title: When orienting and anticipation dissociate--a case for scoring electrodermal responses in multiple latency windows in studies of human fear conditioning.
abstract: Electrodermal activity in studies of human fear conditioning is often scored by distinguishing two electrodermal responses occurring during the conditional stimulus-unconditional stimulus interval. These responses, known as first interval responding (FIR) and second interval responding (SIR), are reported to be differentially sensitive to the effects of orienting and anticipation. Recently, the FIR/SIR scoring convention has been questioned, with some arguing in favor of scoring a single response within the entire conditional stimulus-unconditional stimulus interval (entire interval responding, EIR). EIR can be advantageous in practical terms but may fail to capture experimental effects when manipulations produce dissociations between orienting and anticipation. As an illustration, we rescored the data reported by Luck and Lipp (2015b) using both FIR/SIR and EIR scoring techniques and provide evidence that the EIR scoring technique fails to detect the effects of instructed extinction, an experimental manipulation which produces a dissociation between orienting and anticipation. Thus, using a technique that scores electrodermal response indices of fear conditioning in multiple latency windows is recommended.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology and Speech Pathology, Curtin University, Australia; ARC-SRI: Science of Learning Research Centre, Australia. Electronic address: c.luck@curtin.edu.au.
authors.forename: Camilla C
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Luck
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology and Speech Pathology, Curtin University, Australia; ARC-SRI: Science of Learning Research Centre, Australia.
authors.forename: Ottmar V
authors.initials: OV
authors.lastname: Lipp
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D003214:Conditioning, Classical / Q000502:physiology*; D004597:Electroshock; D005108:Extinction, Psychological / Q000502:physiology*; D005149:Facial Expression; D005239:Fear / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005712:Galvanic Skin Response / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Conditioning; Differential fear conditioning; Electrodermal responses; Entire interval responding; First interval responding; Instructed extinction; Methodology; Second interval responding