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Nonconscious associative learning: Pavlovian conditioning of skin conductance responses to masked fear-relevant facial stimuli.
- Source :
-
Psychophysiology . Jul1994, Vol. 31 Issue 4, p375-385. 11p. - Publication Year :
- 1994
-
Abstract
- We examined the possibility of nonconscious associative learning in a context of skin conductance conditioning, using emotional facial expressions as stimuli. In the first experiment, subjects were conditioned to a backwardly masked angry face that was followed by electric shock, with a masked happy face as the nonreinforced stimulus. In spite of the effectively masked conditioned stimuli, differential conditioned skin conductance responses were observed in a subsequent nonmasked extinction phase. This effect could not be attributed to differential sensitization or pseudo-conditioning. In the second experiment, the differential responding during extinction was replicated with angry but not with happy faces as conditioned stimuli. It was concluded that with fear-relevant facial expressions as the conditioned stimulus, associative learning was possible even in conditions where the subjects remained unaware of the conditioned stimulus and its relationship to the unconditioned stimulus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 00485772
- Volume :
- 31
- Issue :
- 4
- Database :
- Academic Search Index
- Journal :
- Psychophysiology
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 11047672
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.1994.tb02446.x