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Safe from harm: Learned, instructed, and symbolic generalization pathways of human threat-avoidance

Simon Dymond Orcid Logo, Michael W Schlund, Bryan Roche, Jan De Houwer, Gary Freegard

PLoS ONE, Volume: 7(10): e47539, Pages: 1 - 8

Swansea University Authors: Simon Dymond Orcid Logo, Gary Freegard

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DOI (Published version): 10.1371/journal.pone.0047539

Abstract

Avoidance of threatening or unpleasant events is usually an adaptive behavioural strategy. Sometimes, however, avoidance can become chronic and lead to impaired daily functioning. Excessive threat-avoidance is a central diagnostic feature of anxiety disorders, yet little is known about whether avoid...

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Published in: PLoS ONE
ISSN: 1932-6203
Published: 2012
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa12909
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spelling 2015-05-14T12:44:20.2808803 v2 12909 2012-09-26 Safe from harm: Learned, instructed, and symbolic generalization pathways of human threat-avoidance 8ed0024546f2588fdb0073a7d6fbc075 0000-0003-1319-4492 Simon Dymond Simon Dymond true false dfc0c01fbf9bbcf181cdade18bee8fea Gary Freegard Gary Freegard true false 2012-09-26 HPS Avoidance of threatening or unpleasant events is usually an adaptive behavioural strategy. Sometimes, however, avoidance can become chronic and lead to impaired daily functioning. Excessive threat-avoidance is a central diagnostic feature of anxiety disorders, yet little is known about whether avoidance acquired in the absence of a direct history of conditioning with a fearful event differs from directly learned avoidance. In the present study, we tested whether avoidance acquired indirectly via verbal instructions and symbolic generalization result in similar levels of avoidance behaviour and threat-beliefs to avoidance acquired after direct learning. Following fear conditioning in which one conditioned stimulus was paired with shock (CS+) and another was not (CS-), participants either learned or were instructed to make a response that cancelled impending shock. Three groups were then tested with a learned CS+ and CS- (learned group), instructed CS+ (instructed group), and generalized CS+ (derived group) presentations. Results showed similar levels of avoidance behaviour and threat-belief ratings about the likelihood of shock across each of the three pathways despite the different mechanisms by which they were acquired. Findings have implications for understanding the aetiology of clinical avoidance in anxiety. Journal Article PLoS ONE 7(10): e47539 1 8 1932-6203 threat, avoidance, fear conditioning, instructions, symbolic generalization, pathways 31 12 2012 2012-12-31 10.1371/journal.pone.0047539 COLLEGE NANME Psychology COLLEGE CODE HPS Swansea University 2015-05-14T12:44:20.2808803 2012-09-26T17:59:56.5263821 Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences School of Psychology Simon Dymond 0000-0003-1319-4492 1 Michael W Schlund 2 Bryan Roche 3 Jan De Houwer 4 Gary Freegard 5
title Safe from harm: Learned, instructed, and symbolic generalization pathways of human threat-avoidance
spellingShingle Safe from harm: Learned, instructed, and symbolic generalization pathways of human threat-avoidance
Simon Dymond
Gary Freegard
title_short Safe from harm: Learned, instructed, and symbolic generalization pathways of human threat-avoidance
title_full Safe from harm: Learned, instructed, and symbolic generalization pathways of human threat-avoidance
title_fullStr Safe from harm: Learned, instructed, and symbolic generalization pathways of human threat-avoidance
title_full_unstemmed Safe from harm: Learned, instructed, and symbolic generalization pathways of human threat-avoidance
title_sort Safe from harm: Learned, instructed, and symbolic generalization pathways of human threat-avoidance
author_id_str_mv 8ed0024546f2588fdb0073a7d6fbc075
dfc0c01fbf9bbcf181cdade18bee8fea
author_id_fullname_str_mv 8ed0024546f2588fdb0073a7d6fbc075_***_Simon Dymond
dfc0c01fbf9bbcf181cdade18bee8fea_***_Gary Freegard
author Simon Dymond
Gary Freegard
author2 Simon Dymond
Michael W Schlund
Bryan Roche
Jan De Houwer
Gary Freegard
format Journal article
container_title PLoS ONE
container_volume 7(10): e47539
container_start_page 1
publishDate 2012
institution Swansea University
issn 1932-6203
doi_str_mv 10.1371/journal.pone.0047539
college_str Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
department_str School of Psychology{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Psychology
document_store_str 0
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description Avoidance of threatening or unpleasant events is usually an adaptive behavioural strategy. Sometimes, however, avoidance can become chronic and lead to impaired daily functioning. Excessive threat-avoidance is a central diagnostic feature of anxiety disorders, yet little is known about whether avoidance acquired in the absence of a direct history of conditioning with a fearful event differs from directly learned avoidance. In the present study, we tested whether avoidance acquired indirectly via verbal instructions and symbolic generalization result in similar levels of avoidance behaviour and threat-beliefs to avoidance acquired after direct learning. Following fear conditioning in which one conditioned stimulus was paired with shock (CS+) and another was not (CS-), participants either learned or were instructed to make a response that cancelled impending shock. Three groups were then tested with a learned CS+ and CS- (learned group), instructed CS+ (instructed group), and generalized CS+ (derived group) presentations. Results showed similar levels of avoidance behaviour and threat-belief ratings about the likelihood of shock across each of the three pathways despite the different mechanisms by which they were acquired. Findings have implications for understanding the aetiology of clinical avoidance in anxiety.
published_date 2012-12-31T03:14:49Z
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score 11.013082

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