Conditioned Fear Cues Elicit an Impulsive Avoidance Tendency

Objectives: Fear–conditioning is the dominant paradigm for the experimental investigation of fear and anxiety disorders. Through this paradigm, great insight has been gained in the psychological processes of fear learning and extinction as well as its neurobiological correlates. Nevertheless, fear conditioning research so far has not addressed a core characteristic of anxiety disorders, i.e., the behavioral avoidance tendencies present in all anxiety disorders. In the present study, we assessed whether impulsive avoidance tendencies can be established through fear conditioning.
Methods: We first used a fear acquisition task in which 2D projections of one neutral geometrical object were paired with shock (CS+), whereas projections of another object were not paired with shock (CS-). Then, participants performed an approach-avoidance task in which they had to move a small manikin towards and away from the CS projections.
Results: Results showed that participants needed more time to approach the CS+ and avoid the CS- than to avoid the CS+ and approach the CS-.
Conclusion: The results above indicate that fear conditioning indeed results in the establishment of impulsive avoidance tendencies to conditioned fear cues (CS+) and/or approach tendencies to conditioned safety cues (CS-). Implications of this research for the study of fear learning and anxiety disorders and its clinical relevance will be discussed.