Ghent University, Faculty of Psychology, Department of Experimental-Clinical and Health Psychology, Henri Dunantlaan 2, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium.
Behav Res Ther. 2011 Mar;49(3):212-8. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2010.12.004. Epub 2010 Dec 31.
We examined whether the effect of an extinction phase can be influenced retrospectively by information about the cause of the absence of the unconditioned stimulus (US) during that phase. Participants were subjected to a differential fear conditioning procedure, followed by an extinction procedure. Afterwards, half of the participants were presented with information about a technical failure, which explained why the US had been absent during the extinction phase. The other participants received information that was unrelated to the US. During a subsequent presentation of the target conditioned stimulus (CS), only the former group of participants showed renewed anticipatory skin conductance responding and a return of US expectancy. The results are in accordance with a propositional account of associative learning and highlight the importance of retrospective reasoning as a cause of relapse after exposure therapy.
我们考察了在消退阶段，有关条件刺激（CS）缺失的非条件刺激（US）原因的信息能否对消退阶段的效果产生回溯性影响。参与者接受了差异恐惧条件作用程序，然后是消退程序。之后，一半的参与者获得了有关技术故障的信息，该信息解释了为什么在消退阶段 US 缺失。其他参与者则收到了与 US 无关的信息。在随后呈现目标条件刺激（CS）时，只有前一组参与者表现出重新的预期性皮肤电反应和 US 预期的恢复。这些结果与联想学习的命题性解释一致，并强调了回溯推理作为暴露疗法后复发的原因的重要性。
