Borg Charmaine, Bosman Renske C, Engelhard Iris, Olatunji Bunmi O, de Jong Peter J
a Department of Clinical Psychology and Experimental Psychopathology , University of Groningen , Groningen , the Netherlands.
b Department of Clinical and Health Psychology , University of Utrecht , Utrecht , the Netherlands.
Cogn Emot. 2016;30(4):669-86. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2015.1022512. Epub 2015 Mar 30.
Earlier studies provided preliminary support for the role of classical conditioning as a pathway of disgust learning, yet this evidence has been limited to self-report. This study included facial electromyographical (EMG) measurements (corrugator and levator muscles) and a behavioural approach task to assess participants' motivation-to-eat the actual food items (conditioned stimuli, CS). Food items served as CS and film excerpts of a woman vomiting served as unconditioned stimuli (US). Following acquisition the CS+ (neutral CS paired with US disgust) was rated as more disgusting and less positive. Notably, the conditioned response was transferred to the actual food items as evidenced by participants' reported lowered willingness-to-eat. Participants also showed heightened EMG activity in response to the CS+ which seemed driven by the corrugator indexing a global negative affect. These findings suggest that classical conditioning as a pathway of disgust learning can be reliably observed in subjective but not in disgust-specific physiological responding.
早期研究为经典条件作用作为厌恶学习的一条途径的作用提供了初步支持，但这一证据仅限于自我报告。本研究包括面部肌电图（EMG）测量（皱眉肌和提上唇肌）以及一项行为趋近任务，以评估参与者对实际食物项目（条件刺激，CS）的进食动机。食物项目作为条件刺激，一名女性呕吐的电影片段作为无条件刺激（US）。习得后，CS+（与US厌恶配对的中性CS）被评为更令人厌恶且积极性更低。值得注意的是，条件反应转移到了实际食物项目上，参与者报告的进食意愿降低就证明了这一点。参与者对CS+的反应也表现出增强的EMG活动，这似乎是由皱眉肌指示的整体负面情绪驱动的。这些发现表明，作为厌恶学习途径的经典条件作用可以在主观层面可靠地观察到，但在特定于厌恶的生理反应中却观察不到。
