“Prepared” fear or socio-cultural learning? Fear conditioned to guns, snakes, and spiders is eliminated by instructed extinction in a within-participant differential fear conditioning paradigm
Across three experiments, we investigated whether electrodermal responses conditioned to ontogenetic fear-relevant (pointed guns) and phylogenetic fear-relevant stimuli (snakes and spiders) would resist instructed extinction in a within-participant differential fear conditioning paradigm. Instructed...
| Main Authors: | , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
WILEY
2020
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/SR120300015 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/79229 |
| _version_ | 1848764016141271040 |
|---|---|
| author | Luck, Camilla Patterson, Rachel R. Lipp, Ottmar |
| author_facet | Luck, Camilla Patterson, Rachel R. Lipp, Ottmar |
| author_sort | Luck, Camilla |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Across three experiments, we investigated whether electrodermal responses conditioned to ontogenetic fear-relevant (pointed guns) and phylogenetic fear-relevant stimuli (snakes and spiders) would resist instructed extinction in a within-participant differential fear conditioning paradigm. Instructed extinction involves informing participants before extinction that the unconditional stimulus (US) will no longer be presented. This manipulation has been shown to abolish fear conditioned to fear-irrelevant conditional stimuli, but is said to leave fear conditioned to images of snakes and spiders intact. The latter finding, however, has only been demonstrated when fear-relevance is manipulated between-groups. It is also not known whether instructed extinction affects fear conditioned to ontogenetic fear-relevant stimuli, such as pointed guns. In Experiment 1, we demonstrated that fear conditioned to images of pointed guns does not resist instructed extinction. In Experiment 2, we detected some evidence to suggest that fear conditioned to images of snakes and spiders survives instructed extinction but this evidence was not conclusive. In Experiment 3, we directly compared the effects of instructed extinction on fear conditioned to snakes and spiders and to guns and provide strong evidence that fear conditioned to both classes of stimuli is reduced after instructed extinction with no differences between ontogenetic and phylogenetic stimuli. The current results suggest that when fear relevance is manipulated within-participants fear conditioned to both phylogenetic and ontogenetic, fear-relevant stimuli responds to instructed extinction providing evidence in favor of a socio-cultural explanation for “preparedness” effects. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:12:39Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-79229 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T11:12:39Z |
| publishDate | 2020 |
| publisher | WILEY |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-792292021-01-06T00:38:34Z “Prepared” fear or socio-cultural learning? Fear conditioned to guns, snakes, and spiders is eliminated by instructed extinction in a within-participant differential fear conditioning paradigm Luck, Camilla Patterson, Rachel R. Lipp, Ottmar Social Sciences Science & Technology Life Sciences & Biomedicine Psychology, Biological Neurosciences Physiology Psychology Psychology, Experimental Neurosciences & Neurology electrodermal responding fear conditioning instructed extinction ontogenetic fear-relevant phylogenetic fear-relevant preparedness theory ELECTRODERMAL RESPONSES RELEVANT STIMULI PHOBIAS RESISTANCE ACQUISITION WINDOWS Across three experiments, we investigated whether electrodermal responses conditioned to ontogenetic fear-relevant (pointed guns) and phylogenetic fear-relevant stimuli (snakes and spiders) would resist instructed extinction in a within-participant differential fear conditioning paradigm. Instructed extinction involves informing participants before extinction that the unconditional stimulus (US) will no longer be presented. This manipulation has been shown to abolish fear conditioned to fear-irrelevant conditional stimuli, but is said to leave fear conditioned to images of snakes and spiders intact. The latter finding, however, has only been demonstrated when fear-relevance is manipulated between-groups. It is also not known whether instructed extinction affects fear conditioned to ontogenetic fear-relevant stimuli, such as pointed guns. In Experiment 1, we demonstrated that fear conditioned to images of pointed guns does not resist instructed extinction. In Experiment 2, we detected some evidence to suggest that fear conditioned to images of snakes and spiders survives instructed extinction but this evidence was not conclusive. In Experiment 3, we directly compared the effects of instructed extinction on fear conditioned to snakes and spiders and to guns and provide strong evidence that fear conditioned to both classes of stimuli is reduced after instructed extinction with no differences between ontogenetic and phylogenetic stimuli. The current results suggest that when fear relevance is manipulated within-participants fear conditioned to both phylogenetic and ontogenetic, fear-relevant stimuli responds to instructed extinction providing evidence in favor of a socio-cultural explanation for “preparedness” effects. 2020 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/79229 10.1111/psyp.13516 English http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/SR120300015 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP180100869 WILEY fulltext |
| spellingShingle | Social Sciences Science & Technology Life Sciences & Biomedicine Psychology, Biological Neurosciences Physiology Psychology Psychology, Experimental Neurosciences & Neurology electrodermal responding fear conditioning instructed extinction ontogenetic fear-relevant phylogenetic fear-relevant preparedness theory ELECTRODERMAL RESPONSES RELEVANT STIMULI PHOBIAS RESISTANCE ACQUISITION WINDOWS Luck, Camilla Patterson, Rachel R. Lipp, Ottmar “Prepared” fear or socio-cultural learning? Fear conditioned to guns, snakes, and spiders is eliminated by instructed extinction in a within-participant differential fear conditioning paradigm |
| title | “Prepared” fear or socio-cultural learning? Fear conditioned to guns, snakes, and spiders is eliminated by instructed extinction in a within-participant differential fear conditioning paradigm |
| title_full | “Prepared” fear or socio-cultural learning? Fear conditioned to guns, snakes, and spiders is eliminated by instructed extinction in a within-participant differential fear conditioning paradigm |
| title_fullStr | “Prepared” fear or socio-cultural learning? Fear conditioned to guns, snakes, and spiders is eliminated by instructed extinction in a within-participant differential fear conditioning paradigm |
| title_full_unstemmed | “Prepared” fear or socio-cultural learning? Fear conditioned to guns, snakes, and spiders is eliminated by instructed extinction in a within-participant differential fear conditioning paradigm |
| title_short | “Prepared” fear or socio-cultural learning? Fear conditioned to guns, snakes, and spiders is eliminated by instructed extinction in a within-participant differential fear conditioning paradigm |
| title_sort | “prepared” fear or socio-cultural learning? fear conditioned to guns, snakes, and spiders is eliminated by instructed extinction in a within-participant differential fear conditioning paradigm |
| topic | Social Sciences Science & Technology Life Sciences & Biomedicine Psychology, Biological Neurosciences Physiology Psychology Psychology, Experimental Neurosciences & Neurology electrodermal responding fear conditioning instructed extinction ontogenetic fear-relevant phylogenetic fear-relevant preparedness theory ELECTRODERMAL RESPONSES RELEVANT STIMULI PHOBIAS RESISTANCE ACQUISITION WINDOWS |
| url | http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/SR120300015 http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/SR120300015 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/79229 |