Centre for the Psychology of Learning and Experimental Psychopathology, University of Leuven, Belgium.
Centre for the Psychology of Learning and Experimental Psychopathology, University of Leuven, Belgium.
J Anxiety Disord. 2014 Dec;28(8):747-53. doi: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2014.09.006. Epub 2014 Sep 16.
The identification of premorbid markers of risk for psychopathology is one of the most important challenges for present-day psychiatric research. This study focuses on behavioral vulnerability factors that contribute to the development of anxiety. Little is known about the role of aversive learning and generalization in the development of pathological anxiety. In this study, a large student sample (N=375) completed a differential aversive learning task followed by a test of generalization. Anxiety was assessed at that moment and after a six-month follow-up. Results showed that both predictors (discrimination learning and generalization) added significantly to the explained variance in anxiety symptomatology at follow-up. These results highlight the importance of longitudinal designs and indicate that screening for individual differences in aversive learning and generalization may foster prediction of anxiety disorders, paving the way for targeted prevention.
识别精神病理学风险的发病前标志物是当今精神医学研究的最重要挑战之一。本研究专注于导致焦虑发展的行为脆弱性因素。对于厌恶学习和泛化在病理性焦虑发展中的作用知之甚少。在这项研究中，一个大型学生样本（N=375）完成了差异厌恶学习任务，随后进行了泛化测试。在那一刻以及六个月的随访后评估了焦虑。结果表明，两个预测因子（辨别学习和泛化）在随访时对焦虑症状学的解释方差有显著的附加作用。这些结果强调了纵向设计的重要性，并表明对厌恶学习和泛化的个体差异进行筛查可能有助于预测焦虑障碍，为有针对性的预防铺平道路。
