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Extinguished responses have been shown to reappear under several circumstances, and this reappearance is considered to model behaviors such as relapse after exposure therapy. Conducting extinction in multiple contexts has been explored as a technique to decrease the recovery of extinguished responses. The present meta-analysis aimed to examine whether extinction in multiple contexts can consistently reduce the recovery of extinguished responses. After searching in several databases, experiments were included in the analysis if they presented extinction in multiple contexts, an experimental design, and an adequate statistical report. Cohen's d was obtained for each critical comparison and weighted to obtain the sample's average weighted effect size. Analyses were then performed using a multilevel meta-analytic approach. Twenty-five studies were included, with a total sample of 37 experiments or critical comparisons. The analyses showed a large effect size for the sample, moderated by the length of conditioned stimulus exposure, type of experimental subject, and type of recovery. The robust effect of extinction in multiple contexts on relapse should encourage clinicians to consider extinction in multiple contexts as a useful technique in therapy and research.
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BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Early aversive experiences, which have been associated with elevated anxiety and intolerance of uncertainty (IUS), may contribute negatively to fear conditioning learning. The aim of the present study was to analyze the relation among individual differences in childhood maltreatment experiences, trait anxiety, and IUS in adulthood; and to determine how these variables could affect fear learning discrimination and avoidance generalization. METHODS: We adapted an avoidance procedure in an online fear learning task. Two pictures of different lamp colors (CS+) were first associated with two aversive images (US), while a third color was not (CS-). Next, clicking a button during one CS + could effectively avoid the US (CS + av), but not during the other (CS + unav). Finally, avoidance generalization was tested to lamp colors that were between CS- and CS + av (safety dimension) and CS + av and CS + unav (avoidability dimension). With a sample of 67 participants, we measured ratings of relief, expectancy, and anxiety, as well as button presses and individual differences (STAI, IUS and MAES). RESULTS: Aversive early experiences were positively related to trait anxiety and intolerance of uncertainty. The results of the task further suggested that maltreatment experience contributes to be more attentive to aversive signals, which could be implicated in leading to difficulties in discrimination learning. LIMITATIONS: Online experiments implies some loss of control over subjects and environment that can threaten internal validity. Likewise, the commitment of participants may be low. CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest that early aversive experience and anxiety could contribute to the development of IUS, which likely contributes to the development of avoidance behavior.
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Ansiedade , Aprendizagem por Discriminação , Humanos , Incerteza , Medo , Aprendizagem da Esquiva , Extinção PsicológicaRESUMO
Pre and perinatal administration of Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in rodents and their offspring has many effects that have been studied using different methods that have not been integrated using quantitative methods. The effect of THC administration on behavior can be better understood by meta-analytic techniques. We examined whether there is an overall effect on the behavior of the offspring when THC is administered to mothers. Eligibility criteria included experiments using an experimental design with a control group without THC, in which THC is administered to mothers during pregnancy and lactation in rodents, and in which at least one type of behavioral (locomotor, emotional or cognitive) measurement in the offspring was implemented. Cohen's d was obtained for each study, then each individual study was weighted, and moderator analysis was performed. Analysis was performed using fixed and random effect models, and the heterogeneity was assessed by calculating Qb, I 2 and the prediction interval. Furthermore, 3 sub-meta-analyses were carried out according to the type of behavior. The general analysis determined a low weighted effect size of THC on the behavior of the offspring, moderated by type of rat strain. The sub-meta-analyses showed a medium effect for cognitive effects of THC in the offspring, and a low effect on locomotor activity and emotional behavior. In addition, publication bias was not detected. More research is needed to contribute to the understanding of the effect of THC exposure on offspring.
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Identity fusion with a group, a feeling of connection with it, is a good predictor of extreme pro-group behavior, an action to favor or protect the group, including self-sacrifice. Relational ties and personal distress (self-oriented emotional reaction; e.g., anxiety, distress) toward ingroup members in need have been evaluated separately as mediators of the relationship between identity fusion and pro-group self-sacrifice. Another mediator could be empathic concern (other-oriented emotional reaction; e.g., compassion, sympathy), but it has not been considered in the literature. We related those three mediators in a model. The objective was to analyze whether relational ties mediate the relationship between identity fusion and pro-country self-sacrifice whereas both empathic concern and personal distress mediate the association between relational ties and pro-country self-sacrifice. We expected that identity fusion with the country leads to more relational ties, which in turn evokes both empathic concern and personal distress, and those emotional reactions promote more and less pro-country self-sacrifice, respectively, with more effect of empathic concern than personal distress. We considered the country as the group reference because it is the most used in identity fusion research. In a sample of university students (N = 539), the results supported this model: Identity fusion promoted relational ties, which in turn evoked empathic concern and personal distress. Then, the last two variables predicted more and less self-sacrifice, respectively, with more effect of empathic concern than personal distress. We discussed the theoretical implications of the model, especially the relationship of identity fusion with empathic concern and personal distress-traditional explanations for pro-group behavior-considering the different motivations associated to both emotional reactions. Despite the limitations associated with the measurements, the data supported the model that relates variables not previously explored jointly.
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Emoções , Empatia , HumanosRESUMO
There is substantial evidence that drug-paired cues become associated with drug effects. From a Pavlovian perspective, these cues act as conditioned stimuli and elicit conditioned compensatory responses that contribute to drug tolerance. Here we report two experiments with rats in which we studied the extinction of the associative tolerance to the ataxic effect of ethanol. Experiment 1 evaluated whether changes in the temporal and physical contexts after extinction training provoke recovery of the extinguished tolerance. The results showed successful extinction, spontaneous recovery and renewal of the extinguished tolerance, but no summation of renewal and spontaneous recovery. Experiment 2 evaluated whether using massive extinction trials and delivering extinction in multiple contexts attenuates the renewal effect. The results showed that both manipulations reduced renewal of the extinguished tolerance to the ataxic effect of ethanol; however, these manipulations used in combination did not appear to be more effective in reducing recovery than each by itself. The present results may help guide further research that evaluates behavioral ploys to prevent the recovery of extinguished responses.
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Condicionamento Clássico/efeitos dos fármacos , Etanol/farmacologia , Extinção Psicológica/fisiologia , Animais , Sinais (Psicologia) , Tolerância a Medicamentos/fisiologia , Masculino , Ratos , Ratos Sprague-DawleyRESUMO
Retroactive cue interference refers to situations in which a target cue X is paired with an outcome in phase 1 and a nontarget cue Z is paired with the same outcome in phase 2, with less subsequent responding to X being seen as a result of the phase 2 training. Two conditioned suppression experiments with rats were conducted to determine whether retroactive cue interference is similarly modulated by a manipulation that influences retroactive outcome interference (e.g., extinction). Both experiments used an ABC renewal-like design in which phase 1 training, phase 2 training, and testing each occurred in different contexts. Experiment 1 found that training the target association in multiple contexts without altering the number of training trials during phase 1 decreased retroactive cue interference (i.e., increased responding consistent with the target association). Experiment 2 found that training the interfering association in multiple contexts without altering the number of interference trials during phase 2 increased retroactive cue interference (i.e., decreased responding consistent with the target association). The possibility of similar mechanisms underlying cue interference and outcome interference is discussed.
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Aprendizagem por Associação/fisiologia , Condicionamento Clássico/fisiologia , Sinais (Psicologia) , Animais , Extinção Psicológica/fisiologia , Feminino , Masculino , Ratos , Ratos Sprague-DawleyRESUMO
Fear conditioning and experimental extinction have been presented as models of anxiety disorders and exposure therapy, respectively. Moreover, the return of fear serves as a model of relapse after exposure therapy. Here we present two experiments, with rats as subjects in a lick suppression preparation, in which we assessed the additive effects of two different treatments to attenuate the return of fear. First, we evaluated whether two phenomena known to generate return of fear (i.e., spontaneous recovery and renewal) summate to produce a stronger reappearance of extinguished fear. At test, rats evaluated outside the extinction context following a long delay after extinction (i.e., a delayed context shift) exhibited greater return of extinguished fear than rats evaluated outside the extinction context alone, but return of extinguished fear following a delayed context shift did not significantly differ from the return of fear elicited in rats tested following a long delay after extinction alone. Additionally, extinction in multiple contexts and a massive extinction treatment each attenuated the strong return of fear produced by a delayed context shift. Moreover, the conjoint action of these treatments was significantly more successful in preventing the reappearance of extinguished fear, suggesting that extensive cue exposure administered in several different therapeutic settings has the potential to reduce relapse after therapy for anxiety disorders, more than either manipulation alone.
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Ansiedade/psicologia , Extinção Psicológica , Medo/psicologia , Animais , Modelos Animais de Doenças , Eletrochoque , Feminino , Terapia Implosiva , Masculino , Ratos , Ratos Sprague-DawleyRESUMO
La investigación con animales no humanos como sujetos experimentales, para entender el comportamiento humano, se basa en la noción darwiniana de la continuidad de las especies. En este marco encontramos modelos análogos para entender la biología y el comportamiento humanos en especies no humanas. En psicología, los modelos animales han probado ser una herramienta efectiva para el entendimiento del comportamiento humano, tanto normal como anormal. En la presente revisión discutimos cómo los modelos animales han sido usados al investigar la psicopatología. Luego de revisar tres modelos animales históricos de psicopatologías específicas, discutimos cómo los fenómenos descubiertos al estudiar el condicionamiento pavloviano han contribuido a nuestra comprensión de la etiología y mantención de la psicopatología humana, cómo la tradición pavloviana ha contribuido al desarrollo de mejores formas de tratamiento para desórdenes del comportamiento, y de forma más general, cómo los fenómenos pavlovianos se encuentran implicados en casi todas las interacciones entre un organismo y su ambiente.
Research using non-human animals as experimental subjects to understand human behavior have been based on the Darwinian notion of continuity between species. In this framework, we find analogous models to understand human biology and behavior in nonhuman species. In the scientific study of psychology, animal models have proven to be an effective tool for understanding both normal and abnormal human behaviors. In the present review, we discuss how animal models have been used in investigating psychopathology. After reviewing three historical animal models of specific psychopathologies, we discuss how phenomena discovered while studying Pavlovian conditioning have contributed to our understanding of the etiology and maintenance of human psychopathology, how the Pavlovian tradition has contributed to the development of better ways to treat these behavioral disorders, and more generally, how Pavlovian phenomena are implicated in almost all interactions between an organism and its environment.