Targeting avoidance via compound extinction

Krypotos, Angelos‐Miltiadis; Engelhard, Iris M.

doi:10.1080/02699931.2019.1573718

Cited by 9 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 11 publications

(13 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Following well-established procedures for the reinstatement of conditioned fear (Haaker et al, 2014; Lonsdorf et al, 2017), we found a significant reinstatement of avoidance responses in all groups. This finding of avoidance reinstatement in a multiple day design expands recent findings of short-term avoidance reinstatement in humans (e.g., Krypotos & Engelhard, 2019). Most importantly, levels of avoidance following reinstatement remained lower after incentive-based and instructed avoidance extinction compared to passive fear extinction, again, with no significant differences between both instrumental strategies.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Reducing the return of avoidance and fear by directly targeting avoidance: Comparing incentive-based and instructed extinction of avoidance to passive fear extinction

Pittig

Wong

2022

Journal of Experimental Psychopathology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Enhancing the reduction of avoidance may optimize treatment for anxiety disorders. Past research focused on boosting fear extinction to reduce avoidance, however, with limited success. Directly extinguishing avoidance may be more promising. This preregistered study tested the impact of incentives and instruction for non-avoidance compared to passive fear extinction on long-term avoidance and fear reduction. On Day 1, participants acquired conditioned fear and avoidance to a conditioned stimulus (CS) paired with an aversive outcome. Next, incentives or instructions encouraged non-avoidance to the CS, which was no longer reinforced by a US regardless of avoidance (Incentives and Instruction group). In a third group, avoidance was unavailable and the CS was passively presented in absence of the US (Passive Fear Extinction group). On Day 2, avoidance retention and reinstatement and return of fear were tested. In the short term, incentives and instruction strongly reduced avoidance with similar fear reduction compared to passive fear extinction. Importantly, incentives and instruction were linked to lower long-term avoidance retention. Avoidance reinstatement was evident in all groups, but avoidance remained higher after passive fear extinction. Finally, incentives yielded a lower return of threat expectancies. Thus, targeting avoidance instead of fear better reduced long-term avoidance and, for incentives, the return of fear. Especially, incentives could be a promising add-on to exposure.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Reducing the return of avoidance and fear by directly targeting avoidance: Comparing incentive-based and instructed extinction of avoidance to passive fear extinction

Pittig

Wong

2022

Journal of Experimental Psychopathology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Krypotos, Effting, Kindt & Beckers, 2015 ). Specifically, some studies found a high degree of low-cost avoidance to the CS+ after response prevention extinction (e.g., Krypotos & Engelhard, 2019 ; Vervliet & Indekeu, 2015 ; but see Krypotos & Engelhard, 2018 ), presumably caused by a return of Pavlovian fear. However, the current findings favor an alternative interpretation that the heightened avoidance was encouraged by the minimal cost to perform it rather than reflecting a return of fear.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A dimensional measure of safety behavior: A non-dichotomous assessment of costly avoidance in human fear conditioning

Wong

Pittig

2021

Psychological Research

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Safety behavior prevents the occurrence of threat, thus it is typically considered adaptive. However, safety behavior in anxiety-related disorders is often costly, and persists even the situation does not entail realistic threat. Individuals can engage in safety behavior to varying extents, however, these behaviors are typically measured dichotomously (i.e., to execute or not). To better understand the nuances of safety behavior, this study developed a dimensional measure of safety behavior that had a negative linear relationship with the admission of an aversive outcome. In two experiments, a Reward group receiving fixed or individually calibrated incentives competing with safety behavior showed reduced safety behavior than a Control group receiving no incentives. This allowed extinction learning to a previously learnt warning signal in the Reward group (i.e., updating the belief that this stimulus no longer signals threat). Despite the Reward group exhibited extinction learning, both groups showed a similar increase in fear to the warning signal once safety behavior was no longer available. This null group difference was due to some participants in the Reward group not incentivized enough to disengage from safety behavior. Dimensional assessment revealed a dissociation between low fear but substantial safety behavior to a safety signal in the Control group. This suggests that low-cost safety behavior does not accurately reflect the fear-driven processes, but also other non-fear-driven processes, such as cost (i.e., engage in safety behavior merely because it bears little to no cost). Pinpointing both processes is important for furthering the understanding of safety behavior.

show abstract

“…For a thorough discussion of Bayes factors see Ref. 11,23,25. For computing the Bayes factors, we used the BayesFactor R package, 45 which computes Bayes factors for Bayesian t tests and repeated measures ANOVAs. This package requires the user to define the previous distributions of the alternative hypothesis.…”

Section: Statistical Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The exploration–exploitation dilemma in pain: an experimental investigation

Krypotos

Crombez

Alves

et al. 2021

Pain

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

published version features the final layout of the paper including the volume, issue and page numbers. Link to publication General rightsCopyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights.• Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal.If the publication is distributed under the terms of Article 25fa of the Dutch Copyright Act, indicated by the "Taverne" license above, please follow below link for the End User

show abstract

Targeting avoidance via compound extinction

Cited by 9 publications

References 11 publications

Reducing the return of avoidance and fear by directly targeting avoidance: Comparing incentive-based and instructed extinction of avoidance to passive fear extinction

Reducing the return of avoidance and fear by directly targeting avoidance: Comparing incentive-based and instructed extinction of avoidance to passive fear extinction

A dimensional measure of safety behavior: A non-dichotomous assessment of costly avoidance in human fear conditioning

The exploration–exploitation dilemma in pain: an experimental investigation

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About