Aversive learning and generalization predict subclinical levels of anxiety: A six-month longitudinal study

Abstract

The identification of premorbid markers of risk for psychopathology is one of the most important challenges for present-day psychiatric research. This study focuses on behavioral vulnerability factors that contribute to the development of anxiety. Little is known about the role of aversive learning and generalization in the development of pathological anxiety. In this study, a large student sample (N = 375) completed a differential aversive learning task followed by a test of generalization. Anxiety was assessed at that moment and after a six-month follow-up. Results showed that both predictors (discrimination learning and generalization) added significantly to the explained variance in anxiety symptomatology at follow-up. These results highlight the importance of longitudinal designs and indicate that screening for individual differences in aversive learning and generalization may foster prediction of anxiety disorders, paving the way for targeted prevention.

Bending rules: the shape of the perceptual generalisation gradient is sensitive to inference rules

“…Dymond, Dunsmoor, Vervliet, Roche, & Hermans, 2015; Lenaert et al, 2014;Lissek et al, 2005;Lissek et al, 2010). A war veteran suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder might, for example, respond fearfully to fireworks that sound like a nearly fatal gunshot from his past Dymond et al, 2015).…”

Fear Generalization in Humans: Systematic Review and Implications for Anxiety Disorder Research

“…Prospective longitudinal research will be especially important in this regard (e.g., Lenaert et al, 2014), including assessing vulnerability to overgeneralization from generalization profiles obtained earlier from the same individual, and assessing fear generalization pre-to posttreatment.…”

Perceptual and conceptual similarities facilitate the generalization of instructed fear

“…Three images (1024 Â 768 pixels) were selected from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS; Lang, Bradley, & Cuthbert, 2001) based on the arousal ratings of young adults (Grühn & Scheibe, 2008). Images were presented for 3 s and included a mutilated hand (M arousal ¼ 7.4; high aversion), a tribal mutilation (M arousal ¼ 5.9; moderate aversion) and cockroaches on food (M arousal ¼ 5.1; low aversion) (see Lenaert et al, 2014). There were two unpleasant noises.…”

“…Variants that closely resemble the CSþ evoke more fear than variants that have less in common with the CSþ (e.g. Haddad, Xu, Raeder, & Lau, 2013;Lenaert et al, 2014;Lissek et al, 2010;Lommen, Engelhard, & van den Hout, 2010).…”