Leiden University Institute for Psychological Research, Clinical Health and Neuropsychology Unit, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Behav Res Ther. 2009 Oct;47(10):840-7. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2009.06.015. Epub 2009 Jul 4.
Fear conditioning studies have shown that social anxiety is associated with enhanced expectancy of aversive outcome. However, the relation between cognitive expectancy and social anxiety has never been tested in avoidance conditioning paradigms. We compared 48 low (LSA) and high socially anxious individuals (HSA) on subjective expectancy of aversive outcome during an avoidance conditioning task. Displays of neutral faces were coupled with an aversive outcome (US): a shout and a shock. Participants could avoid the US by pressing a correct button from a button box. First, HSA showed higher US expectancy than LSA during the initial phase of avoidance conditioning, supporting the view that socially anxious individuals have an expectancy bias when social situations are ambiguous. Second, when the avoidance response became unavailable, LSA showed lower US expectancy than HSA, suggesting that low socially anxious individuals are prone to a positive bias when perceived threat is high. A lack of such positive bias in socially anxious individuals may lead to higher susceptibility to safety behavior interpretations. Together, these findings support the role of cognitive processes in avoidance conditioning and underscore the relevance to encounter avoidance learning when studying social anxiety.
恐惧条件反射研究表明，社交焦虑与对不愉快结果的预期增强有关。然而，在回避条件反射范式中，认知预期与社交焦虑之间的关系从未被测试过。我们在回避条件反射任务中比较了 48 名低社交焦虑个体（LSA）和高社交焦虑个体（HSA）对不愉快结果的主观预期。中性面孔的展示与不愉快的结果（US）相关联：一声喊叫和一次电击。参与者可以通过按下按钮盒中的正确按钮来避免 US。首先，在回避条件反射的初始阶段，HSA 比 LSA 表现出更高的 US 预期，这支持了社交焦虑个体在社交情境不确定时存在预期偏差的观点。其次，当回避反应不可用时，LSA 比 HSA 表现出更低的 US 预期，这表明当感知到的威胁很高时，低社交焦虑个体更容易产生积极偏见。社交焦虑个体缺乏这种积极偏见可能会导致他们更容易对安全行为做出解释。总之，这些发现支持了认知过程在回避条件反射中的作用，并强调了在研究社交焦虑时，回避学习的相关性。
