Mertens Gaëtan, Van Dessel Pieter, De Houwer Jan
a Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology , Ghent University , Ghent , Belgium.
b Department of Clinical and Health Psychology , Utrecht University , Utrecht , the Netherlands.
Cogn Emot. 2018 Mar;32(2):341-349. doi: 10.1080/02699931.2017.1308315. Epub 2017 Mar 27.
Previous research showed that the repeated approaching of one stimulus and avoiding of another stimulus typically leads to more positive evaluations of the former stimuli. In the current study, we examined whether approach and avoidance training (AAT) effects on evaluations of neutral stimuli can be modulated by introducing a regularity between the approach-avoidance actions and a positive or negative (feared) stimulus. In an AAT task, participants repeatedly approached one neutral non-word and avoided another neutral non-word. Half of the participants also approached a negative fear-conditioned stimulus (CS+) and avoided a conditioned safe stimulus (CS-). The other half of the participants avoided the CS+ and approached the CS-. Whereas participants in the avoid CS+ condition exhibited a typical AAT effect, participants in the approach CS+ condition exhibited a reversed AAT effect (i.e. they evaluated the approached neutral non-word as more negative than the avoided non-word). These findings provide evidence for the malleability of the AAT effect when strongly valenced stimuli are approached or avoided. We discuss the practical and theoretical implications of our findings.
先前的研究表明，对一种刺激的反复趋近和对另一种刺激的回避通常会导致对前者刺激的评价更为积极。在当前的研究中，我们探究了通过在趋近-回避行为与正性或负性（恐惧）刺激之间引入一种规律性，是否能够调节趋近和回避训练（AAT）对中性刺激评价的影响。在一项AAT任务中，参与者反复趋近一个中性非单词并回避另一个中性非单词。一半的参与者还趋近一个负性恐惧条件刺激（CS+）并回避一个条件安全刺激（CS-）。另一半参与者回避CS+并趋近CS-。与回避CS+条件下的参与者表现出典型的AAT效应不同，趋近CS+条件下的参与者表现出相反的AAT效应（即他们认为被趋近的中性非单词比被回避的非单词更负面）。这些发现为当趋近或回避具有强烈效价的刺激时AAT效应的可塑性提供了证据。我们讨论了我们研究结果的实际和理论意义。
