Memory-emotional interactions as revealed by fear generalization in animal-fearful individuals.
Discriminative fear learning and fear generalization were examined in animal-fearful individuals and in control participants. Electrical shocks were administered contingent upon discriminative pictures of spiders or snakes, respectively, in a generalization-after-discrimination paradigm. Neither discriminative fear learning nor extinction was affected by the individual fear status of the animal categories. Novel feared stimuli, which resembled discriminative stimuli, were treated as more shock predictive than novel non-feared stimuli during generalization testing. Neither preparedness theory nor selective sensitization theory was capable to account for these observations. The findings are commensurable with the hypothesis that phobic fear interferes with the retrieval of memory traces.
Kopp
Bruno
B
Municipal Hospital, and Cognitive Neurology, Institute at the Technical University, Salzdahlumer Str. 90, 38126 Braunschweig, Germany. b.kopp@klinikum-braunschweig.de
Schlimm
Mike
M
Hermann
Christiane
C
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D001245:Association Learning; D004644:Emotions; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005793:Generalization, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011939:Mental Recall; D008875:Middle Aged; D019964:Mood Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D010552:Personality Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D011613:Psychotherapy; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012307:Risk Factors