Cluster analysis was used to define three groups of subjects whose conditioned heart rate response emphasized either acceleration, deceleration, or moderate deceleration. A subject pool (N = 148) was generated from four separate studies of differential classical conditioning in which colored slides served as conditioned stimuli (CSs) and the unconditioned stimulus (UCS) was aversive auditory noise. Both the statistically generated Accelerator and Decelerator groups responded with a significant late interval deceleration to CS+. However, only Accelerators also displayed a significant mid‐interval heart rate increase to CS+. Conditioned electrodermal responses were significantly more resistant to extinction for Accelerators than for the other two cluster groups. Accelerators also differed from Decelerators in that their affective judgments of the slide stimuli became less positively valent and less dominant from pre‐ to post‐conditioning, effects not found for Decelerators. Moderate Decelerators produced mixed results across the several psychophysiological and verbal measures of conditioning, resembling Accelerators in their verbal report change, and Decelerators in their rapid electrodermal extinction. It is suggested that cluster assignment may reflect subjects' pre‐conditioning learning set. All successfully conditioned subjects appear to learn a relationship between stimuli such that the appearance of the CS+ prompts an anticipatory orienting response (late interval heart rate deceleration). Accelerators differ from the other two groups in that they also condition a defensive response which is associated with a change in emotional judgments of the stimuli and may represent covert preparation for avoidance. The relationships between defensive responding, avoidance, and the concept of fear are considered, and the problem of desynchrony in emotional change (i.e., the Moderate Decelerators) is addressed. Finally, parallels are drawn between results from classical conditioning and clinical studies of fear and phobia, and further suggestions are made for utilizing the conditioning paradigm in the study of emotion.

Seligman's preparedness theory of phobia is tested in human classical conditioning of skin conductance and heart rate responses. Conditioned stimuli (CSs) were photographs of plants, human artifacts, and phobia-relevant animals. Both aversive tactile and auditory unconditioned stimuli (UCSs) were assessed. Consistent with Ohman's results, electrodermal extinction was slower to phobia-relevant stimuli than to other stimuli (and here, was shown to depend on a tactile UCS); however, unlike Ohman's findings, when subjects were told "no more shocks," phobic CSs extinguished as readily as unprepared CSs. New evidence was obtained for a preparedness effect during acquisition trials: Only subjects receiving phobia-relevant stimuli developed an acceleratory cardiac conditioned response. This acquisition eifect was more reliable across experiments than the electrodermal extinction findings and showed less influence of CS-UCS "belongingness." These experiments suggest that the preparedness eifect is complexly determined; they also provide clear evidence that phobic stimuli occasion a unique pattern of conditioned visceral response.Despite practical advances in the behavioral treatment of phobias, no consensus has emerged in understanding their origin and maintenance. The classical conditioning model (Watson & Raynor, 1920) and its two-stage revision (Mowrer, 1939) have been challenged in recent years on the basis of differences between the clinical phenomenon and laboratory-conditioned fear (Rachman, 1976). These differences underscore the nonrandom selection of phobic objects (conditioned stimuli), the rapid acquisition based on little experience, the failure of extinction, and the refractoriness to instructions observed for clinical phobias vis-a-vis laboratory conditioning.The construct of evolutionary preparedness was originally used to explain such phenomena in the acquisition of food-related aversions among nonhuman species (Garcia, McGowan,

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Subjective pain ratings and tolerance time were obtained during 2 cold pressor immersions for 3 groups of subjects. During the second immersion 1 group performed no task and the other 2 groups performed either an easy or difficult mental arithmetic task. The sensory-discriminative response to pain was measured by pain ratings. Pain ratings were collected every minute until subjects removed their arm from the cold pressor or until 4 min passed. Relative to a baseline cold pressor immersion, subjects in both the distraction conditions reduced their 1 min pain ratings more than control subjects. This effect was weaker at the 2 min pain rating and absent at the later ratings. The affective-reactive response to pain was measured by pain tolerance times. Tolerance time was defined as the time when subjects removed their arm from the cold pressor. Tolerance time was not altered by the distraction tasks. These findings suggest that affectively neutral distraction alters the sensory but not the reactive response to pain. Clinical implications are discussed.

Effects of physical countermeasures on the accuracy of the control question test (CQT) were assessed in two laboratory mock-crime experiments. In Experiment 1,21 male and 27 female college students were divided into four groups, three of which enacted a mock crime. Two of these guilty groups were trained in the use of a countermeasure, either biting the tongue (pain countermeasure) or pressing the toes against the floor (muscle countermeasure) during the control question zones of the CQT. All countermeasure subjects were given extensive information about the nature of the CQT. No significant effects for countermeasures were found. Experiment 2 assessed the effects of additional training and the concurrent use of both countermeasures with 31 female and 26 male college students who were divided into three groups, two of which enacted a mock crime. Countermeasure subjects produced 47% false negatives as compared to 0% false negatives for Guilty Control subjects. False negative outcomes occurred when subjects were able to produce physiological responses that were larger to control questions than to relevant questions. These results should be qualified by the possibility that the countermeasure task would be considerably more difficult if the relevant questions dealt with a real crime in an actual investigation. Countermeasure detectors, counter-countermeasures, and the implications of these results for the probative value of the CQT are discussed.The use of physiological recordings to make inferences about the veracity of a person's statements is known as the physiological detection of deception (FDD;Podlesny & Raskin, 1977). FDD techniques have gained increasing acceptance in recent years as probative evidence in our courts of law (Raskin, 1982). Along with this forensic use, the use of FDD techniques for personnel screening,