Lenaert Paper - Aversive learning and generalization in Anxiety

Question 1

What were the results of Leneart et al. for aversive learning and generalization in anxiety (basic)?

Answer 1

Discrimination learning and generalization added significantly to the explained variance in anxiety symptomatology

Question 2

What is aversive learning?

Answer 2

A form of associative learning in which an originally neutral stimulus (conditional stimulus; CS) comes to evoke fear reactions after pair-ings with an aversive stimulus (unconditional stimulus; US).

Question 3

What is discrimination learning?

Answer 3

Discriminating between signals of danger and signals of safety

Question 4

Why is generalization problematic in anxiety disorders?

Answer 4

Because this often means threat generalizations to things that aren’t actual threats

Question 5

Specific result for discrimination learning?

Answer 5

Higher anxiety questionnaire scores after 6-month follow-up for ppl with impaired discrimination learning

Question 6

Specific result for generalization?

Answer 6

Elevated responding to gen-eralization stimuli that resemble the conditioned safety cue was also associated with higher levels of anxiety at follow-up

Question 7

What was an unexpected result in Leneart’s paper? Explanation?

Answer 7

Index of discriminatory aversive learning wasassociated with responding to the generalization stimuli > could be due to the nature of the experiment, or perhaps that they have common processes