Very brief exposure: The effects of unreportable stimuli on fearful behavior |
| |
| Authors: | Paul Siegel Joel Weinberger |
| |
| Affiliation: | 1. Purchase College/SUNY, 735 Anderson Hill Road, Purchase, NY 10577, United States;2. Derner Institute, Adelphi University, 1 South Avenue, Garden City, NY 11530, United States;1. Department of Psychology, Uppsala University, Uppsala 752 37, Sweden;2. Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm 171 76, Sweden;3. Department of Surgical Sciences/Radiology, Uppsala University, Uppsala 751 85, Sweden;1. Department of Psychology, UCLA, Los Angeles 90095, USA;2. Department of Decoded Neurofeedback, ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories, Kyoto 619-0288, Japan;3. Department of Sociology, UCLA, Los Angeles 90095, USA;4. California Center for Population Research, UCLA, Los Angeles 90095, USA;5. Brain Research Institute, UCLA, Los Angeles 90095, USA;6. Department of Psychology, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong;7. State Key Laboratory of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong;1. College of Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China;2. Research and Counseling Center of Applied Psychology, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China;1. Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3UD, United Kingdom;2. Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, United Kingdom;3. Psychology Department, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, Kings College London, PO77, De Crespigny Park, London, SE5 8AF, United Kingdom;1. Laureate Institute for Brain Research, Tulsa, OK 74136, USA |
| |
| Abstract: | A series of experiments tested the hypothesis that very brief exposure to feared stimuli can have positive effects on avoidance of the corresponding feared object. Participants identified themselves as fearful of spiders through a widely used questionnaire. A preliminary experiment showed that they were unable to identify the stimuli used in the main experiments. Experiment 2 (N = 65) compared the effects of exposure to masked feared stimuli at short and long stimulus onset asynchronies (SOA). Participants were individually administered one of three continuous series of backwards masked or non-masked stimuli: unreportable images of spiders (25-ms SOA), clearly visible images of spiders (500-ms SOA), or unreportable images of trees (25-ms SOA). Immediately thereafter, they engaged in a Behavioral Avoidance Test (BAT) with a live, caged tarantula. Exposure to unreportable images of spiders resulted in greater approach towards the tarantula than unreportable neutral images. A post-hoc comparison with clearly visible exposure to these same images approached significance. These effects were maintained at a 1-week follow-up (N = 57). In Experiment 3 (N = 26), participants engaged in the BAT 1 week prior to the exposure manipulation in order to provide a baseline measurement of their avoidant behavior, and again immediately after the exposure manipulation. Exposure to unreportable images of spiders reduced avoidance of the tarantula. Similar exposure to trees did not. Implications for the non-conscious basis of fear are discussed. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
| 本文献已被 ScienceDirect 等数据库收录！ |
|
