Language conditioning, emotional instructions, and cognitions in conditioned responses to fear-relevant and fear-irrelevant stimuli.
This study compared the effects of experimentally induced self-verbalizations (SV) on conditioned responses to fear-relevant (snakes) and fear-irrelevant (rabbits) stimuli. To extend the analysis of "preparedness theory" beyond its former reliance on physiological measures of fear, subjective and behavioral measures were also included. Using aversive tones (UCS) and slides of snakes or rabbits (CS), fear was classically conditioned in 44 volunteers. In 20 subsequent language conditioning trials without aversive tones, the same slides were paired with verbalizations referring either to positive features of the animals (stimulus-referent SV) or to approach behavior (response-referent SV). Skin conductance responses to fear-relevant stimuli were more readily acquired, of higher magnitude, and more resistant to extinction. Extinction was differentially affected by the two types of SV. Snakes were consistently evaluated more negatively than rabbits and approached less in a behavior test. Results are discussed in relation to preparedness theory and interpreted within Staats' social-behavioral learning paradigm.
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D003071:Cognition; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D004644:Emotions; D005108:Extinction, Psychological; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology; D005260:Female; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D014705:Verbal Behavior