g. preferential processing of negative information in negative affective states). Emotional congruency should theoretically obstruct the learning of reward associations (appetitive learning) and their ability to guide behaviour under negative mood. Two studies tested the effects of the induction of a negative affective state on appetitive Pavlovian learning, in which neutral stimuli were associated with chocolate (Experiment 1) or alcohol (Experiment 2) rewards. In both experiments, participants showed enhanced approach tendencies towards predictors of reward after a negative relative to a positive performance feedback manipulation. This increase was related to a reduction in positive affect in Experiment 1 only. No effects of the manipulation on conditioned reward expectancies, craving, or consumption were observed. Overall, our findings support the idea of counter-regulation, rather than emotional congruency effects. Negative affective states might therefore serve as a vulnerability factor for addiction, through increasing conditioned approach tendencies.

Fearing shades of grey: individual differences in fear responding towards generalisation stimuli.

Individual differences in fear generalisation have been proposed to play a role in the aetiology and/or maintenance of anxiety disorders, but few data are available to directly support that claim. The research that is available has focused mostly on generalisation of peripheral and central physiological fear responses. Far less is known about the generalisation of avoidance, the behavioural component of fear. In two experiments, we evaluated how neuroticism, a known vulnerability factor for anxiety, modulates an array of fear responses, including avoidance tendencies, towards generalisation stimuli (GS). Participants underwent differential fear conditioning, in which one conditioned stimulus (CS+) was repeatedly paired with an aversive outcome (shock; unconditioned stimulus, US), whereas another was not (CS-). Fear generalisation was observed across measures in Experiment 1 (US expectancy and evaluative ratings) and Experiment 2 (US expectancy, evaluative ratings, skin conductance, startle responses, safety behaviours), with overall highest responding to the CS+, lowest to the CS- and intermediate responding to the GSs. Neuroticism had very little impact on fear generalisation (but did affect GS recognition rates in Experiment 1), in line with the idea that fear generalisation is largely an adaptive process.

A Bayesian hierarchical diffusion model decomposition of performance in Approach-Avoidance Tasks.

Common methods for analysing response time (RT) tasks, frequently used across different disciplines of psychology, suffer from a number of limitations such as the failure to directly measure the underlying latent processes of interest and the inability to take into account the uncertainty associated with each individual's point estimate of performance. Here, we discuss a Bayesian hierarchical diffusion model and apply it to RT data. This model allows researchers to decompose performance into meaningful psychological processes and to account optimally for individual differences and commonalities, even with relatively sparse data. We highlight the advantages of the Bayesian hierarchical diffusion model decomposition by applying it to performance on Approach-Avoidance Tasks, widely used in the emotion and psychopathology literature. Model fits for two experimental data-sets demonstrate that the model performs well. The Bayesian hierarchical diffusion model overcomes important limitations of current analysis procedures and provides deeper insight in latent psychological processes of interest.

Pavlovian-to-instrumental transfer in individuals with chronic pain.

Avoidance of pain has been argued to be key factor leading pain events to chronic disability. In this respect, research has focused on investigating the working mechanisms of avoidance's acquisition. Avoidance of painful stimuli has been traditionally studied using a combination of Pavlovian and Instrumental procedures. However, such approach seems to go against real-life scenarios where avoidance is commonly acquired more readily. Using a novel pain avoidance paradigm, we tested whether pain avoidance can be installed in absence of associations between a cue and pain omission, and whether such avoidance differs between pain patients and healthy controls. Participants first learned to avoid painful stimuli by pressing a grip bar. Then, they passively encountered pairings of one geometrical shape with pain and of another geometrical shape without pain. Lastly, participants encountered the geometrical shapes while being able to use the grip bar. Results showed that participants pressed the bar more vigorously when encountering the previously pain-related shape compared to the pain-unrelated shape. This effect did not seem to differ between pain patients and healthy control. Our study could inspire a new way in measuring avoidance in pain, possibly paving the way to better understanding how avoidance is installed in chronic pain.

Experimental Pain Picture System (EPPS): Development and Validation.

Pain-related pictures are useful for studying how individuals respond to pain-related stimulation. Such pictures can occasionally be found in databases for affective pictures. However, a validated database specifically for pain-related pictures is not available yet. In 2 experiments (N = 185 and 103, respectively), we developed and validated the Experimental Pain Pictures System (EPPS). In both experiments, negative valence, arousal, and painfulness ratings were compared between neutral-, sad-, and pain-related pictures. The pain-related pictures represented both deep and superficial somatic pain. Across the 2 experiments, pain-related pictures were judged as more negative, arousing, and painful than neutral pictures and more painful than sad pictures. The final EPPS contains 50 pictures of different painful events considered moderately to highly painful by participants. The EPPS is a valuable tool for studying pain-related responses, as it gives researchers a choice among many validated pictures depicting different types of pain, increasing the comparability between studies. PERSPECTIVE: This article presents the validation of the experimental pain pictures system, which consists of a set of pain-related pictures. The experimental pain pictures system is composed of pictures depicting different types of pain. Participants rated all the pictures as being negative, arousing, and painful.

Context reexposure to bolster contextual dependency of emotional episodic memory.

Contextual overgeneralization of emotional memory is a core aspect of anxiety disorders. Identifying methods to enhance contextual dependency of emotional memory is therefore of significant clinical interest. Animal research points to a promising approach: reexposure to the context in which fear is acquired reduces generalization to other contexts. However, the exact conditions for this effect are unknown, complicating translation to effective interventions. Most notably, exposure to a context that resembles-but is not identical to-the learning context may diminish contextual dependency of memory by integration of additional contextual cues. Here, we therefore assessed in a large-scale study (N = 180) whether context reexposure enhances contextual dependency of emotional episodic memory whereas exposure to a similar context impairs it. We also tested whether relatively strong memory retrieval during context (re)exposure amplifies these effects. We replicated prior research showing that correct recognition depends on context and contextual dependency is lower for emotional than neutral memories. However, exposure to the encoding context or a similar context did not affect contextual dependency of memory, and retrieval strength did not interact with such effects. Thorough insight into factors underlying the effects of context (re)exposure on contextual dependency seems key to eventually attain a memory recontextualization intervention.

On the interpretation of removable interactions: a survey of the field 33 years after Loftus.

In a classic 1978 Memory & Cognition article, Geoff Loftus explained why noncrossover interactions are removable. These removable interactions are tied to the scale of measurement for the dependent variable and therefore do not allow unambiguous conclusions about latent psychological processes. In the present article, we present concrete examples of how this insight helps prevent experimental psychologists from drawing incorrect conclusions about the effects of forgetting and aging. In addition, we extend the Loftus classification scheme for interactions to include those on the cusp between removable and nonremovable. Finally, we use various methods (i.e., a study of citation histories, a questionnaire for psychology students and faculty members, an analysis of statistical textbooks, and a review of articles published in the 2008 issue of Psychology and Aging) to show that experimental psychologists have remained generally unaware of the concept of removable interactions. We conclude that there is more to interactions in a 2 × 2 design than meets the eye.

Multiverse analyses in fear conditioning research.

There is heterogeneity in and a lack of consensus on the preferred statistical analyses in light of a multitude of potentially equally justifiable approaches. Here, we introduce multiverse analysis for the field of experimental psychopathology research. We present a model multiverse approach tailored to fear conditioning research and, as a secondary aim, introduce the R package 'multifear' that allows to run all the models though a single line of code. Model specifications and data reduction approaches were identified through a systematic literature search. The heterogeneity of statistical models identified included Bayesian ANOVA and t-tests as well as frequentist ANOVA, t-test as well as mixed models with a variety of data reduction approaches. We illustrate the power of a multiverse analysis for fear conditioning data based on two pre-existing data sets with partial (data set 1) and 100% reinforcement rate (data set 2) by using CS discrimination in skin conductance responses (SCRs) during fear acquisition and extinction training as case examples. Both the effect size and the direction of effect was impacted by choice of the model and data reduction techniques. We anticipate that an increase in multiverse-type of studies will aid the development of formal theories through the accumulation of empirical evidence and ultimately aid clinical translation.

The role of intolerance of uncertainty when solving the exploration-exploitation dilemma.

When making behavioral decisions, individuals need to balance between exploiting known options or exploring new ones. How individuals solve this exploration-exploitation dilemma (EED) is a key research question across psychology, leading to attempting to disentangle the cognitive mechanisms behind it. A potential predictive factor of performance in an EED is intolerance of uncertainty (IU), an individual difference factor referring to the extent to which uncertain situations are reported to be aversive. Here, we present the results of a series of exploratory analyses in which we tested the relationship between IU and performance in an EED task. For this, we compiled data from 3 experiments, in which participants received the opportunity to exploit different movements in order to avoid a painful stimulus and approach rewards. For decomposing performance in this task, we used different computational models previously employed in studies on the EED. Then, the parameters of the winning model were correlated with the scores of participants in the IU scale. Correlational and cluster analyses, within both frequentists and Bayesian frameworks, did not provide strong evidence for a relation between EED and IU, apart from the decay rate and the subscale "tendency to become paralyzed in the face of uncertainty". Given the theoretical relation between EED and IU, we propose research with different experimental paradigms.

The exploration-exploitation dilemma in pain: an experimental investigation.

ABSTRACT: Daily life consists of a chain of decisions. Typically, individuals may choose to pursue what they already know (exploitation) or to search for other options (exploration). This exploration-exploitation dilemma is a topic of interest across multiple scientific fields. Here we propose that investigating how individuals solve this dilemma may improve our understanding of how individuals make behavioral decisions (eg, avoidance) when facing pain. To this end, we present the data of 3 experiments in which healthy individuals were given the opportunity to choose between 4 different movements, with each movement being associated with different probabilities of receiving a painful outcome only (experiment 1) or pain and/or a reward (experiment 2). We also investigated whether participants stuck to their decisions when the contingencies between each movement and the painful/rewarding outcome changed during the task (experiment 3). The key findings across all experiments are the following: First, after initial exploration, participants most often exploited the safest option. Second, participants weighted rewards more heavily than receiving pain. Finally, after receiving a painful outcome, participants were more inclined to explore than to exploit a rewarding movement. We argue that by focusing more on how individuals in pain solve the exploration-exploitation dilemma is helpful in understanding behavioral decision making in pain.

Postural freezing relates to startle potentiation in a human fear-conditioning paradigm.

Freezing to impending threat is a core defensive response. It has been studied primarily using fear conditioning in non-human animals, thwarting advances in translational human anxiety research that has used other indices, such as skin conductance responses. Here we examine postural freezing as a human conditioning index for translational anxiety research. We employed a mixed cued/contextual fear-conditioning paradigm where one context signals the occurrence of the US upon the presentation of the CS, and another context signals that the CS is not followed by the US. Critically, during the following generalization phase, the CS is presented in a third and novel context. We show that human freezing is highly sensitive to fear conditioning, generalizes to ambiguous contexts, and amplifies with threat imminence. Intriguingly, stronger parasympathetically driven freezing under threat, but not sympathetically mediated skin conductance, predicts subsequent startle magnitude. These results demonstrate that humans show fear-conditioned animal-like freezing responses, known to aid in active preparation for unexpected attack, and that freezing captures real-life anxiety expression. Conditioned freezing offers a promising new, non-invasive, and continuous, readout for human fear conditioning, paving the way for future translational studies into human fear and anxiety.

Safety behaviors toward innocuous stimuli can maintain or increase threat beliefs.

Safety behaviors can prevent or minimize a feared outcome. However, in relatively safe situations, they may be less adaptive, presumably because people will misattribute safety to these behaviors. This research aimed to investigate whether safety behaviors in safe situations can lead to increased threat beliefs. In Study 1, we aimed to replicate a fear conditioning study (N = 68 students) in which the experimental, but not the control group, received the opportunity to perform safety behavior to an innocuous stimulus. From before to after the availability of the safety behavior, threat beliefs persisted in the experimental group, while they decreased in the control group. In Study 2, we examined whether threat beliefs had actually increased for some individuals in the experimental group, using a multi-dataset latent class analysis on data from Study 1 and two earlier studies (N = 213). Results showed that about a quarter of individuals who performed safety behavior toward the innocuous stimulus showed increased threat expectancy to this cue, while virtually nobody in the control group exhibited an increase. Taken together, safety behavior in relatively safe situations may have maladaptive effects as it generally maintains and sometimes even increases threat beliefs.

A meta-analysis of conditioned fear generalization in anxiety-related disorders.

Generalization of conditioned fear is adaptive in some situations but maladaptive when fear excessively generalizes to innocuous stimuli with incidental resemblance to a genuine threat cue. Recently, empirical interest in fear generalization as a transdiagnostic explanatory mechanism underlying anxiety-related disorders has accelerated. As there are now several studies of fear generalization across multiple types of anxiety-related disorders, the authors conducted a meta-analysis of studies reporting behavioral measures (subjective ratings and psychophysiological indices) of fear generalization in anxiety-related disorder vs. comparison groups. We conducted systematic searches of electronic databases (conducted from January-October 2020) for fear generalization studies involving anxiety-related disorder groups or subclinical analog groups. A total of 300 records were full-text screened and two unpublished datasets were obtained, yielding 16 studies reporting behavioral fear generalization measures. Random-effects meta-analytic models and meta-regressions were applied to the identified data. Fear generalization was significantly heightened in anxiety-related disorder participants (N = 439) relative to comparison participants (N = 428). We did not identify any significant clinical, sample, or methodological moderators. Heightened fear generalization is quantitatively supported as distinguishing anxiety-related disorder groups from comparison groups. Evidence suggests this effect is transdiagnostic, relatively robust to experimental or sample parameters, and that generalization paradigms are a well-supported framework for neurobehavioral investigations of learning and emotion in anxiety-related disorders. We discuss these findings in the context of prior fear conditioning meta-analyses, past neuroimaging investigations of fear generalization in anxiety-related disorders, and future directions and challenges for the field.

Enhancing extinction with response prevention via imagery-based counterconditioning: Results on conditioned avoidance and distress.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Maladaptive avoidance is a core characteristic of anxiety-related disorders. Its reduction is often promoted using extinction with response prevention (ExRP) procedures, but these effects are often short-lived. Research has shown that pairing a feared stimulus with a stimulus of an incompatible valence (i.e., counterconditioning) may be effective in reducing fear. This laboratory study tested whether positive imagery during ExRP (i.e., imagery counterconditioning protocol) can also reduce avoidance. METHODS: In the counterconditioning procedure, participants imagined a positive sound. There were four phases. First, participants were presented with squares on a computer screen of which one (CS+) was paired with an aversive sound and another (CS-) was not. Second, they learned to avoid the negative sound in the presence of the CS+, via a key press. Third, they were assigned to either the Counterconditioning (that was asked to imagine a positive sound during ExRP) or No Counterconditioning group (standard ExRP). Finally, they performed a test phase that consisted of two parts: in the first part, avoidance responses were available for each CS and in the second part, these responses were prevented. RESULTS: The Counterconditioning intervention resulted in a short-lived reduction of distress associated with the CS+. However, groups did not differ in avoidance or distress during the test phases. LIMITATIONS: US-expectancy ratings were collected only at the end of the experiment. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate that positive imagery during ExRP may be effective in reducing distress during the intervention. Explanations for the persistence of avoidance and fear are discussed.

Human fear conditioning is moderated by stimulus contingency instructions.

Recent research findings indicate that human fear conditioning is affected by instructions, particularly those concerning the contingency between the conditioned stimulus (CS) and the unconditioned stimulus (US). However, whether or not such instructions were provided to participants often remains unsaid in fear conditioning studies. In the current study (N = 102), we investigated whether conditioned fear acquisition depends on CS-US contingency instructions. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups. The first group was instructed about the precise CS-US contingency before conditioning. The second group was instructed to discover the CS-US contingency. The third group did not receive any contingency instructions. We found facilitated fear acquisition (using skin conductance and startle) and increased contingency awareness in the first and second group compared to the third group. Furthermore, contingency reversal instructions immediately reversed conditioned responses. Based on these results, we advise to systematically report the contingency instructions used in fear conditioning research.

Does an unconditioned stimulus memory devaluation procedure decrease disgust memories and conditioned disgust? Results of two laboratory studies.

Research has demonstrated that disgust can be installed through classical conditioning by pairing neutral conditioned stimuli (CSs) with disgusting unconditioned stimuli (USs). Disgust has been argued to play an important role in maintaining fear-related disorders. This maintaining role may be explained by conditioned disgust being less sensitive to extinction (i.e., experiencing the CS in the absence of the US). Promising alternatives to extinction training are procedures that focus on the devaluation of US memory representations. In the current study, we investigated whether such devaluation procedures can be successful to counter conditioned disgust. We conducted two laboratory studies (N = 120 and N = 51) in which disgust was conditioned using audio-visual USs. Memory representations of the USs were devalued by having participants recall these USs while they performed a taxing eye-movement task or executed one of several control tasks. The results showed successful conditioned disgust acquisition. However, no strong evidence was obtained that an US memory devaluation procedure modulates disgust memory and diminishes conditioned disgust as indicated by subjective, behavioral, or psychophysiological measures. We discuss the relevance of our results for methodological improvements regarding US memory devaluation procedures and disgust conditioning.