Fear acquisition requires awareness in trace but not delay conditioning

Authors: Weike, Almut I.¹; Schupp, Harald T.²; Hamm, Alfons O.¹

Source: Psychophysiology, Volume 44, Number 1, January 2007 , pp. 170-180(11)

Buy & download fulltext article:

Price: $48.00 plus tax (Refund Policy)

Abstract:

The present study explored fear acquisition in differential delay versus trace conditioning in regard to the potential role of the acquired contingency awareness. One of two neutral pictures (CS+) either coterminated with (delay group; n=32) or was followed by the aversive unconditioned stimulus (UCS) after CS offset (trace group; n=32), while startle blink and skin conductance responses (SCR) were measured. As expected, the acquisition of conditioned startle potentiation in delay conditioning was independent of contingency awareness. In contrast, fear-potentiated startle in trace conditioning was only observed for those participants who were aware of the CS-UCS contingencies. SCR conditioning was generally only obtained for aware participants. The present results suggest a more implicit learning process in delay fear conditioning, whereas the explicit acquisition of contingency awareness might be a prerequisite for trace fear conditioning.

Keywords: Fear; Startle; Delay conditioning; Trace conditioning; Awareness; Emotional learning

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.2006.00469.x

Affiliations: 1: Department of Psychology, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany 2: Department of Psychology, University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany

Publication date: 2007-01-01