Neumann David L, Waters Allison M, Westbury H Rae, Henry Julie
School of Psychology, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia.
Biol Psychol. 2008 Dec;79(3):337-42. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsycho.2008.08.005. Epub 2008 Sep 6.
The study of aversive Pavlovian conditioning in children can contribute to our understanding of how fears are acquired and extinguished during development. However, methodological issues hamper further research because of ethical and procedural concerns regarding the use of traditional aversive unconditional stimuli (USs) and no established method to measure trial-by-trial changes in the child's expectancy of the US. The present experiment used geometric shape conditional stimuli (CSs) and an unpleasant sound US with 8- to 11-year-old children. Reliable acquisition and extinction were observed with first, second, and third interval skin conductance responses, on-line expectancy judgments, and post-conditioning subjective ratings of pleasantness and arousal. The experiment confirms the novel use of an unpleasant sound of metal scraping on slate as a US in aversive conditioning with children. The methods have the potential to facilitate the ethical conduct of aversive conditioning research in children using psychophysiological, affective, and self-report expectancy measures.
对儿童厌恶式巴甫洛夫条件反射的研究有助于我们理解恐惧在发育过程中是如何习得和消退的。然而，由于在使用传统厌恶无条件刺激（USs）方面存在伦理和程序问题，且没有既定方法来测量儿童对USs预期的逐次试验变化，方法学问题阻碍了进一步的研究。本实验对8至11岁儿童使用了几何形状条件刺激（CSs）和令人不快的声音US。通过首次、第二次和第三次间隔皮肤电导反应、在线预期判断以及条件作用后的愉悦度和唤醒主观评分，观察到了可靠的习得和消退。该实验证实了在对儿童进行厌恶条件反射时，将金属在石板上刮擦的令人不快的声音作为US的新用途。这些方法有可能促进在儿童中使用心理生理学、情感和自我报告预期测量进行厌恶条件反射研究的伦理行为。
