Search

In evaluative conditioning, a neutral conditional stimulus (CS) acquires the valence of a pleasant or unpleasant unconditional stimulus (US) after the CS and US are paired (acquisition). Valence acquired by the CS can generalise to other stimuli from the same category. Presenting the CS alone can reduce evaluative conditioning (extinction), but evaluations can return after the US is presented alone (reinstatement). The current research investigated whether extinction and reinstatement generalise to other category members (generalisation stimuli, GS). In Experiment 1, evaluations generalised in acquisition after conditioning with one category exemplar, but GS evaluations were unaffected by extinction and reinstatement. In Experiment 2, we aimed to enhance generalisation by presenting multiple category exemplars during conditioning. This strengthened the generalisation of evaluations in extinction but not reinstatement. In Experiment 3, conditioning with multiple exemplars caused explicit and implicit evaluations (measured using an affective priming task) to generalise in acquisition but not in extinction or reinstatement. The acquisition and extinction of US expectancy generalised in all experiments, but the reinstatement generalised in Experiment 3 only. Overall, we found partial evidence of evaluative generalisation during extinction (but not reinstatement) and demonstrated that the extinction and reinstatement of US expectancy generalises in evaluative conditioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pairing a conditional stimulus (CS) with an aversive unconditional stimulus (US) causes negative valence and US expectancy to generalize to stimuli that are perceptually and/or conceptually similar to the CS. Past research has shown that instructing participants that the US is more likely to follow stimuli that are dissimilar to the CS reversed the generalization of US expectancy but left generalized valence unchanged. Here, we examined whether instructions about the relationship between stimuli that are perceptually similar would affect the generalization of valence. A picture of an alien (CS+) was paired with an electric stimulus, while a perceptually different alien stimulus (CS–) was presented alone. After conditioning, valence, US expectancy, and electrodermal responses generalized to different aliens that were perceptually similar (by color and shape) to the CS+ and CS–. Participants were then instructed that aliens perceptually similar to the CS+ belonged to the same group as the CS‐ and that aliens perceptually similar to the CS– belonged to the same group as the CS+. The instructions caused an elimination (but not a reversal) of generalized expectancy and valence but did not affect generalized electrodermal responses. This suggests that evaluations of generalization stimuli are sensitive to instructions about their relationship to the CS and that dissociations reported in the literature between valence and expectancy after instructions may occur due to the type of instruction used. Past research has shown that instructions about the likelihood of the unconditional stimulus occurrence affect unconditional stimulus expectancy ratings during perceptually similar generalization stimuli but do not influence evaluations. In the current study, we demonstrate that instructions that change how the conditional and generalization stimuli are related affected generalized unconditional stimulus expectancy ratings and evaluations but did not affect electrodermal responding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prepulse inhibition of perceived stimulus intensity (PPIPSI) is a phenomenon where a weak stimulus preceding a stronger one reduces the perceived intensity of the latter. Previous studies have shown that PPIPSI relies on attention and is sensitive to stimulus onset asynchrony (SOA). Longer SOAs may increase conscious awareness of the impact of gating mechanisms on perception by allowing more time for attention to be directed toward relevant processing channels. In other psychophysiological paradigms, temporal predictability improves attention to task relevant stimuli and processes. We hypothesized that temporal predictability may similarly facilitate attention being directed toward the pulse and its processing in PPIPSI. To examine this, we conducted a 2 (SOA: 90 ms, 150 ms) × 2 (predictability: low, high) experiment, where participants were tasked with comparing the perceived intensity of an acoustic pulse‐alone against one preceded by a prepulse. The relationship between PPIPSI and cortical PPI (N1‐P2 inhibition) was also investigated. Significant main effects of temporal predictability, SOA, and cortical PPI were revealed. Under high temporal predictability, both SOAs (90 and 150 ms) elicited greater PPIPSI. The findings indicate that temporal predictability enhances the timely allocation of finite attentional resources, increasing PPIPSI observations by facilitating perceptual access to the gated pulse signal. Moreover, the finding that reductions in N1‐P2 magnitude by a prepulse are associated with increased probability of the participants perceiving the pulse “with prepulse” as less intense, suggests that under various experimental conditions, the link between these cortical processes and perception is similarly engaged. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emotional conflict task measures emotional conflict resolution and adaptation, but some studies are unable to find resolution or adaptation effects using this task. We examined boundary conditions and replicability of the emotional conflict resolution and adaptation effects through secondary data analysis, systematic review, and meta-analysis of studies in the field. In our data, we were unable to fully replicate the emotional conflict resolution or adaptation effects and found that most studies using this task (n= 94) do not report analysis of emotional conflict resolution, with only 28% (n= 26) studies doing so. Our meta-analysis suggests that studies reporting emotional conflict resolution and adaptation analyses overall report significant but small effects, suggesting the effect is difficult to consistently replicate. Our meta-analysis revealed that controlling for contingency learning may impact the ability of studies to identify conflict resolution. These findings have implications for assessment and interpretation of the emotional conflict task. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extinction, the repeated presentation of a conditional stimulus (CS) without the unconditional stimulus (US), is the standard paradigm to reduce conditional responding acquired by the repeated pairing of CS and US in acquisition. However, this reduction of conditional responding is prone to relapse. In rodent fear‐conditioning, gradual extinction, the fading out of CS‐US pairings during extinction, has been shown to reduce the return of fear. The current study replicated the gradual extinction procedure in human fear conditioning and assessed whether it reduced the return of fear due to ABA renewal and reacquisition. During extinction, one group received standard extinction, a second received gradual extinction (increasing the spacing of USs presented after the 1st, 3rd, 6th, 10th, and 15th CS+ trials), and a third received reversed extinction training (decreasing the spacing of USs presented after the 1st, 6th, 10th, 13th, and 15th CS+ trials). Larger renewal and faster reacquisition of differential electrodermal responses to CS+ and CS− were expected after standard and reversed extinction than after gradual extinction training. The results were inconclusive due to the failure to find extinction of differential electrodermal responses and US expectancy ratings in both gradual and reversed extinction groups. Despite successful extinction in group standard, renewal was only observed in US expectancy. Visualization of US expectancy ratings during extinction suggested that potential identification of the US presentation patterns during extinction in the gradual and reversed groups delayed extinction learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Understanding how sensory processing demands affect the ability to ignore task‐irrelevant, loud auditory stimuli (LAS) during a task is key to performance in dynamic environments. For example, tennis players must ignore crowd noise to perform optimally. We investigated how practice affects this ability by examining the effects of delivering LASs during preparatory phase of an anticipatory timing (AT) task on the voluntary and reflexive responses in two conditions: lower and higher visual processing loads. Twenty‐four participants (mean age = 23.1, 11 females) completed the experiment. The AT task involved synchronizing a finger abduction response with the last visual stimulus item in a sequence of four Gabor grating patches briefly flashed on screen. The lower demand condition involved only this task, and the higher demand condition required processing the orientations of the patches to report changes in the final stimulus item. Our results showed that higher visual processing demands affected the release of voluntary actions, particularly in the first block of trials. When the perceptual load was lower, responses were released earlier by the LAS compared to the high‐load condition. Practice reduced these effects largely, but high perceptual load still led to earlier action release in the second block. In contrast, practice led to more apparent facilitation of eyeblink latency in the second block. These findings indicate that a simple perceptual load manipulation can impact the execution of voluntary motor actions, particularly for inexperienced participants. They also suggest distinct movement preparation influences on voluntary and involuntary actions triggered by acoustic stimuli. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Significant amounts of research have been devoted to treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the understanding of its fear and stress-related symptoms. However, current interventions are only effective in 60 % of the patient population. Allopregnanolone has become a topic of interest for PTSD due to its influences on inhibitory neurotransmission and the physiological stress response. This review explores available literature that suggests that allopregnanolone has an influence on (a) chronic stress and anxiety-like symptoms, (b) fear conditioning and contextual fear, and (c) intrusive and emotional memories. A relationship between allopregnanolone and PTSD is suggested, postulating that allopregnanolone is a potential target for the treatment of PTSD. This very exciting prospect calls for the expansion of research investigating a direct relationship between allopregnanolone and PTSD., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest None., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Emotion recognition is influenced by contextual information such as social category cues or background scenes. However, past studies yielded mixed findings regarding whether broad valence or specific emotion matches drive context effects and how multiple sources of contextual information may influence emotion recognition. To address these questions, participants were asked to categorize expressions on male and female faces posing happiness and anger and happiness and fear on pleasant and fearful backgrounds (Experiment 1, conducted in 2019), fearful and disgusted expressions on fear and disgust eliciting backgrounds (Experiment 2, conducted in 2022), and fearful and sad expressions on fear and sadness eliciting backgrounds (Experiment 3, conducted in 2022). In Experiment 1 (where stimuli varied in valence), a broad valence match effect was observed. Faster recognition of happiness than fear and anger was more pronounced in pleasant compared to fearful scenes. In Experiments 2 and 3 (where stimuli were negative in valence), specific emotion match effects were observed. Faster recognition occurred when expression and background were emotionally congruent. In Experiments 1 and 3, poser sex independently moderated emotional expression recognition speed. These results suggest that the effect of emotional scenes on facial emotion recognition is mediated by a match in valence when broad valence is task-relevant. Specific emotion matches drive context effects when participants categorize expressions of a single valence. Looking at the influence of background contexts and poser sex together suggests that these two sources of contextual information have an independent rather than an interactive influence on emotional expression recognition speed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).