Titill: | Generalization of socially transmitted and instructed avoidance |
Höfundur: |
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Útgáfa: | 2015-06-18 |
Tungumál: | Enska |
Umfang: | 159 |
Háskóli/Stofnun: | Háskólinn í Reykjavík (HR) Reykjavík University (RU) |
Svið: | Viðskiptadeild (HR) School of Business (RU) |
Birtist í: | Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience;9 |
ISSN: | 1662-5153 |
DOI: | 10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00159 |
Efnisorð: | Instructed learning; Observational learning; Avoidance; Generalization; Fear conditioning; Anxiety disorders; Kvíði; Skilyrðingar; Atferlissálfræði; Sálfræði; Psychology |
URI: | https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11815/925 |
Tilvitnun:Cameron, G., Schlund, M. W., & Dymond, S. (2015). Generalization of socially transmitted and instructed avoidance. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 9, 159. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00159
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Útdráttur:Excessive avoidance behavior, in which an instrumental action prevents an upcoming aversive event, is a defining feature of anxiety disorders. Left unchecked, both fear and avoidance of potentially threatening stimuli may generalize to perceptually related stimuli and situations. The behavioral consequences of generalization mean that aversive learning experiences with specific threats may lead to the inference that classes of related stimuli are threatening, potentially dangerous, and need to be avoided, despite differences in physical form. Little is known however about avoidance generalization in humans and the learning pathways by which it may be transmitted. In the present study, we compared two pathways to avoidance—instructions and social observation—on subsequent generalization of avoidance behavior, fear expectancy and physiological arousal. Participants first learned that one cue was a danger cue (conditioned stimulus, CS+) and another was a safety cue (CS−). Groups were then either instructed that a simple avoidance response in the presence of the CS+ cancelled upcoming shock (instructed-learning group) or observed a short movie showing a demonstrator performing the avoidance response to prevent shock (observational-learning group). During generalization testing, danger and safety cues were presented along with generalization stimuli that parametrically varied in perceptual similarity to the CS+. Reinstatement of fear and avoidance was also tested. Findings demonstrate, for the first time, generalization of socially transmitted and instructed avoidance: both groups showed comparable generalization gradients in fear expectancy, avoidance behavior and arousal. Return of fear was evident, suggesting that generalized avoidance remains persistent following extinction testing. The utility of the present paradigm for research on avoidance generalization is discussed.
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Leyfi:Copyright © 2015 Cameron, Schlund and Dymond. This is an open-access article
distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY).
The use, distribution and reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the
original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this
journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution
or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
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