Published online by Cambridge University Press: 06 October 2014
This paper describes a two-component conditioning model of anxiety disorders whose two main components are an associative process and a process which determines the evaluation of the unconditioned stimulus (UCS). It is argued that the inclusion of UCS revaluation processes enables conditioning models to explain a variety of anxiety-related phenomena that hitherto had been difficult to explain solely in associative terms. In particular, (a) experiments are described which suggest that incubation of the conditioned response (CR) can be explained in terms of processes contributing to UCS inflation, (b) the experimental evidence on UCS revaluation is assessed in relation to cognitive processes that might lead to trauma revaluation within specific anxiety disorders, and (c) the role of personality factors in effecting UCS and trauma revaluation is discussed.