title: Competition between an avoidance response and a safety signal: evidence for a single learning system.
abstract: Two experiments examined competition between an instrumental avoidance response and a Pavlovian safety signal for association with omission of electric shock in a human fear conditioning paradigm. Self-reported shock expectancies and skin conductance responses were consistent with blocking of learning of the instrumental contingency by prior training of the Pavlovian contingency, and vice versa. The results support the idea that a common learning mechanism underlies both Pavlovian and instrumental conditioning. The expectancy data suggest that this learning mechanism is cognitive in nature, and that Pavlovian and instrumental learning involve external and internal attributions, respectively. The procedure may thus serve as a laboratory model for attributional processes involved in the acquisition of threat expectancies in anxiety and anxiety disorders.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia. P.Lovibond@unsw.edu.au
authors.forename: Peter F
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Lovibond
authors.forename: Shirley X
authors.initials: SX
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Christopher J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Mitchell
authors.forename: Gabrielle
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Weidemann
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000502:physiology*; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology*; D003216:Conditioning, Operant / Q000502:physiology*; D004597:Electroshock; D005239:Fear / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011571:Psychoacoustics; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D013334:Students; D014495:Universities