Department of Psychology, Division of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University Basel, Missionsstrasse 62a, CH-4055, Basel, Switzerland.
J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry. 2011 Mar;42(1):46-53. doi: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2010.09.001. Epub 2010 Sep 21.
Fear conditionability has been found to be elevated in samples with high trait anxiety or anxiety disorders. Since these studies provide circumstantial evidence for a causal link between anxiety and conditionability we examined fear conditionability after experimental induction of anxiety in two experiments.
In Experiment 1, 60 participants were randomized to one of two film conditions inducing an anxious or happy emotional state. They subsequently underwent a differential conditioning acquisition procedure. Two pictures of faces served as conditioned stimuli (CS+ and CS-), and an electric stimulus served as aversive unconditioned stimulus (US). In Experiment 2, after similar acquisition procedure as used in Experiment 1, 90 participants watched one of three films (anxious, neutral, happy) prior to an extinction procedure. In both studies, skin conductance response (SCR) served as measure of fearful responding.
Conditioning was successful in both studies. In Experiment 1, the anxious group exhibited decreased SCRs to both CS+ and CS- during acquisition. In Experiment 2, during extinction SCRs to both CSs were highest in the anxious group, intermediate in the neutral, and lowest in the happy group.
State anxiety did not enhance conditionability during acquisition or reduce the extinction procedure. However, individuals in an anxious state show less responding during fear learning, but more responding during unlearning. Thus, our results suggest that state anxiety changes the sensitivity with which individuals react to stimuli presented in different contexts.
在具有高特质焦虑或焦虑障碍的样本中，发现恐惧条件反射性升高。由于这些研究为焦虑和条件反射性之间存在因果关系提供了间接证据，因此我们在两项实验中在实验诱导焦虑后检查了恐惧条件反射性。
在实验 1 中，将 60 名参与者随机分配到两种引发焦虑或快乐情绪状态的电影条件之一。随后，他们接受了差异条件反射获得程序。两张人脸图片作为条件刺激（CS+和 CS-），电刺激作为厌恶的非条件刺激（US）。在实验 2 中，在与实验 1 中使用的类似获得程序之后，90 名参与者在进行消退程序之前观看了三部电影之一（焦虑、中性、快乐）。在这两项研究中，皮肤电反应（SCR）作为恐惧反应的测量指标。
两项研究中的条件反射均成功。在实验 1 中，焦虑组在获得过程中对 CS+和 CS-的 SCR 均降低。在实验 2 中，在消退过程中，焦虑组的 CS 对 SCR 最高，中性组次之，快乐组最低。
状态焦虑并未增强获得过程中的条件反射性或减少消退程序。然而，处于焦虑状态的个体在恐惧学习期间反应较少，但在去学习期间反应较多。因此，我们的结果表明，状态焦虑改变了个体对不同背景下呈现的刺激的反应敏感性。
