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Contains fulltext : 284955.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) Background and objectives: Imagery rescripting (ImRs) is a promising therapeutic technique used in treatment for a variety of psychiatric disorders. During an ImRs session, an aversive disorder-related memory, is activated in imagination and rescripted to a more positive outcome. It has been shown to successfully weaken the negative cognitive meaning, so-called encapsulated beliefs of the targeted aversive memory. In many studies, ImRs is preceded by a cognitive restructuring (CR) technique focused on the encapsulated belief of the target memory. It is not clear whether adding such a CR technique is necessary or that ImRs as standalone technique can achieve comparable effects. Methods: Students with mild psychological distress (N = 53) were randomized over one session of cognitive restructuring plus imagery rescripting (CR + ImRs), a therapist attention placebo plus imagery rescripting (PLA + ImRs) and a double therapist attention placebo (PLA + PLA). Believability of the idiosyncratic encapsulated belief (primary outcome) and quality (vividness, distress and emotional connotation: secondary outcome) of the target memory were assessed at pre, post and at 1-week follow-up. Results: Results indicate that both, CR + ImRs and PLA + ImRs, reduced the believability of the encapsulated beliefs in greater extent than PLA + PLA. No differences appeared between the two ImRs conditions. For the secondary outcomes no differences between the three conditions were found. Limitations This study should be seen as a pilot study, moreover a non-clinical sample was used. Conclusion: Findings suggest that a CR technique preceding ImRs is redundant. However, this study needs replication in a larger sample. 7 p.

The current experiment investigated whether counter-attitudinal information can alter a pre-existing attitude and the accompanying confirmation bias. Sixty-three non-clinical children (9–12 years) were shown pictures of a positive animal (quokka) or a dangerous-looking animal (aye aye). For both animals attitudes and information seeking patterns were obtained. Next, they received counter-attitudinal information of each animal; attitudes and seeking patterns were reassessed. We found that the aye aye was perceived as more dangerous and less kind compared to the quokka. A negative confirmation bias was observed for the aye aye, more negative than positive or neutral information was requested. For the quokka this pattern was absent, more positive and negative than neutral information was selected. The counter-attitudinal information decreased the scariness of the aye aye, but did marginally alter that of the quokka. Additionally, for the aye aye counter-attitudinal information increased search for positive and neutral information and decreased search for negative information. For the quokka the counter-attitudinal information only increased search for neutral information. The animals no longer differed from each other and no clear confirmation bias patterns were present. These results indicate that it is possible to change pre-existing values and their accompanying information search patterns.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a chronic health condition exacerbated by negative emotional stress experiences. In the current study, we examined whether the outbreak of the COVID‐19 pandemic coincided with an increase in stress experiences and accordingly an aggravation of disease activity in IBD patients. Sixty‐three IBD patients (30 Crohn's disease or CD, 33 ulcerative colitis) completed an online survey during the COVID‐19‐related lockdown, assessing clinical disease activity, disease‐related quality of life, presence of functional gastrointestinal symptoms, social isolation and stress experiences. Scores were then compared to pre‐lockdown baseline screening. The pandemic yielded a significant baseline‐to‐lockdown increase in emotional stress and social isolation. Stress increments, particularly those occasioned by interpersonal tension and excessive interpersonal proximity, were associated with a worsening of functional gastrointestinal symptoms. Exacerbations of loneliness coincided with an escalation of CD activity, functional gastrointestinal symptoms and a decline in subjective health. Lastly, COVID‐19 anxiety was significantly related to CD symptom severity and social dysfunction. The findings show that shifts in IBD expression are closely linked to changes in emotional stress experiences and interpersonal relatedness. As such, they contribute to a better understanding of inter‐individual differences in IBD progression and provide leads for therapeutic interventions.

Acute stress has been found to impair the flexible updating of stimulus-outcome associations. However, there is a lack of studies investigating the effect of acute stress on the flexible updating of stimulus-response associations, like active avoidance responses. The current study used an avoidance reversal learning paradigm to address this question. Sixty-one participants learned that a red dot was associated with an aversive sound, whereas a green dot was not (Pavlovian Acquisition phase). Next, they were trained to avoid the aversive stimulus by selectively pressing a button in response to the red, but not the green, dot (Avoidance Acquisition phase). Subsequently, participants either underwent a stress induction task or a no-stress control task. The flexible updating of expectancies of the US and avoidance responses were assessed after reversal of the original contingencies (Reversal Test). Acute stress did not impair the flexible updating of avoidance responses during the Reversal Test. In contrast, results showed that in the stress group the expectancies of the aversive sound were more in accordance with the reversed contingencies compared to the ratings of control participants. Additionally, cortisol responders avoided less often in comparison to cortisol non-responders. Increased noradrenergic activity in stressed participants was related to impairments in the flexible updating of avoidance responses after contingency reversal, while this association was absent in the control participants. In conclusion, our results suggest that the autonomic response might account for shifting the balance towards inflexible updating of stimulus-outcome awareness while stress does not impair flexible updating of avoidance responses.

Fruit and vegetable consumption is worldwide too low, resulting in poor diet quality and health-related problems. A cognitive factor that might contribute to this low consumption is confirmation bias. Confirmation bias has been established in anxiety research and comprises the tendency to search for reinforcing negative information, while ignoring counter attitudinal information. If applicable to food, asking for negative food information reinforces the negative attitude and decreases the willingness to try (novel) food. The aim of the current study was twofold. First, to examine if confirmation bias translates to food stimuli. Second, to investigate if this bias is exaggerated in persons with higher levels of food neophobia. To this end, 117 participants (age M = 21.45, SD = 4.48) carried out an online study. They filled in the food neophobia scale (FNS) and performed a search for additional information scale (SAIS) task. Four novel fruits were used, two looking tasteful (pomelo and rose apple) and two looking non-tasteful (black sapote and noni fruit). Participants rated their willingness to eat these fruits and subsequently could indicate how eager they were to receive positive or negative information regarding that fruit. The results indicated that the participants were more willing to try the tasteful looking fruits than the non-tasteful. Additionally, higher levels of food neophobia coincided with less willingness to eat all fruits. Confirmation bias was observed, more negative information was requested for the non-tasteful than for the tasteful fruits. This bias was not related to levels of food neophobia. These results are important as confirmation bias might make people even more negative towards novel foods and could contribute to even less fruit and vegetable consumption, especially when they look less appetizing.

Purpose - In order to effectively feign post‐traumatic stress disorder, a person needs to confabulate an exposure narrative and to fabricate symptoms of high distress. The Verifiability Approach (VA) is a lie‐detection method based on the notion that truth tellers’ narratives include more verifiable (checkable) information than liars’ narratives. The Self‐Report Symptom Inventory (SRSI) is a measure of over‐reporting, and it includes genuine symptoms and pseudosymptoms that are likely to be endorsed in fabricated symptom reports. In this study, we examined whether the VA can help discriminate the fabricated exposure narratives, and whether the SRSI can aid screening for symptom over‐reporting.Method - One group of participants (truth tellers) witnessed a vehicle crash scene using the Virtual Reality paradigm (n = 22), while the other group (feigners) was instructed to fabricate such an experience (n = 46). All the participants wrote the exposure narratives and completed the SRSI.Results - Feigners produced non‐verifiable (vague) and lengthier narratives than truth tellers, who reported a higher proportion of checkable information. Regarding the symptom reports, feigners endorsed more of trauma‐related genuine symptoms and pseudosymptoms than truth tellers.Conclusion - The non‐verifiable details and the proportion of verifiable details, together with the SRSI subscales, can assist explaining the reporting strategies of those feigning negative exposures.

Research has demonstrated the spreading of fear from threat-related stimuli to perceptually similar, but innocuous, stimuli. Less is known, however, about the generalization of avoidance behavior. Given that stress is known to affect learning and memory, we were interested in the effect of acute stress on (over)generalization of fear and avoidance responses. On the first day, one geometrical shape was paired with a mild electrical stimulus (CS+), whereas another shape was not (CS-). One day later, after participants had been exposed to the Maastricht Acute Stress Test or a control task, generalization of avoidance responses and fear (shock expectancy and skin conductance responses) was tested to a range of perceptual generalization stimuli. Generalization gradients were observed across different outcome measures. Stress enhanced generalization of shock expectancy to the stimulus most similar to the CS+. Our findings confirm that stress can affect the generalization of fear, but further studies are warranted. ispartof: BIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY vol:164 ispartof: location:Netherlands status: published

Anxiety patients often experience conflicts between approaching (pass barking dog) and avoiding (take detour) feared situations. In most experimental avoidance paradigms, response options are limited or forced, making it difficult to generalize the results to daily life situations. The aim of the present study was twofold: 1) to develop a more ecologically valid avoidance paradigm; 2) to examine the influence of individual characteristics (trait anxiety; distress tolerance) on approach-avoidance behaviour. To encourage free exploration behaviour, a virtual reality (VR) escape room was developed. In this room, participants searched for cues to decipher a code-locked door. Opening a marked vase (conditioned stimulus, CS) was followed by a jump scare, a rat jumping out of the vase (unconditioned stimulus, US). Avoidance was measured via questionnaires and relative manipulation time of CS-marked (EXPgen) or nonmarked (CONT) objects in the room; questionnaires measured trait anxiety and distress tolerance. EXPgen participants reported higher US expectancies and more avoidance of the (marked) vase compared to the CONT participants, yet behavioural data did not support these ratings. Additionally, higher trait anxiety scores coincided with higher US expectancies before the jump scare. The current flexible free-exploratory paradigm provides multiple opportunities to examine avoidance behaviour in different populations and settings.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Most people are exposed to a violent or life-threatening situation during their lives, but only a minority develops a stress-related disorder. To examine risk factors for the development of stress-related symptoms, such as intrusions and avoidance, analogue trauma studies are necessary. The often-used trauma film paradigm has proven to be valuable to examine intrusions, but inherently to its technique is less suitable for assessing behavioral avoidance, a core symptom of stress-related disorders. The aim of the present study was twofold, first to further develop an analogue that explicitly addresses behavioral avoidance and second, to link previously-established risk factors for the development of stress-related symptoms.METHOD: Eighty-two healthy participants were subjected to a trauma induction using virtual reality (VR). At follow-up, participants were placed in a similar VR environment and could approach or avoid the trauma-scene, a trauma-related scene or a neutral, unrelated scene. Several pre- and peri-trauma risk factors were measured.RESULTS: The VR paradigm increased negative mood and heart rate, decreased positive mood and heart rate variability, and resulted in stress-related symptoms as trauma-related thoughts and beliefs, intrusions and avoidance behavior. The most prominent risk factors that contributed to the stress-related symptoms were negative emotions during the trauma induction, trait anxiety, and avoidant coping strategies.LIMITATIONS: The stress-related symptoms were mild, resulting in a vast amount of participants without intrusions and limited avoidance behavior.CONCLUSION: The current VR paradigm can elicit stress-related symptoms, including avoidance; risk factors contributing to these symptoms were similar to those observed in clinical research, indicating the potential of the general set up.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: It is assumed that fear responses can be altered by changing the contingency between a conditioned stimulus (CS) and an unconditioned stimulus (US), or by devaluing the present mental representation of the US. The aim of the present study was to compare the efficacy of contingency- and devaluation-based intervention techniques on the diminishment in - and return of fear. We hypothesized that extinction (EXT, contingency-based) would outperform devaluation-based techniques regarding contingency measures, but that devaluation-based techniques would be most effective in reducing the mental representation of the US. Additionally, we expected that incorporations of the US during devaluation would result in less reinstatement of the US averseness.METHODS: Healthy participants received a fear conditioning paradigm followed by one of three interventions: extinction (EXT, contingency-based), imagery rescripting (ImRs, devaluation-based) or eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR, devaluation-based). A reinstatement procedure and test followed the next day.RESULTS: EXT was indeed most successful in diminishing contingency-based US expectancies and skin conductance responses (SCRs), but all interventions were equally successful in reducing the averseness of the mental US representation. After reinstatement EXT showed lowest expectancies and SCRs; no differences were observed between the conditions concerning the mental US representation.LIMITATIONS: A partial reinforcement schedule was used, resulting in a vast amount of contingency unaware participants. Additionally, a non-clinical sample was used, which may limit the generalizability to clinical populations.CONCLUSION: EXT is most effective in reducing conditioned fear responses.

Background and aims Interpreting pain- and illness-related stimuli as health-threatening is common among chronic pain patients but also occurs in the general population. As interpretation bias (IB) may affect pain perception and might even play part in the development and maintenance of chronic pain, it is important to improve our understanding of this concept. Several studies suggest an association between IB and pain-related anxiety. However, those studies often rely on verbal and pictorial IB tasks that do not entail a threat of actual pain, therefore lacking personal relevance for healthy participants. The current study investigated whether healthy individuals show an IB towards ambiguous health-related stimuli in a context of actual pain threat, and explored whether this bias is associated to pain anxiety constructs. Methods Thirty-six healthy participants were conditioned to expect painful electrocutaneous shocks (unconditioned stimulus – US) after health-threat words (CS+) but not after neutral (non-health-threat) words (CS−) in order to establish fear of pain. Subsequently, they completed a verbal interpretation task that contained new CS+ and CS− stimuli as well as ambiguous non-reinforced health-threat and non-health-threat words. IB was assessed through shock expectancy ratings and startle responses to ambiguous and evident health threatening or neutral word stimuli. Pain-related anxiety was measured with validated questionnaires. Results The results show a general IB towards ambiguous health-related words on pain expectancies but not on startle response. An exploratory analysis suggests that this effect exists irrespective of pain-related anxiety levels which however may be due to a lack of power. Conclusion We present a novel experimental paradigm employing actual health threat that captures IB towards health-related stimuli in healthy individuals. Taken together, results provide evidence for the further consideration of IB as a latent vulnerability factor in the onset and maintenance of pain chronicity. In contrast to previous studies employing a safe, pain-free context, we found that healthy participants show an IB towards ambiguous health-related stimuli, when confronted with pain threat. Implications Like chronic pain patients, healthy individuals display an IB towards health-threat stimuli when these stimuli become personally relevant by carrying information about pending health threat. Therefore, the presented paradigm could be valuable for pain-related cognitive bias research in healthy participants as it may have a higher ecological validity than previous study designs. Future studies will have to elucidate the influence of anxiety constructs on IB in larger samples.

Anxiety and depression frequently co-occur and may share similar deficits in the processing of emotional stimuli. High anxiety is associated with a failure in the acquisition and extinction of fear conditioning. Despite the supposed common deficits, no research has been conducted on fear acquisition and extinction in depression. The main aim of the present study was to investigate and compare fear acquisition and extinction in anxiety- and depression-prone participants. Non-clinical anxious, depressive, anxious-depressive and control participants performed a fear discrimination task. During acquisition, the CS+ predicted an aversive event (unconditioned stimulus, US) and the CS- safety (no US). During extinction, the CS+ was no longer followed by the US, rendering it (temporarily) into a safety signal. On each CS participants rated their US expectancy; skin conductance responses (SCRs) were measured throughout. The expectancy scores indicated that high anxiety resulted in less safety learning during acquisition and extinction; no effect of depression was observed. SCRs showed that high-anxiety persons displayed less discrimination learning (CS+ minus CS - ) during acquisition than low-anxiety persons. During extinction, high-depression persons demonstrated more discriminative SCR than low-depression persons. The observed discrepancies in response patterns of high-anxiety and -depression persons seem to indicate distinctive information processing of emotional stimuli.

Formal theories have linked pathological anxiety to a failure in fear response inhibition. Previously, we showed that aberrant response inhibition is not restricted to anxiety patients, but can also be observed in anxiety-prone adults. However, less is known about the influence of currently experienced levels of anxiety on inhibitory learning. The topic is highly important as state anxiety has a debilitating effect on cognition, emotion, and physiology and is linked to several anxiety disorders. In the present study, healthy female volunteers performed a fear conditioning task, after being informed that they will have to perform the Trier Social Stress Test task (n = 25; experimental group) or a control task (n = 25; control group) upon completion of the conditioning task. The results showed that higher levels of state anxiety corresponded with a reduced discrimination between a stimulus (CS-) typically followed by an aversive event and a stimulus (CS-) that is never followed by an aversive event both during the acquisition and the extinction phase. No effect of state anxiety on the skin conductance response associated with CS+ and CS- was found. Additionally, higher levels of state anxiety coincided with more negative valence ratings of the CSs. The results suggest that increased stress-induced state anxiety might lead to stimulus generalization during fear acquisition, thereby impairing associative learning.

Contains fulltext : 170400.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access) This study examined relationships between the self-conscious emotions of guilt and shame in both clinical (N = 104) and non-clinical (N = 477) (young) adolescents aged 11-18 years, who completed a questionnaire to assess perceived parental rearing behaviors (EMBU-C) and a scenario-based instrument to measure proneness to guilt and shame (SCEMAS). Results indicated that parental rearing dimensions were positively related to self-conscious emotions. Regarding the non-clinical sample, both favourable (emotional warmth) and unfavourable (rejection) paternal and maternal rearing dimensions were significant correlates of guilt- and shame-proneness. The results for the clinical sample were less conclusive: only maternal emotional warmth and rejection were found to be significantly associated with guilt and shame. Interestingly, no associations between any of the paternal rearing dimensions and self-conscious emotions emerged. Taken together, these results are in keeping with the notion that parental rearing factors are involved in the development of both adaptive and maladaptive self-conscious emotions in adolescents. 10 p.

Background and objectives Exposure therapy is often used as treatment for anxiety disorders. However, a change in context after exposure can result in fear renewal. This renewal can be attenuated by using retrieval cues stemming from the exposure context. The present study investigated the effect of such a cue in spider-fearful persons. Methods Thirty-three participants underwent an in vivo exposure session while wearing a bracelet (retrieval cue). After exposure, half of the participants continued to wear the bracelet at home until follow-up (cue groups); the other half handed over the bracelet after exposure (no cue groups). Half of the participants in each group received the follow-up in the exposure context (AAcue and AAnocue); for the other half follow-up was conducted in a novel environment (ABcue and ABnocue). Results A switch in context at follow-up resulted in more self-reported anxiety and arousal compared to no switch. However, the retrieval cue did not attenuate this renewed responding. Limitations The number of participant per condition was limited, which might have obscured possible retrieval cue effects due to a lack of power. Additionally, information about the retrieval cue was provided after exposure, which might have weakened the association between the cue and exposure therapy. Furthermore, no autonomic measures were incorporated, restricting the effect to self-report measures. For future studies we would recommend to explicitly link the retrieval cue before onset of the exposure session and to incorporate autonomic measures. Conclusions Our findings indicate that a switch in context resulted in more self-reported anxiety and arousal, but that a cue stemming from the exposure context did not attenuate this renewal.

Return of fear following exposure treatment may be explained by ABA-renewal: fear acquired in context A, and extinguished in context B, may return in context A. Conditioning theory predicts that intensity of conditioned fear is mediated by the mental representation of the unconditioned stimulus (US) evoked by the conditioned stimulus (CS). This study tested whether US-devaluation via a dual-task - imagining the US while making eye movements - attenuates fear renewal. Participants acquired fear in context A, and underwent extinction in context A or B. Next, two groups did a filler task (AAA; ABA), one a dual-task of US imagination with eye movements (ABA-DT), and one merely imagined the US (ABA-RO). Finally, participants were re-presented the CSs in context A. ABA-renewal was found for US-expectancy. Dual-tasking, but not recall only, reduced fear renewal. No between-group differences were observed in reductions of vividness, emotionality, and startle responses to the US. Findings suggest that dual-tasking may attenuate fear renewal. (C) Copyright 2013 Textrum Ltd. All rights reserved.

During imagery rescripting (ImRs) an aversive memory is relived and transformed to have a more positive outcome. ImRs is frequently applied in psychological treatment and is known to reduce intrusions and distress of the memory. However, little is known about the necessity to incorporate the central aversive parts of the memory in ImRs. To examine this necessity one hundred participants watched an aversive film and were subsequently randomly assigned to one of four experimental conditions: ImRs including the aversive scenes (Late ImRs), ImRs without the aversive scenes (Early ImRs), imaginal exposure (IE) or a control condition (Cont). Participants in the IE intervention reported the highest distress levels during the intervention; Cont resulted in the lowest levels of self-reported distress. For the intrusion frequency, only the late ImRs resulted in fewer intrusions compared to the Cont condition; Early ImRs produced significantly more intrusions than the Late ImRs or IE condition. Finally, the intrusions of the Late ImRs condition were reported as less vivid compared to the other conditions. To conclude, it seems beneficial including aversive scenes in ImRs after an analogue trauma induction.

It was investigated in humans whether the incorporation of an extinction cue attenuates renewal of extinguished conditioned performance using a computerized task. All participants received an acquisition phase against a specific background, context A. In this context they learned that two conditioned stimuli, CS1 and CS2, predicted the occurrence of an aversive unconditioned stimulus (US) and that a third stimulus, CS3, predicted the absence of the US. Next, half of the participants received an extinction treatment in a different context (B), whereas the other half did not (context A). Dur- ing extinction both CS1 and CS3 were repeatedly presented in absence of the US. For all participants, a so-called extinc- tion cue was presented partially during this extinction phase. Finally, a renewal test was conducted in which CS1, CS2, and CS3 were presented against the acquisition background (A). Half of the participants received the extinction cue along the renewal test. Participants demonstrated renewal, but only when they had received the extinction treatment in a differ- ent context. Contrary to the hypothesis, the extinction cue at test did not attenuate but appeared to augment this renewal. Different explanations for this result are discussed.

Objective: The main aim of the study was to examine blood oxygen level-dependent response during task switching in adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Method: Fifteen male adults with ADHD and 14 controls participated and performed a task-switching paradigm. Results: Behaviorally, no specific executive control problems were observed in the ADHD participants, although they did display more errors in general. The neuroimaging data did show remarkable differences between the ADHD and control adults: Adults with ADHD engaged more strongly the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, middle temporal gyrus, precuneus, lingual gyrus, precentral gyrus, and insula than did the healthy controls during task switching. Controls displayed more task-related activity in the putamen, posterior cingulate gyrus, medial frontal gyrus, thalamus, orbitofrontal cortex, and postcentral gyrus. Conclusions: ADHD adults did not display specific executive control problems at a behavioral level, but did engage different brain areas during task switching compared with healthy controls. The results are discussed in the framework of the executive frontostriatal circuitry, conflict detection, and attentional networks. © 2010 American Psychological Association.

The objective of this study was to examine response inhibition- and feedback-related neural activity in adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) using event-related functional MRI. Sixteen male adults with ADHD and 13 healthy/normal controls participated in this study and performed a modified Go/NoGo task. Behaviourally, attention and inhibition problems in the ADHD group were observed; no feedback-rela red differences between the groups were detected. The neuroimaging data showed that the ADHD group displayed more activation in the inferior frontal gyrus and putamen during response inhibition. During feedback-related processes, the ADHD group displayed less activation in the inferior frontal/orbitofrontal cortex, hippocampus/nucleus accumbens, and caudate nucleus, but more activity in the inferior frontal gyrus. These results indicate that at least two distinguishable underlying brain networks related to response inhibition and feedback are altered in adults with ADHD.

In the present study, it was investigated by employing a human fear conditioning paradigm whether an extinction retrieval cue can attenuate renewal of conditioned responding after an extinction treatment procedure, and if so, what the precise role of such an extinction cue comprises. It was hypothesized that such a cue can attenuate renewal and would function as a safety signal capable of directly inhibiting the expectancy of an aversive outcome and conditioned skin conductance responding to a conditioned stimulus. The results demonstrated that the extinguished expectancy of an aversive outcome was renewed when the CS was presented outside the extinction context and that an extinction cue attenuated this effect. This extinction cue, however, only transferred its inhibitory properties to other, non-extinguished stimuli when there was no contextual switch. This safety signal function was not observed after a switch in context. Possible functions of the extinction cue and its application in extinction-based exposure treatments are discussed.

Spider-fearful persons are more reluctant to approach spiders and, if possible, tend to avoid their feared animal. These behavioural tendencies play a major role in the maintenance of their phobia. The present study is the first to motivate spider fearfuls approaching spiders in an approach-avoidance conflict. This was accomplished by using a virtual reality paradigm in which the participants had the choice between a safe, low rewarding, stimulus and a conflict symbol that signaled the occurrence of a high reward (80% of the trials) or a spider (20% of the trials). The results indicate that the virtual spider was capable of eliciting a strong fear response and that spider fearfuls can overcome their avoidance tendency in favour of a goal-directed approach response. Though no direct relation was observed between approach behaviour and a reduction in fear, spider fearfuls did report less spider fear, tension and disgust after the task. These results are promising for development of new treatment options for specific phobias. ispartof: Journal of Depression & Anxiety vol:4 issue:2 pages:1-7 status: published

Most people are exposed to a violent or life-threatening situation during their lives, but only a minority develops post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Experimental studies are necessary to assess risk factors, such as imagery ability, for the development of PTSD. Up to now the trauma film paradigm has functioned as an analogue for PTSD. This paradigm is known to induce involuntary intrusions, a core symptom of PTSD. Though useful, the film paradigm has a drawback, the participant remains an ‘outsider’ and does not immerse in the film scenes. The aim of the present study was to develop a fitting virtual reality (VR) analogue for PTSD and to assess risk factors for the development of PTSD-symptoms, such as intrusions. To this end a novel VR paradigm was compared to the traditional trauma film paradigm (TFP). Both the VR and TFP elicited a negative mood and induction-related intrusions. More immersion was observed in the VR paradigm compared to the TFP. The results of the risk factors were mixed; more imagery ability coincided with a higher intrusion frequency, but also with less distressing intrusions. The results, implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

The objective of this study was to examine executive functioning in children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) using functional MRI. Six children with SLI and seven control children participated in this study and received a task-switching paradigm. No specific deficit in executive control was observed at the behavioral level in children with SLI. However, the neuroimaging data did show remarkable differences between the SLI and control children. The children with SLI recruited frontal and cingulate areas, normally associated with executive control, even when the task did not require them in the children without SLI. This might indicate that the task was more demanding for the SLI group and that compensatory mechanisms were engaged for successful task performance.

Age-related changes in mental flexibility, in the form of task switching, were assessed in 292 children (58-156 months old). Task switching was examined with a new task for young children, the Switch Task for Children (STC). The STC consists of two easy, comparable games and does not require reading skills, which makes it suitable for children younger than 6 years of age. The aims of the present study were: (1) to evaluate the STC; (2) to examine task switching in Young children; and (3) to study age-related changes in task switching across childhood. The results indicated that children younger than 6 years are able to switch between two tasks and that general performance increased with age. Young children (58-89 months) displayed a larger global switch cost, that is they made more errors when the tasks were presented randomly compared with a repeated-task baseline, than older children (106-156 months). These findings suggest that the STC is a useful task for detecting task-switching abilities in young children and that the ability to maintain and manipulate two different tasks in working memory, is present, but not yet fully developed, in young children.

Contains fulltext : 62607.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) The present experiment examined whether children and adult students differ in cognitive strategy used to solve a serial feature positive discrimination. The participants learned to make a specific response (R) to a target stimulus (T) when it was preceded by a feature stimulus (F) and to refrain from responding to T when presented alone. This discrimination can be solved in two distinctively different ways: by forming a direct relation between F and R (simple associational strategy), or by F indicating the T-R relation (higher-order relational strategy). The strategy used was examined by means of a transfer test and a counterconditioning manipulation. The results suggest that, for both the children and students, responding during the transfer test was under the control of the simple associational strategy. However, retest responding was controlled by a higher-order relational strategy more in the students than in the children. These results were discussed in the framework of previous findings in the developmental literature on age differences in type of cognitive strategy

The purpose of this study was to examine confirmation bias in children without explicitly inducing fear. Eighty non-clinical children (7-13 years) were shown pictures of a neutral animal (quokka) and two dangerous-looking animals (aye aye and possum). For each animal, levels of perceived fear, threat and request for additional threatening or non-threatening information were obtained. A behavioral approach test (BAT) was included as behavioral measure of fear. The results indicated that the aye aye and possum were rated as more threatening and fearful than the quokka. For the aye aye and possum higher fear levels coincided with search for more threatening than non-threatening information. This pattern was absent in non-fearful children and for the non-threatening quokka. During the BAT the quokka was more often approached first compared to the aye aye and possum. Our findings suggest that confirmation bias in children can be observed without using verbal fear induction.

Item does not contain fulltext Two experiments assessed contextual dependencies in a predictive-learning task. Subjects learned to associate each of four pictorial stimuli with the occurrence or non-occurrence of a specific outcome. Each of these stimuli, the intentional stimuli, was presented against one of two different visual (Experiment 1) or auditory (Experiment 2) context stimuli. These context stimuli were incidental: subjects were not explicitly instructed to pay any attention to them and each of them in isolation was not predictive of the outcome. During acquisition and testing, subjects expressed the expected relationship between intentional stimulus and outcome by an appropriate key press. At test, intentional stimuli were presented either with the same contextual stimulus as also present during acquisition (same trials), or with the other one (switched trials). The response latency was slower on switched trials than on same trials in each experiment, a result extending previous findings on the effect of environmental contextual stimuli on task performance. Results are discussed in the framework of contextual occasion setting and habituation to contextual stimuli.

Problem statement: Research has shown that both positive and negative information canalter a neutral attitude towards an unknown person, with negative information having, in general, alarger impact. Though this positive-negative asymmetry has received considerable attention, it has, toour knowledge, not been tested in more current and powerful social media, such as youtube. Althoughattitudes are not fixed, literature on the reversal of a recently established attitude by providing counterattitudinalinformation is sparse. Therefore, the main aims of the present study were to examinepositve-negative asymmetry in attitude formation using youtube fragments and to test the permanenceof the establihed attitude by providing counter-attitudinal information. Approach: A total of 89persons received either a positively (P) or a negatively (N) valued youtube fragment concerning aneutral target person. Subsequently, half of each group received positive written information (groupsPP and NP) regarding the target person; the other half received negative written information (groupsPN and NN). Results: The results indicate that it is indeed possible to change a neutral attitude usingyoutube fragments, with a larger attitude change after negative than positive material. Textualinformation reversed this attitude, with an equal effect for positive and negative information.Conclusion/Recommendations: It is possible to quickly change an attitude towards a neutral personusing youtube fragments, this formed attitude can easily be reversed by providing textual counterattitudinalinformation. These findings can contribute to gaining a better understanding of the effect ofmodern social media on attitude formation and its transiency.

Contains fulltext : 99796.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) The present human fear conditioning study examined whether the valence of an extinction cue has a differential effect on attenuating renewal that is induced by removal of the extinction context. Additionally, the study aimed to assess whether such attenuating effect is based on a modulatory or safety-signal role of the cue. In acquisition, extinction, and test stages of the experiment, human participants received pairings of human faces, presented against a particular background color, with the presence or absence of an aversive auditory stimulus. Experimental groups differed in the valence of a cue that was presented during extinction, in whether or not extinction took place against a different background color than present during acquisition and testing, and in whether the extinction cue was present or absent at test. The conditioned response consisted of auditory-stimulus expectancy ratings. It was hypothesized that a positively valued extinction cue yields faster extinction, stronger attenuation of renewal, and better transfer of its inhibitory power to non-extinguished stimuli than a negatively valued cue. All three hypotheses were confirmed, suggesting that the positive, but not the negative, cue had become a safety signal. The results were discussed in the framework of extinction-based exposure treatments. 12 p.

Objective: Although extinction is highly effective in reducing a conditioned fear response, return of the fear response (renewal) outside the extinction context often occurs. The present study investigated whether US devaluation, through imagery rescripting during extinction, resulted in less renewal than mere extinction. Method: Seventy psychology students were subjected to a fear conditioning paradigm. During fear acquisition CS+ was always followed by the US, whereas CS- was never followed by the US. For all groups the acquisition phase took place in context A. During extinction both CS+ and CS- were offered, but no US was presented. For three groups extinction was conducted in a different context, context B (ABA groups). The fourth group received extinction in the acquisition context (AAA group) in order to demonstrate that renewal indeed took place. During extinction, participants received either an imagery rescripting (IR) instruction to devaluate the US (ABAir), a US-unrelated imagination instruction to assess the general influence of imagination (ABAcont), or no instruction at all (ABAno and AAAno). Subsequently, testing occurred for all groups in the acquisition context A. Results: The results indicated that renewal of the US expectancy ratings was reduced if imagery rescripting (ABAir) was added to mere extinction (ABAno). Next to the reduction in renewal, imagery rescripting (ABAir) also resulted in the devaluation of the US valence, indicating that the mental representation of the US had changed. These findings are not only in line with contemporary conditioning theories, but also suggest that adding imagery rescripting to extinction might be beneficial in the treatment of anxiety problems. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Item does not contain fulltext Two experiments with human subjects assessed contextual dependencies in a stimulus equivalence paradigm. Subjects learned to form two sets of stimuli in a matching-to-sample training procedure. Each set was presented against one of two different background colours, the contextual cues. At test, the influence of a context change-that is, presenting each set against the other context-was measured on baseline, symmetry, and equivalence trials. These three trial types reflect a difference in task complexity. It was predicted that the magnitude of context-dependent effects would be a positive function of tasks complexity. In Experiment 1, the context change was realized by switching the stimulus set at test while keeping the background colour constant. In Experiment 2, the stimulus set remained constant, and the background colour was switched. In both experiments, a change in context only resulted in an increase in response latency on equivalence trials; no effect was seen on symmetry and baseline trials. Results were discussed in the framework of switch costs, habituation to contextual stimuli, and a model based on Shea and Wright (1995) that explains the differential influence of a context switch on easy versus difficult tasks.

Item does not contain fulltext In the present experiment participants were presented either a serial (F--->T+/T-) or a simultaneous (FT+/T-) feature positive discrimination using a Skinner box for humans. After the participants mastered the discrimination, the associative properties of F were examined using a transfer test and a counterconditioning manipulation. F affected responding to a transfer target less in the Serial than in the Simultaneous condition. However, counterconditioning of F did not affect initial discrimination performance in either condition. These results were discussed in the framework of occasion setting, elemental learning, configural learning, and a neural network model.

Item does not contain fulltext Four experiments with human subjects examined the cue-interaction effects using a computer-controlled predictive learning task. In Phase 1, subjects learned that cue P was consistently associated with the occurrence of an outcome (P+), whereas cue N was never followed by the outcome (N - ). In Phase 2, two neutral cues, R and I, were compounded with P and N, respectively. Each compound was followed by the outcome (PR + and NI + ). Thus, cue R was compounded with the already predictive cue P, whereas cue I was compounded with the non-predictive cue N. In each phase, subjects rated the contingency between the different cues and the outcome. In experiments 1 and 2, the spatial position of the cues was fixed, whereas it was variable in experiments 3, 4a and 4b. Verbal cues were used in experiments 1-3, whereas the cues consisted of geometrical figures in experiments 4a and 4b. Evidence for cue interaction, as indicated by giving cue I a higher contingency rating than cue R after or during Phase 2, was only found under the conditions of experiments 1 and 2. The results indicate that the use of positional cues facilites the occurence of cue-interaction effects. Possible reasons for this finding are discussed.

The present cross-sectional study explored the relations between fear-enhancing parenting behaviors (modeling and threat information transmission) and children's cognitive biases and anxiety symptoms. Participants were 258 children aged 7-12 years (132 boys and 126 girls), and their mothers (n = 199) and/or fathers (n = 117). Children and parents completed the Parental Enhancement of Anxious Cognitions questionnaire, which measures parental modeling and threat information transmission, while children also filled in a scale for assessing anxiety symptoms. In addition, children conducted a number of computerized tasks for measuring confirmation and interpretation bias. The data indicated that both biases mediated the relationship between threat information transmission (of both parents) and children's anxiety symptoms. Only interpretation bias significantly mediated the relationship between modeling (of mothers) and anxiety symptoms. These findings give partial support for the hypothesis that cognitive biases play a mediating role in the relation between fear-enhancing parental behaviors and children's anxiety symptoms.