Transfer of Conditioned Fear-potentiated Startle across Equivalence Classes. An Exploratory Study
- Miguel Ángel López Medina
- Miguel Rodríguez Valverde
- Mónica Hernández López
ISSN: 1577-7057
Year of publication: 2016
Volume: 16
Issue: 3
Pages: 249-263
Type: Article
More publications in: International journal of psychology and psychological therapy
Abstract
Research on fear conditioning is key to understanding the genesis and maintenance of anxiety disorders. A still scarce but growing evidence shows that fear-conditioned arousal reactions may transfer amongst physically dissimilar but symbolically related (e.g. equivalent) stimuli. The limited investigation published to date has relied on skin conductance responses as its main measure. Thus far, no published studies have analyzed this phenomenon using more emotionally sensitive psychophysiological measures, like fear-potentiated startle. Twenty-seven participants underwent a matching-to-sample procedure for the formation of two four-member equivalence classes (A1-B1-C1-D1 and A2-B2-C2-D2). Then, one element from each class was used in a differential aversive conditioning procedure (CS+: B1; CS-: B2) with electric shock as the UCS. Eye-blink startle (measured as EMG activity of the orbicularis oculi muscle after a burst of white noise), skin conductance responses, and shock-risk self-report ratings were collected. Results show no evidence of transfer of functions with any of the psychophysiological measures. A weak, inconclusive effect was observed for self-reported ratings. How to cite: López-Medina MA, Rodríguez-Valverde M, & Hernández-López M (2016). Transfer of Conditioned Fear-potentiated Startle across Equivalence Classes. An Exploratory Study. International Journal of Psychology and Psychological Therapy, 16, 249-263
Bibliographic References
- Augustson EM & Dougher MJ (1997). The transfer of avoidance evoking functions through stimulus equivalence classes. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 28, 181-191.
- Barlow DH (2002). Anxiety and its disorders: The nature and treatment of anxiety and panic, 2nd ed. New York, NY: Guilford.
- Beckers T, Krypotos AM, Boddez Y, Effting M, & Kindt M (2013). What’s wrong with fear conditioning? Biological Psychology, 92, 90-96. Doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2011.12.015.
- Bocker KBE, Baas JMP, Leon Kenemans J, & Verbaten MN (2004). Differences in startle modulation during instructed threat and selective attention. Biological Psychology, 67, 343-358.
- Bradley MM, Cuthbert BN, & Lang PJ (1999). Affect and the startle reflex. In ME Dawson & AM Schell (Eds.), Startle modification: Implications for neuroscience, cognitive science, and clinical science (pp. 157-183). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Cacioppo JT, Berntson GG, Larsen JT, Poehlmann KM, & Ito TA (2000). The psychophysiology of emotion. In M Lewis & JM Haviland-Jones (Eds.), Handbook of emotions, 2nd ed. (pp. 173191). New York: Guilford Press.
- Carretié L, Mercado F, Tapia M, & Hinojosa J (2001). Emotion, attention, and the ‘negativity bias’, studied through event-related potentials. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 41, 75-85.
- Carrigan PF & Sidman M (1992). Conditional discrimination and equivalence relations: A theoretical analysis of control by negative stimuli. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 58, 183-204.
- Dawson ME, Schell AM, & Filion DL (1990). The electrodermal system. In JT Cacioppo & LG Tassinary (Eds.), Principles of Psychophysiology (pp. 295-324). New York: Cambridge University Press.
- Declerq M & De Houwer J (2009). Transfer of avoidance responding to a sensory preconditioned cue: Evidence for the role of S-S and R-S knowledge in avoidance learning. Learning and Motivation, 40, 197-208. Doi: 10.1016/j.lmot.2008.11.003
- Dougher MJ & Markham MR (1996). Stimulus classes and the untrained acquisition of stimulus functions. In TR Zentall & PM Smeets (Eds.) Stimulus Class Formation in Humans and Animals (pp. 7190). Amsterdam: North Holland.
- Dougher MJ, Augustson E, Markham MR, Greenway DE, & Wulfert E (1994). The transfer of respondent eliciting and extinction functions through stimulus equivalence classes. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 62, 331-351.
- Dunsmoor J & LaBar K (2013). Effects of discrimination training on fear generalization gradients and perceptual classification in humans. Behavioral Neuroscience, 127, 350-356. Doi: 10.1037/ a0031933
- Dunsmoor J, White A, & LaBar K (2011). Conceptual similarity promotes generalization of higher order fear learning. Learning & Memory, 18, 156-160. Doi: 10.1101/lm.2016411.
- Dymond S & Rehfeldt RA (2000). Understanding complex behavior: The transformation of stimulus functions. The Behavior Analyst, 23, 239-254.
- Dymond S, Dunsmoor JE, Vervliet B, Roche B, & Hermans D (2015). Fear Generalization in Humans: Systematic Review and Implications for Anxiety Disorder Research. Behavior Therapy, 46, 561-582.
- Dymond S, Roche B, Forsyth JP, Whelan R, & Rhoden J (2007). Transformation of avoidance response functions in accordance with the relational frames of same and opposite. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 88, 249-262.
- Dymond S, Roche B, Forsyth JP, Whelan R, & Rhoden J (2008). Derived avoidance learning: Transformation of avoidance response functions in accordance with the relational frames of same and opposite. The Psychological Record, 58, 271-288.
- Dymond S, Schlund MW, Roche B, De Houwer J, & Freegard GP (2012). Safe from harm: Learned, instructed, and symbolic generalization pathways of human threat-avoidance. PLoS ONE 7(10): e47539. Doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0047539.
- Dymond S, Schlund MW, Roche B, & Whelan R (2014). The spread of fear: Symbolic generalization mediates graded threat-avoidance in specific phobia. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 67, 247-259. Doi: 10.1080/17470218.2013.800124
- Dymond S, Schlund MW, Roche B, Whelan R, Richards J, & Davies C (2011). Inferred threat and safety: Symbolic generalization of human avoidance learning. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 49, 614-621. Doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2011.06.007
- Filion DL, Dawson ME, Schell AM, & Hazlett EA (1991). The relationship between skin conductance orienting and the allocation of processing resources. Psychophysiology, 28, 410-424.
- Frith CD & Allen HA (1983). The skin conductance orienting response as an index of attention. Biological Psychology, 17, 27-39.
- Gannon S, Roche B, Kanter J, Forsyth JP, & Linehan C (2011). A derived relations analysis of approachavoidance conflict: Implications for the behavioural analysis of human anxiety. The Psychological Record, 61, 227-252.
- Gray JA & McNaughton N (2000). The neuropsychology of anxiety. New York: Oxford University Press.
- Grillon C (2008). Models and mechanims of anxiety: Evidence from startle studies. Psycopharmacology, 199, 421-437.
- Hayes SC, Gifford EV, & Wilson KG (1996). Stimulus classes and stimulus relations: Arbitrarily applicable relational responding as an operant. In TR Zentall & PM Smeets (Eds.) Stimulus class formation in humans and animals (pp. 279-300). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
- King N, Gullone E, & Ollendick TH (1998). Etiology of childhood phobias: current status of Rachman’s three pathways theory. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 36, 297-309.
- Lipp OV (2006). Human fear learning: contemporary procedures and measurement. In MG Craske, D Hermans, & D Vansteenwegen (Eds). Fear and Learning: from basic processes to clinical implications (pp. 37-51). Washington DC: American Psychological Association.
- Lissek S, Biggs AL, Rabin SJ, Cornwell BR, Álvarez RP, Pine DS, & Grillon C (2008). Generalization of conditioned fear-potentiated startle in humans: Experimental validation and clinical relevance. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 46, 678-687.
- Lissek S, Bradford DE, Alvarez RP, Burton P, Espensen-Sturges T, Reynolds RC, & Grillon C (2014). Neural substrates of classically conditioned fear generalization in humans: A parametric fMRI study. Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 9, 1134-1142.
- Lissek S, Powers AS, McClure EB, Phelps EA, Woldehawariat G, Grillon C, & Paine DS (2005). Classical fear conditioning in the anxiety disorders: A meta-analysis. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 43, 1391-1424.
- Luciano C, Valdivia Salas S, Ruiz FJ, Rodríguez-Valverde M, Barnes-Holmes D, Dougher MJ, Cabello F, Vanessa Sánchez V, Barnes-Holmes Y, & Gutiérrez O (2013). Extinction of aversive eliciting functions as an analog of exposure to eliciting fear: Does it undermine avoidance responding? Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 2, 120-134. Doi: 10.1016/j.jcbs.2013.05.001.
- Menzies RG & Clarke JC (1993a). The etiology of childhood water phobia. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 31, 499-501.
- Menzies RG & Clarke JC (1993b). The etiology of fear of heights and its relationship to severity and individual response patterns. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 31, 355-365.
- Öhman A, Flykt A, & Esteves F (2001). Emotion drives attention: Detecting the snake in the grass. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 130, 466-478.
- Roche B, Kanter JW, Brown KR, Dymond S & Fogarty CC (2008). A comparison of ‘direct’ versus ‘derived’ extinction of avoidance. The Psychological Record, 58, 443-464.
- Rodríguez Valverde M, Luciano C, & Barnes-Holmes D (2009). Transfer of aversive respondent elicitation in accordance with equivalence relations. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 92, 85-111.
- Sidman M (1994). Equivalence relations and behavior: A research story. Boston: Authors Cooperative.
- Sidman M & Tailby W (1982). Conditional discrimination versus matching-to-sample: An expansion of the testing paradigm. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 37, 5-22.
- Stewart I & Roche B (2013). Relational Frame Theory: An overview. In S Dymond & B Roche (Eds.) Advances in Relational Frame Theory: Research and applications (pp. 51-71). Oakland, CA: New Harbinger/Context Press.
- Van Meurs B, Wiggert N, Wicker I & Lissek S (2014). Maladaptive behavioral consequences of conditioned fear generalization: A pronounced, yet sparsely studied, feature of anxiety pathology. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 57, 29-37. Doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2014.03.009
- Vansteenwegen D, Crombez G, Baeyens F, Hermans D, & Eelen P (2000). Pre-extinction of sensory preconditioned electrodermal activity. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, Section B: Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 53B, 359-371.
- Vervoort E, Vervliet B, Bennett M & Baeyens F (2014) Generalization of Human Fear Acquisition and Extinction within a Novel Arbitrary Stimulus Category. PLoS ONE 9 (5): e96569. Doi: 10.1371/ journal.pone.0096569
- Watson JB & Rayner R (1920). Conditioned emotional reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 3, 1-22.