Inferred threat and safety: Symbolic generalization of human avoidance learning

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2011.06.007Get rights and content

Abstract

Symbolic generalization of avoidance may underlie the aetiology and maintenance of anxiety disorders. The aim of the present study was to demonstrate inferred threat-avoidance and safety (non-avoidance) behaviours that occur in the presence of stimuli indirectly related to learned threat and safety cues. A laboratory experiment was conducted involving two symbolic stimulus equivalence relations consisting of three physically dissimilar stimuli (avoidance cues: AV1–AV2–AV3 and neutral cues: N1–N2–N3). During avoidance learning involving aversive images and sounds, a key-press avoidance response was trained for one member of one of the relations (AV2) and non-avoidance for another (N2). Inferred threat and safety behaviour and ratings of the likelihood of aversive events were tested with presentations of all remaining stimuli. Findings showed a significantly high percentage of avoidance to both the learned and inferred threat cues and less avoidance to both the learned and inferred safety cues. Ratings in the absence of avoidance were high during training and testing to threat cues and low to safety cues and were generally lower in the presence of avoidance. Implications for associative and behavioural accounts of avoidance, and modern therapies for anxiety disorders are discussed.

Highlights

► Symbolic generalization of avoidance may underlie the aetiology and maintenance of anxiety. ► We demonstrate avoidance of directly learned and indirectly related stimuli. ► Findings have implications for behavioural accounts of anxiety.

Section snippets

Participants

Twenty-one undergraduates were recruited from the student population of Swansea University and reimbursed with either £6 or partial course credit on completion of the study.

Apparatus

A computer program written in Visual Basic® 6.0 controlled all stimulus presentations and recorded all responses. Six nonsense words comprised the sample and comparison stimuli used during stimulus equivalence training and testing (i.e., JOM, CUG, VEK, BEH, PAF, ZID). Stimuli were presented in capitals, in uppercase bold

Results

During Phase 1, participants required a mean of 46.9 (SD = 42.8) training trials to meet criterion and a mean of 3.0 (SD = 2.7) cycles to pass the equivalence test.

Fig. 2 shows the percentage of trials in which participants chose to avoid learned threat and safety cues during training (Phase 2) and inferred threat and safety cues during testing (Phase 3). In general and consistent with our predictions, avoidance behaviour was high to learned and tested threat cues and low to learned and tested

Discussion

The present experiment provided evidence of the indirect control of avoidance behaviour and ratings in a laboratory model of inferred threat and safety learning. Following the emergence of two equivalence relations each consisting of three stimuli (AV1–AV2–AV3 and N1–N2–N3), threat-avoidance was trained for one member of one of the relations (AV2) and safety (non-avoidance) for another (N2). Then, inferred threat-avoidance and safety behaviour and US expectancies were tested with presentations

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to both the reviewers and Jan De Houwer for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this article.

References (53)

  • S.J. Rachman

    The conditioning theory of fear acquisition: a critical examination

    Behaviour Research and Therapy

    (1977)
  • S. Rachman et al.

    Safety behaviour: a reconsideration

    Behaviour Research and Therapy

    (2008)
  • P.M. Salkovskis et al.

    An experimental investigation of the role of safety-seeking behaviours in the maintenance of panic disorder with agoraphobia

    Behaviour Research and Therapy

    (1999)
  • M.W. Schlund et al.

    Amygdala involvement in human avoidance, escape and approach behaviour

    NeuroImage

    (2010)
  • M.W. Schlund et al.

    Nothing to fear? Neural systems supporting avoidance behaviour in healthy youths

    NeuroImage

    (2010)
  • B. Vervliet et al.

    Fear generalization in humans: impact of prior non-fearful experiences

    Behaviour Research and Therapy

    (2010)
  • D.S. Blough

    Steady state data and quantitative model of operant generalization and discrimination

    Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes

    (1975)
  • M.E. Bouton et al.

    A modern learning theory perspective on the etiology of panic disorder

    Psychological Review

    (2001)
  • M.M. Bradley et al.

    International affective digitized sounds (IADS): Stimuli, instruction manual and affective ratings

    (1999)
  • J. De Houwer

    Why the cognitive approach in psychology would profit from a functional approach and vice versa

    Perspectives on Psychological Science

    (2011)
  • M. Declercq et al.

    On the role of US expectancies in avoidance behaviour

    Psychonomic Bulletin & Review

    (2008)
  • M. Declercq et al.

    Evidence for a hierarchical structure underlying avoidance behaviour

    Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes

    (2009)
  • M.J. Dougher et al.

    The transfer of respondent eliciting and extinction functions through stimulus equivalence classes

    Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior

    (1994)
  • M.J. Dougher et al.

    Transformation of the discriminative and eliciting functions of generalized relational stimuli

    Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior

    (2007)
  • J.E. Dunsmoor et al.

    Generalization of conditioned fear along a dimension of increasing fear intensity

    Learning & Memory

    (2009)
  • J.E. Dunsmoor et al.

    Conceptual similarity promotes generalization of higher-order learning

    Learning & Memory

    (2011)
  • Cited by (0)

    View full text