LaFreniere Lucas S, Newman Michelle G
Department of Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University.
Clin Psychol Sci. 2019 May;7(3):502-515. doi: 10.1177/2167702618809366. Epub 2018 Nov 19.
This experiment examined learning tendencies in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) using reinforcement feedback for probabilistic outcomes. One hundred sixty-six GAD and 105 non-GAD participants were randomized to a computerized probabilistic learning task that used either negative or positive reinforcement. Participants chose between stimuli with specific probabilities of reinforcement to learn which of each pair had the highest probability. Reinforced choices either removed an angry face (negative reinforcement) or made a happy face appear (positive reinforcement). Results showed that those with GAD learned the correct probabilistic choices at a slower rate over time and to a lesser degree than control participants regardless of reinforcement type. Estimations of the likelihood of receiving a good outcome posttask were also more inaccurate for those with GAD, especially when true likelihoods were high. Furthermore, compared with control participants, those with GAD reported lower perceived reinforcement sensitivity, higher behavioral inhibition sensitivity, and higher undesirable feelings toward probabilistic learning.
本实验使用概率性结果的强化反馈来研究广泛性焦虑障碍（GAD）中的学习倾向。166名广泛性焦虑障碍患者和105名非广泛性焦虑障碍参与者被随机分配到一个使用负性或正性强化的计算机化概率学习任务中。参与者在具有特定强化概率的刺激之间进行选择，以了解每对刺激中哪一个具有最高概率。强化选择要么移除一张愤怒的脸（负性强化），要么使一张开心的脸出现（正性强化）。结果表明，无论强化类型如何，广泛性焦虑障碍患者随着时间的推移学习正确概率选择的速度比对照组参与者慢，程度也更低。对于广泛性焦虑障碍患者来说，任务后对获得良好结果可能性的估计也更不准确，尤其是当真实可能性较高时。此外，与对照组参与者相比，广泛性焦虑障碍患者报告的感知强化敏感性较低、行为抑制敏感性较高，以及对概率学习的不良感受较高。
