Generality of free-operant avoidance conditioning to human behavior.

Higgins, Stephen T.; Morris, Edward K.

doi:10.1037/0033-2909.96.2.247

Cited by 35 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 88 publications

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“…Second, extending the observational phase to include modeling of unsignaled US presentations prior to a reinstatement test phase would be a novel synthesis of observational-learning of avoidance with human reinstatement research and allow for the detection of potentially transient effects on generalization. Third, exposing participants to a movie where the US is removed (extinction) or where the avoidance response is prevented and the US presented independent of responding (Higgins and Morris, 1984) would permit an examination of the relative effectiveness of these separate, operant extinction methods. Moreover, effects of presenting either the generalized or learned cues in tandem with these extinction methods could be tested and applied to analog analyses of exposure-based therapy for reducing levels of problematic avoidance that is often seen in anxiety disorders.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Generalization of socially transmitted and instructed avoidance

Cameron

Schlund

Dymond

2015

Front. Behav. Neurosci.

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Excessive avoidance behavior, in which an instrumental action prevents an upcoming aversive event, is a defining feature of anxiety disorders. Left unchecked, both fear and avoidance of potentially threatening stimuli may generalize to perceptually related stimuli and situations. The behavioral consequences of generalization mean that aversive learning experiences with specific threats may lead to the inference that classes of related stimuli are threatening, potentially dangerous, and need to be avoided, despite differences in physical form. Little is known however about avoidance generalization in humans and the learning pathways by which it may be transmitted. In the present study, we compared two pathways to avoidance—instructions and social observation—on subsequent generalization of avoidance behavior, fear expectancy and physiological arousal. Participants first learned that one cue was a danger cue (conditioned stimulus, CS+) and another was a safety cue (CS−). Groups were then either instructed that a simple avoidance response in the presence of the CS+ cancelled upcoming shock (instructed-learning group) or observed a short movie showing a demonstrator performing the avoidance response to prevent shock (observational-learning group). During generalization testing, danger and safety cues were presented along with generalization stimuli that parametrically varied in perceptual similarity to the CS+. Reinstatement of fear and avoidance was also tested. Findings demonstrate, for the first time, generalization of socially transmitted and instructed avoidance: both groups showed comparable generalization gradients in fear expectancy, avoidance behavior and arousal. Return of fear was evident, suggesting that generalized avoidance remains persistent following extinction testing. The utility of the present paradigm for research on avoidance generalization is discussed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Generalization of socially transmitted and instructed avoidance

Cameron

Schlund

Dymond

2015

Front. Behav. Neurosci.

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“…First, we employed a stringent avoidance conditioning criterion similar to that adopted by previous studies (Dymond et al, 2007 in which a minimum of six consecutive avoidance responses to AV2 were required. This emphasis on maintenance of response rate, set within a predetermined maximum number of avoidance trial exposures, maintained avoidance under free-operant conditions (Higgins & Morris, 1984). This was necessary in order to present multiple stimulus probes during the critical testing phase.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inferred threat and safety: Symbolic generalization of human avoidance learning

Dymond

Schlund

Roche

et al. 2011

Behaviour Research and Therapy

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a b s t r a c tSymbolic generalization of avoidance may underlie the aetiology and maintenance of anxiety disorders. The aim of the present study was to demonstrate inferred threat-avoidance and safety (non-avoidance) behaviours that occur in the presence of stimuli indirectly related to learned threat and safety cues. A laboratory experiment was conducted involving two symbolic stimulus equivalence relations consisting of three physically dissimilar stimuli (avoidance cues: AV1eAV2eAV3 and neutral cues: N1eN2eN3). During avoidance learning involving aversive images and sounds, a key-press avoidance response was trained for one member of one of the relations (AV2) and non-avoidance for another (N2). Inferred threat and safety behaviour and ratings of the likelihood of aversive events were tested with presentations of all remaining stimuli. Findings showed a significantly high percentage of avoidance to both the learned and inferred threat cues and less avoidance to both the learned and inferred safety cues. Ratings in the absence of avoidance were high during training and testing to threat cues and low to safety cues and were generally lower in the presence of avoidance. Implications for associative and behavioural accounts of avoidance, and modern therapies for anxiety disorders are discussed.

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“…Moreover, the present results suggest that Laties and Weiss' (1966) earlier demonstration of environmental modulation of the behavioral effects of scopolamine in pigeons has generality to other anticholinergics and, more important, to human behavior maintained under complex reinforcement contingencies. It is important to note that although attention is often directed at the discrepancies between human and nonhuman operant behavior in laboratory settings, there has also been a great deal of generality demonstrated that should not be overlooked (e.g., Griffiths, Bigelow, & Henningfield, 1980;Higgins & Morris, 1984;Higgins et al, 1987).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Atropine on the Repeated Acquisition and Performance of Response Sequences in Humans

Higgins

Woodward

Henningfield

1989

J Exper Analysis Behavior

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The present study assessed a 24-hr time course for the acute effects of intramuscular injections of atropine sulfate (0, 1.5, 3.0, and 6.0 mg/70 kg) in healthy adult humans responding under a two-component multiple schedule of repeated acquisition and performance of response sequences. Subjects resided in an inpatient research ward for the duration of the study. In each component of the multiple schedule, subjects completed a different sequence of 10 responses in a predetermined order using three keys of a numeric keypad. In the acquisition component, the subjects' task was to acquire a new sequence each session. Eight sessions were conducted daily: one immediately before administration of the drug and then 0.5, 1.5, 3.0, 5.0, 7.0, 9.0, and 24.0 hr after administration. In the performance component, the response sequence always remained the same. Overall percentage of errors increased and overall response rates decreased in the acquisition and performance components as an orderly function of drug dose. However, these effects were selective in that behavior in the acquisition component generally was affected at lower doses than in the performance component. When behavior was affected in both the acquisition and performance components, the time courses of effects were similar. Drug effects began at 0.5 or 1.5 hr, reached peak effects between 3.0 and 5.0 hr, and returned to placebo levels between 7.0 and 9.0 hr postdrug in both schedule components. None of the drug doses produced reliable effects the day after drug administration (24-hr postdrug) in either schedule component. The present study provides the first within-subject assessment of the magnitude and duration of the effects of an anticholinergic on repeated acquisition and performance baselines and extends to atropine the selective effects on these two baselines demonstrated previously with other compounds in humans and nonhumans.

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Generality of free-operant avoidance conditioning to human behavior.

Cited by 35 publications

References 88 publications

Generalization of socially transmitted and instructed avoidance

Generalization of socially transmitted and instructed avoidance

Inferred threat and safety: Symbolic generalization of human avoidance learning

Effects of Atropine on the Repeated Acquisition and Performance of Response Sequences in Humans

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