Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, The Netherlands.
Behav Res Ther. 2011 Oct;49(10):606-13. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2011.06.005. Epub 2011 Jun 21.
We examined the effects of training to approach or avoid novel animals on fear-related responses in children. Ninety-nine primary school children (9-12 years old) were instructed to repeatedly move a manikin toward or away from pictures of novel animals. The training produced more positive self-reported attitudes for the animal that was repeatedly approached and more negative attitudes for the animal that was repeatedly avoided. After the training, children reported more fear of the avoided animal than of the approached animal. Interestingly, children showed a training-congruent confirmation bias effect on an information-seeking task. That is, they displayed a tendency to seek more positive information about the approached animal, whereas they were inclined to search for more negative information about the avoided animal. No significant training effects were observed on implicit attitudes. The finding that a simple approach-avoidance training influences children's fear-related responses and leads to biased information-seeking behaviors lends support to general theories of fear acquisition in children as well as to models that try to explain the intergenerational transmission of anxiety.
我们研究了针对新异动物的趋近或回避训练对儿童恐惧相关反应的影响。99 名小学生（9-12 岁）被指导反复将人偶向新异动物的图片移动或远离。训练使儿童对被反复趋近的动物产生更积极的自我报告态度，对被反复回避的动物产生更消极的态度。训练后，儿童报告说对回避的动物的恐惧多于对接近的动物的恐惧。有趣的是，儿童在信息寻求任务中表现出与训练一致的确认偏见效应。也就是说，他们倾向于寻找更多关于接近动物的积极信息，而倾向于寻找更多关于回避动物的消极信息。在内隐态度上没有观察到显著的训练效果。简单的趋近回避训练会影响儿童的恐惧相关反应，并导致有偏差的信息寻求行为，这为儿童恐惧习得的一般理论以及试图解释焦虑的代际传递的模型提供了支持。
