Stimulus fear-relevance and the vicarious learning pathway to childhood fears.

Abstract

Enhanced fear learning for fear-relevant stimuli has been demonstrated in procedures with adults in the laboratory. Three experiments investigated the effect of stimulus fear-relevance on vicarious fear learning in children (aged 6-11 years). Pictures of stimuli with different levels of fear-relevance (flowers, caterpillars, snakes, worms, and Australian marsupials) were presented alone or together with scared faces. In line with previous studies, children's fear beliefs and avoidance preferences increased for stimuli they had seen with scared faces. However, in contrast to evidence with adults, learning was mostly similar for all stimulus types irrespective of fear-relevance. The results support a proposal that stimulus preparedness is bypassed when children observationally learn threat-related information from adults

Reductions in Children’s Vicariously Learnt Avoidance and Heart Rate Responses Using Positive Modeling

“…The key findings were that results (a) replicated previous findings showing that fear-related vicarious learning leads to increases in children's fear beliefs and avoidance preferences (e.g., Askew et al, 2013;Reynolds et al, 2014), as well as demonstrating that compared to a control animal, children showed higher behavioral avoidance (e.g., Askew & Field, 2007;Dubi et al, 2008;Gerull & Rapee, 2002), heart rate, and attentional bias for fear-paired animals (Reynolds et al, 2014); (b) confirmed Dunne and Askew (2013) findings indicating that counterconditioning is successful in returning children's learned avoidance preferences to baseline levels; (c) for the first time demonstrated lower heart rate responses for fear-paired animals in a group receiving vicarious fear learning then positive modeling compared to a control group receiving vicarious fear learning only; and (d) showed that fear responses following vicarious fear-learning and then CS-only presentations were comparable to a control group receiving vicarious fear-learning only. Thus there was little evidence of extinction.…”

“…The automated procedure then began with the first FBQ followed immediately by the vicarious learning procedure. Consistent with previous experiments (e.g., Askew et al, 2013;Askew & Field, 2007;Reynolds et al, 2014Reynolds et al, , 2015, during vicarious learning all children were presented with a slideshow on the monitor of 20 CS-US pairing trials: 10 animal-face trials (fear-paired CSs) and 10 animal-alone trials (unpaired CSs). In each pairing, the animal appeared first on the left-hand side of the screen for 1 s and remained on the screen when the picture of the face appeared on the right-hand side of the screen.…”

“…A substantial body of prospective, experimental research has indicated that vicarious learning can lead to increases in children's fear cognitions and behavioral avoidance of animals (e.g., Askew, Dunne, Özdil, Reynolds, & Field, 2013;Askew & Field, 2007;Askew, Kessock-Philip, & Field, 2008;Dubi, Rapee, Emerton, & Schniering, 2008;Egliston & Rapee, 2007;Gerull & Rapee, 2002), and more recently physiological responses and attentional bias toward threat (Reynolds, Field, & Askew, 2014). However, the exact mechanisms underlying the process of vicarious fear learning in children are still not fully understood.…”

Learning to fear a second-order stimulus following vicarious learning

“…It makes sense from an evolutionary perspective that only fear-relevant stimuli pose a threat to the survival of monkeys and thus vicarious learning would only occur for these fear-relevant stimuli, and this has received wide support (e.g. Mineka & Öhman, 2002; however, see also Askew et al, 2013).…”

“…Subsequently, robust vicarious fear learning effects have been widely documented in children (e.g. Askew, Dunne, Özdil, Reynolds, & Field, 2013;Askew & Field, 2007;Askew, Kessock-Philip, & Field, 2008;Reynolds, Field, & Askew, 2014).…”