Role of an unavoidability procedure in eliminating avoidance behavior with humans.

Meyer, Philip A.

doi:10.1037/h0029970

Cited by 9 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…In order to determine further the usefulness of tI~is interpretation, the present study varied the percentage of nonresponses followed by the NS in four groups: 0%, 25%, 75%, and 100%. Consistent with the methodology of Meyer (1970), human Ss received an air blast behind their right ear as the NS and learned a button depression as the AR. APPARATUS The apparatus consisted of a response button mounted on the right arm of a dental chair with a headrest, a pressurized-air delivery system with a 1/B-in.…”

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confidence: 79%

“…66-67) have indicated the generally high resistance to extinction of an avoidance response (AR). In an effort to facilitate elimination of the persistent AR, Meyer (1970) found that human Ss stopped avoiding significantly faster with an unavoidability procedure than with normal extinction. The unavoidability procedure consisted of presenting the *This article is based on a thesis by the first author, which was supervised by the second and third authors and submitted to the Graduate School of the University of South Dakota in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the MA degree.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…The intertrial interval was 5 sec. As in Meyer (1970), Ss were prompted if they had not made three consecutive ARs by' ' Trial 10 and again, if needed, by Trial 20. Nineteen Ss required one prompt; an additional five required the second prompt.…”

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confidence: 99%

“…Additional equipment included an earplug, an ace bandage which was tied around S's forehead and the headrest, and a mirror which allowed E to observe S continuously. PROCEDURE The procedure generally followed that of Meyer (1970). Each S was seated and instructed that an air blast would occasionally be directed behind his right ear; this air blast was described as annoying but not painful.…”

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The relationship between punishment and unavoidability in eliminating avoidance behavior in humans

1971

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The relationship between punishment and unavoidability in eliminating avoidance behavior in humans

1971

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“…Bank (1965) reported that after 80 acquisition trials the most persistent group avoided for a mean of only 36 trials. Meyer (1970) and Drake and Meyer (1972) found that, after 40 training trials, subjects extinguished within 47 and 25 trials, respectively (also see Maxwell, Miller, & Meyer, 1971;Moffat & Koch, 1974). However, the Levis (1971) and Levis and Levin (1972) data suggest that extreme resistance to extinction is possible.…”

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A demonstration of persistent human avoidance in extinction

Williams

Levis

1991

Bull. Psychon. Soc.

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The present study provides a replication of Malloy and Levis's (1988) finding of persistent human avoidance responding during extinction. Forty-seven percent of the subjects who learned failed to extinguish by Trial 500. This result was of particular interest given that the extreme avoidance persistence was obtained in many cases with only one CS-UCS (shock) pairing and with a relatively mild UCS (2.5-mA shock level). A comparison between extinguishers and nonextinguishers suggested that the traditional laws of extinction were operating in both groups. These data parallel those found with infrahumans suggesting the governance of comparable conditioning principles. The theoretical importance of these findings are discussed.Attempts by learning theorists to extend established laboratory principles of fear-avoidance conditioning and conflict learning to explain the development, maintenance, and unlearning of human psychological symptoms have resulted in important and influential contributions (e. g. , Dollard & Miller, 1950;Eysenck, 1979;Levis, 1985;Mowrer, 1950;Reiss & Bootzin, 1985;Stampfl & Levis, 1967;Wolpe, 1958). In the 1970s, a number of critics challenged the viability of a traditional learning approach to account for the persistence of human symptoms, which sometimes last for years (e.g., Gray, 1971;Kimmel, 1971;Rachman, 1976;Seligman & Johnston, 1973). The main argument advanced was that laboratory demonstrations of extreme persistence of avoidance and fear responding in extinction were rare. Mackintosh (1974), in reviewing the avoidance area, confirmed the critics observations that in most cases infrahuman avoidance extinction, as well as fear extinction, is relatively short lived. Extinction of both responses typically occurs within 20 to 40 trials; rarely does this process require more than 100 trials.Although Mackintosh's (1974) conclusions accurately reflected the literature as a whole, more studies than he reported demonstrating persistent avoidance responding in extinction existed at that time (Baker, 1968;Denny, 1971;Kostanek & Sawrey, 1965;Levis, 1966; Levis, Bouska, Eron, & McIlhon, 1970;Oliverio, 1967;Seligman & Campbell, 1965;Solomon, Kamin, & Wynne, 1953). Since that time additional studies can be added to the list (e.g., Levis & Boyd, 1979; McAllister, McAllister, Scoles, & Hampton, 1986;Stampfl, 1987). To date, infrahuman examples of extreme resistance to extinction of both fear and avoidance responding cannot be considered to be rare with the procedural methods and principles responsible for producing the effect clearly delineated (see Levis, 1989). 125However, this issue is less clear when the human avoidance conditioning literature is reviewed. Prior to the publication of the Malloy and Levis (1988) study, we could not find one human study that showed substantial resistance to extinction of avoidance responding. Bank (1965) reported that after 80 acquisition trials the most persistent group avoided for a mean of only 36 trials. Meyer (1970) and Drake and Meyer (1972) found that, afte...

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Acquisition and extinction of human avoidance behavior: attenuating effects of omission contingencies of appetitive, aversive and warning cues

Allen,

Sheynin,

Myers

2024

Discov Psychol

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Recently, there has been a renewed interest in avoidance behavior, and its applicability to clinical conditions such as anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and addiction. In a computer-based avoidance task for humans, participants control an on-screen spaceship, shoot at enemy targets (appetitive cue) to gain points, and learn to respond to an on-screen warning signal (WS) by entering safe “hiding” areas to escape/avoid an aversive event (point loss and on-screen explosion) paired with an on-screen aversive cue (bomb). Prior research on active avoidance in rodents suggests that avoidance learning is facilitated if the response also terminates the WS. Here, we adapted the computer-based task to investigate this idea in healthy humans. Two hundred and twenty-two young adults completed one of three conditions of the task: a non-contingent condition, where hiding caused omission/avoidance of the aversive event but did not terminate the WS; a fully-contingent condition, where hiding also caused omission/termination of all on-screen appetitive and aversive cues as well as terminating the WS; and a partially-contingent condition where hiding caused omission of the appetitive and aversive cues, but did not affect the WS. Both contingency manipulations decreased escape/avoidance behavior, as compared to the non-contingent condition where the WS and other cues are not affected by the avoidance behavior. This study has implications for the basic understanding of the mechanisms that affect avoidance behavior in humans.

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Role of an unavoidability procedure in eliminating avoidance behavior with humans.

Cited by 9 publications

References 5 publications

The relationship between punishment and unavoidability in eliminating avoidance behavior in humans

The relationship between punishment and unavoidability in eliminating avoidance behavior in humans

A demonstration of persistent human avoidance in extinction

Acquisition and extinction of human avoidance behavior: attenuating effects of omission contingencies of appetitive, aversive and warning cues

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