Type
Text
Type
Dissertation
Advisor
Hajcak, Greg | Freitas, Antonio | Moyer, Anne | Lissek, Shmuel.
Date
2012-05-01
Keywords
Psychology | anxiety, classical conditioning, extinction, fear, generalization, startle
Department
Department of Social/Health Psychology
Language
en_US
Source
This work is sponsored by the Stony Brook University Graduate School in compliance with the requirements for completion of degree.
Identifier
http://hdl.handle.net/11401/71209
Publisher
The Graduate School, Stony Brook University: Stony Brook, NY.
Format
application/pdf
Abstract
It is well established that fear conditioning plays a role in the development and maintenance of anxiety disorders. Moreover, abnormalities in fear generalization, extinction learning, and extinction recall have also been associated with anxiety. However, no study to date has examined extinction learning or extinction recall using a generalization task. Hence, in the present study, participants were shocked following a CS+ and were also presented with stimuli that ranged in perceptual similarity to the CS+ (i.e. | 20, 40, or 60% smaller or larger than the CS+) during a fear generalization phase. Participants were also presented with the same stimuli during an extinction learning phase and an extinction recall phase one week later; no shocks were presented during extinction learning or recall. Lastly, participants completed self-report measures of anxiety and worry. Results indicated that fear potentiated startle (FPS) to the CS+ and CS??20% shapes was present in generalization and extinction learning, suggesting that fear generalization persisted into extinction. FPS to the CS+ was also evident one week later during extinction recall. Hence, fear may be more resistant to extinction in generalization paradigms, where there is ambiguity regarding the CS+. In addition, higher levels of worry were associated with greater FPS to the CS+ during generalization and extinction learning phases. Moreover, individuals high in worry had fear response gradients that were steeper during both generalization and extinction learning. This suggests that high levels of worry (characteristic of generalized anxiety disorder) are associated with greater discriminative fear conditioning to threatening compared to safe stimuli but less fear generalization to perceptually similar stimuli. | 54 pages
Recommended Citation
Dunning, Jonathan Paul, "Gradients of Fear Potentiated Startle During Generalization, Extinction, and Extinction Recall, and Their Relations with Worry" (2012). Stony Brook Theses and Dissertations Collection, 2006-2020 (closed to submissions). 415.
https://commons.library.stonybrook.edu/stony-brook-theses-and-dissertations-collection/415