More engagement in inefficient avoidance through partial reinforcement

Leng, Lu; Vervliet, Bram

doi:10.1016/j.jbtep.2022.101751

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 34 publications

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“…This was unexpected because the trained activities were paired with pain, whereas the novel activities were not. The uncertainty associated with novelty may have motivated participants to avoid more in an effort to stay on the safe side (Leng & Vervliet, 2022; Van den Bergh et al, 2021). These findings were not based on a priori hypotheses, however, thus warranting replication and cautious interpretation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Generalization of Costly Pain-Related Avoidance Based on Real-Life Categorical Knowledge

2023

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Avoiding activities posing bodily threat is adaptive. However, spreading of avoidance to safe activities may cause functional disability in people with chronic pain. We investigated whether costly pain-related avoidance would generalize from one activity to another on the basis of real-life categorical knowledge in 40 pain-free people (30 female; mean age = 25 years; university students and public of Maastricht, The Netherlands). In a computer task, participants moved a joystick to complete activities from two categories (gardening and cleaning). During activities from the avoidance category, pain could be avoided at the cost of task efficiency by deviating from a short, pain-associated joystick movement. Activities from the safe category were never painful. Subsequently, we tested generalization of avoidance to novel pain-free activities from both categories. Participants generalized avoidance to novel activities from the avoidance category despite the novel activities not being paired with pain and despite avoidance costs, suggesting that costly (pain-related) avoidance generalizes from one activity to another on the basis of category knowledge and can thus be wide reaching, creating detrimental consequences.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Generalization of Costly Pain-Related Avoidance Based on Real-Life Categorical Knowledge

2023

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“…Maintained fear of the high effort CS+ may have been the result of extended exposure to the cues during completion of the FR response requirements, Avoidance Effort 37 with a resulting weaker association between the low effort CS+ and fear. It is possible that the impact of cue exposure during the high and low FR schedules may interact with other mechanisms such as the reliability or effectiveness of avoidance at cancelling shock (Leng & Vervliet, 2022;Xia et al, 2017;Zuj et al, 2020). Here, low-or high-effort avoidance CS+s were always followed by shock cancellation when the response requirements were met, but the impact of partial avoidance schedules on fear levels remains to be determined.…”

Section: Response Effort and Persistent Avoidancementioning

confidence: 99%

Working hard to avoid: Fixed-ratio response effort and maladaptive avoidance in humans

Dymond

Xia

Lloyd

et al. 2022

Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology

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Maladaptive avoidance of safe stimuli is a defining feature of anxiety and related disorders. Avoidance may involve physical effort or the completion of a fixed series of responses to prevent occurrence of, or cues associated with, the aversive event. Understanding the role of response effort in the acquisition and extinction of avoidance may facilitate the development of new clinical treatments for maladaptive avoidance. Despite this, little is known about the impact of response effort on extinction-resistant avoidance in humans. Here, we describe findings from two laboratory-based treatment studies designed to investigate the impact of high and low response effort on the extinction (Experiment 1) and return (Experiment 2) of avoidance. Response effort was operationalized as completion of fixed-ratio (FR) reinforcement schedules for both danger and safety cues in a multi-cue avoidance paradigm with behavioural, self-report, and physiology measures. Completion of the FR response requirements cancelled upcoming shock presentations following danger cues and had no impact on the consequences that followed safety cues. Both experiments found persistence of high response-effort avoidance across danger and safety cues and sustained (Experiment 1) and reinstated (Experiment 2) levels of fear and threat expectancy. Skin conductance responses evoked by all cues were similar across experiments. The present findings and paradigm have implications for translational research on maladaptive anxious coping and treatment development.

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The role of relief, perceived control, and prospective intolerance of uncertainty in excessive avoidance in uncertain-threat environments

Cobos

Quintero

Ruiz-Fuentes

et al. 2022

International Journal of Psychophysiology

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More engagement in inefficient avoidance through partial reinforcement

Cited by 3 publications

References 34 publications

Generalization of Costly Pain-Related Avoidance Based on Real-Life Categorical Knowledge

Generalization of Costly Pain-Related Avoidance Based on Real-Life Categorical Knowledge

Working hard to avoid: Fixed-ratio response effort and maladaptive avoidance in humans

The role of relief, perceived control, and prospective intolerance of uncertainty in excessive avoidance in uncertain-threat environments

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