Far from the threatening crowd: Generalisation of conditioned threat expectancy and fear in COVID-19 lockdown

Dymond, Simon; Cameron, Gemma; Zuj, Daniel; Quigley, Martyn

doi:10.3758/s13420-024-00625-4

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Far from the threatening crowd: Generalisation of conditioned threat expectancy and fear in COVID-19 lockdown

Simon Dymond

, Gemma Cameron, Daniel Zuj, Martyn Quigley

Learning and Behavior

Swansea University Authors: Simon Dymond , Gemma Cameron, Daniel Zuj, Martyn Quigley

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DOI (Published version): 10.3758/s13420-024-00625-4

Abstract

Fear and anxiety are rarely confined to specific stimuli or situations. In fear generalisation, there is a spread of fear responses elicited by physically dissimilar generalisation stimuli (GS) along a continuum between danger and safety. The current study investigated fear generalisation with a nov...

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Published in:	Learning and Behavior
ISSN:	1543-4494 1543-4508
Published:	Springer Science and Business Media LLC 2024
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URI:	https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa65538
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first_indexed	2024-01-31T12:10:32Z
last_indexed	2024-01-31T12:10:32Z
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spelling	v2 65538 2024-01-30 Far from the threatening crowd: Generalisation of conditioned threat expectancy and fear in COVID-19 lockdown 8ed0024546f2588fdb0073a7d6fbc075 0000-0003-1319-4492 Simon Dymond Simon Dymond true false 0689d6e6f7f63ed20ffe78cea9c07646 Gemma Cameron Gemma Cameron true false e4ea88775fc5b3764aa6322a2285a582 Daniel Zuj Daniel Zuj true false 45ba0b00b12b2a4cd533dcd42f0121d9 Martyn Quigley Martyn Quigley true false 2024-01-30 PSYS Fear and anxiety are rarely confined to specific stimuli or situations. In fear generalisation, there is a spread of fear responses elicited by physically dissimilar generalisation stimuli (GS) along a continuum between danger and safety. The current study investigated fear generalisation with a novel online task using COVID-19-relevant stimuli (i.e., busy or quiet shopping street/mall scenes) during pandemic lockdown restrictions in the United Kingdom. Participants (N = 50) first completed clinically relevant trait measures before commencing a habituation phase, where two conditioned stimuli (CSs; i.e., a busy or quiet high street/mall scene) were presented. Participants then underwent fear conditioning where one conditioned stimulus (CS+) was followed by an aversive unconditioned stimulus (US; a loud female scream accompanied by a facial photograph of a female displaying a fearful emotion) and another (CS-) was not. In a test phase, six generalisation stimuli were presented where the US was withheld, and participants provided threat expectancy and fear ratings for all stimuli. Following successful conditioning, fear generalization was observed for both threat expectancy and fear ratings. Trait worry partially predicted generalised threat expectancy and COVID-19 fear strongly predicted generalised fear. In conclusion, a generalisation gradient was evident using an online remote generalisation task with images of busy/quiet streets during the pandemic. Worry and fear of COVID-19 predicted fear generalisation. Journal Article Learning and Behavior 0 Springer Science and Business Media LLC 1543-4494 1543-4508 Generalisation; Threat expectancy; Fear conditioning; COVID-19; Worry 29 1 2024 2024-01-29 10.3758/s13420-024-00625-4 COLLEGE NANME Psychology School COLLEGE CODE PSYS Swansea University SU Library paid the OA fee (TA Institutional Deal) This work was supported by a Ser Cymru Welsh Government Office for Science (Ser Cymru Tackling COVID-19) grant (WG Project Number 95). 2024-05-31T15:09:41.5600985 2024-01-30T08:40:56.3544970 Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences School of Psychology Simon Dymond 0000-0003-1319-4492 1 Gemma Cameron 2 Daniel Zuj 3 Martyn Quigley 4 65538__29639__7ad2a1f8992a4a5d915651c442c1b8b5.pdf 65538.pdf 2024-03-05T12:01:53.5902636 Output 1001753 application/pdf Version of Record true © The Author(s) 2024. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. true eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title	Far from the threatening crowd: Generalisation of conditioned threat expectancy and fear in COVID-19 lockdown
spellingShingle	Far from the threatening crowd: Generalisation of conditioned threat expectancy and fear in COVID-19 lockdown Simon Dymond Gemma Cameron Daniel Zuj Martyn Quigley
title_short	Far from the threatening crowd: Generalisation of conditioned threat expectancy and fear in COVID-19 lockdown
title_full	Far from the threatening crowd: Generalisation of conditioned threat expectancy and fear in COVID-19 lockdown
title_fullStr	Far from the threatening crowd: Generalisation of conditioned threat expectancy and fear in COVID-19 lockdown
title_full_unstemmed	Far from the threatening crowd: Generalisation of conditioned threat expectancy and fear in COVID-19 lockdown
title_sort	Far from the threatening crowd: Generalisation of conditioned threat expectancy and fear in COVID-19 lockdown
author_id_str_mv	8ed0024546f2588fdb0073a7d6fbc075 0689d6e6f7f63ed20ffe78cea9c07646 e4ea88775fc5b3764aa6322a2285a582 45ba0b00b12b2a4cd533dcd42f0121d9
author_id_fullname_str_mv	8ed0024546f2588fdb0073a7d6fbc075_*_Simon Dymond 0689d6e6f7f63ed20ffe78cea9c07646__Gemma Cameron e4ea88775fc5b3764aa6322a2285a582__Daniel Zuj 45ba0b00b12b2a4cd533dcd42f0121d9_*_Martyn Quigley
author	Simon Dymond Gemma Cameron Daniel Zuj Martyn Quigley
author2	Simon Dymond Gemma Cameron Daniel Zuj Martyn Quigley
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institution	Swansea University
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doi_str_mv	10.3758/s13420-024-00625-4
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college_str	Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
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description	Fear and anxiety are rarely confined to specific stimuli or situations. In fear generalisation, there is a spread of fear responses elicited by physically dissimilar generalisation stimuli (GS) along a continuum between danger and safety. The current study investigated fear generalisation with a novel online task using COVID-19-relevant stimuli (i.e., busy or quiet shopping street/mall scenes) during pandemic lockdown restrictions in the United Kingdom. Participants (N = 50) first completed clinically relevant trait measures before commencing a habituation phase, where two conditioned stimuli (CSs; i.e., a busy or quiet high street/mall scene) were presented. Participants then underwent fear conditioning where one conditioned stimulus (CS+) was followed by an aversive unconditioned stimulus (US; a loud female scream accompanied by a facial photograph of a female displaying a fearful emotion) and another (CS-) was not. In a test phase, six generalisation stimuli were presented where the US was withheld, and participants provided threat expectancy and fear ratings for all stimuli. Following successful conditioning, fear generalization was observed for both threat expectancy and fear ratings. Trait worry partially predicted generalised threat expectancy and COVID-19 fear strongly predicted generalised fear. In conclusion, a generalisation gradient was evident using an online remote generalisation task with images of busy/quiet streets during the pandemic. Worry and fear of COVID-19 predicted fear generalisation.
published_date	2024-01-29T15:09:40Z
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score	11.012678

Far from the threatening crowd: Generalisation of conditioned threat expectancy and fear in COVID-19 lockdown

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