Safe From Harm: Learned, Instructed, and Symbolic Generalization Pathways of Human Threat-Avoidance

Abstract

Avoidance of threatening or unpleasant events is usually an adaptive behavioural strategy. Sometimes, however, avoidance can become chronic and lead to impaired daily functioning. Excessive threat-avoidance is a central diagnostic feature of anxiety disorders, yet little is known about whether avoidance acquired in the absence of a direct history of conditioning with a fearful event differs from directly learned avoidance. In the present study, we tested whether avoidance acquired indirectly via verbal instructions and symbolic generalization result in similar levels of avoidance behaviour and threat-beliefs to avoidance acquired after direct learning. Following fear conditioning in which one conditioned stimulus was paired with shock (CS+) and another was not (CS−), participants either learned or were instructed to make a response that cancelled impending shock. Three groups were then tested with a learned CS+ and CS− (learned group), instructed CS+ (instructed group), and generalized CS+ (derived group) presentations. Results showed similar levels of avoidance behaviour and threat-belief ratings about the likelihood of shock across each of the three pathways despite the different mechanisms by which they were acquired. Findings have implications for understanding the aetiology of clinical avoidance in anxiety.

Generalisation of fear and avoidance along a semantic continuum

“…This is a common observation in the literature on symbolic generalisation (e.g., Dymond, Roche, Forsyth, Whelan, & Rhoden, 2007Dymond, Schlund, Roche, De Houwer, & Freegard, 2012;Gannon, Roche, Kanter, Forsyth, & Linehan, 2011). This effect is understood here to simply reflect the fact that generalisation of fear and avoidance along a merely symbolic continuum might not be expected to be as robust as the original CR.…”

Fear Generalization in Humans: Systematic Review and Implications for Anxiety Disorder Research

“…Augustson and Dougher (1997) were the first to show the symbolic-based generalized avoidance of stimuli that had no direct relational history with aversive events. Since then, Dymond, Schlund, Roche, Whelan, Richards, and Davies (2011) have extended these findings with a larger sample size to a similar operant avoidance paradigm involving aversive images and sounds as USs, while Dymond, Schlund, Roche, De Houwer, and Freegard (2012) showed that levels of symbolic generalization resemble those seen when avoidance is acquired indirectly, such as through verbal instructions (Rachman, 1977). Rhoden (2007, 2008) showed that the symbolic generalization of avoidance may be transformed in accordance with relations of "sameness" (i.e., equivalence) and "opposition."…”

Perceptual and conceptual similarities facilitate the generalization of instructed fear

“…Rachman (1977) proposed that, next to direct experience with a US, hearing or reading about the threat value of a stimulus can also lead to fear and this is supported by extensive research (Dymond, Schlund, Roche, De Houwer, & Freegard, 2012;Muris & Field, 2010;Ollendick & King, 1991;Olsson & Phelps, 2004;Raes, De Houwer, De Schryver, Brass, & Kalisch, 2014). But despite the established importance of instructed fear conditioning in the acquisition of real-life fear, there are no studies (to the very best of our knowledge) that examine the potential for this pathway to catalyze perceptual or conceptual generalization.…”