Bennett Marc, Vervoort Ellen, Boddez Yannick, Hermans Dirk, Baeyens Frank
Centre for Learning and Experimental Psychopathology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Leuven, Tiensestraat 102 - Box 3712, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
Centre for Learning and Experimental Psychopathology, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Leuven, Tiensestraat 102 - Box 3712, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry. 2015 Sep;48:149-55. doi: 10.1016/j.jbtep.2015.03.011. Epub 2015 Apr 1.
Learned fear can generalize to neutral events due their perceptual and conceptual similarity with threat relevant stimuli. This study simultaneously examined these forms of generalization to model the expansion of fear in anxiety disorders.
First, artificial categories involving sounds, nonsense words and animal-like objects were established. Next, the words from one category were paired with threatening information while the words from the other category were paired with safety information. Lastly, we examined if fear generalized to (i) the conceptually related animal-like objects and (ii) other animal like-objects that were perceptually similar. This was measured using behavioral avoidance, US expectancy ratings and self-reported stimulus valence.
Animal-like objects conceptually connected to the aversive words evoked heightened fear. Perceptual variants of these animal-like objects also elicit fear.
Future research would benefit from the use of online-US expectancy ratings and physiological measures of fear.
Investigating the role of both perceptual and conceptual fear generalization is important to better understand the etiology of anxiety disorders symptoms.
习得性恐惧可因与威胁相关刺激在感知和概念上的相似性而泛化至中性事件。本研究同时考察了这些泛化形式，以模拟焦虑症中恐惧的扩展。
首先，建立涉及声音、无意义词汇和类动物物体的人工类别。其次，将一个类别的词汇与威胁信息配对，而将另一个类别的词汇与安全信息配对。最后，我们考察恐惧是否泛化至（i）概念上相关的类动物物体，以及（ii）其他在感知上相似的类动物物体。这通过行为回避、预期电击评分和自我报告的刺激效价来衡量。
与厌恶词汇在概念上相关的类动物物体引发了更高的恐惧。这些类动物物体的感知变体也引发恐惧。
未来研究若使用在线预期电击评分和恐惧的生理测量方法将有所助益。
研究感知和概念性恐惧泛化的作用对于更好地理解焦虑症症状的病因很重要。
