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Extinction in fear conditioning: Effects on startle modulation and evaluative self-reports

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 November 1998

DEBORA VANSTEENWEGEN
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Leuven, Belgium
GEERT CROMBEZ
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Leuven, Belgium
FRANK BAEYENS
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Leuven, Belgium
PAUL EELEN
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Leuven, Belgium
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Abstract

A basic feature of human evaluative conditioning is that the reported acquired valence of a previously neutral conditioned stimulus (CS) that has been paired with a valenced unconditioned stimulus (US), is resistant to extinction. The present study investigated whether startle modulation, sometimes presented as an index of acquired valence, reflected this basic feature. In a differential fear conditioning paradigm (n = 38) with an electrocutaneous stimulus as the US, a strong extinction manipulation was conducted by removing the US-electrodes and by extended extinction trials. At the end of extinction, the results corroborated previous findings of evaluative conditioning in that the reported valence for CS+ was still more negative than for CS−, despite disappearance of the differential skin conductance responses. However, startle modulation did not show resistance-to-extinction. Results were discussed in terms of recent conceptualizations of extinction.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
1998 Society for Psychophysiological Research

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