We report the development and validation of a questionnaire measure of the revised reinforcement sensitivity theory (rRST) of personality. Starting with qualitative responses to defensive and ...approach scenarios modeled on typical rodent ethoexperimental situations, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) revealed a robust 6-factor structure: 2 unitary defensive factors, fight-flight-freeze system (FFFS; related to fear) and the behavioral inhibition system (BIS; related to anxiety); and 4 behavioral approach system (BAS) factors (Reward Interest, Goal-Drive Persistence, Reward Reactivity, and Impulsivity). Theoretically motivated thematic facets were employed to sample the breadth of defensive space, comprising FFFS (Flight, Freeze, and Active Avoidance) and BIS (Motor Planning Interruption, Worry, Obsessive Thoughts, and Behavioral Disengagement). Based on theoretical considerations, and statistically confirmed, a separate scale for Defensive Fight was developed. Validation evidence for the 6-factor structure came from convergent and discriminant validity shown by correlations with existing personality scales. We offer the Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory of Personality Questionnaire to facilitate future research specifically on rRST and, more broadly, on approach-avoidance theories of personality.
Full text
Available for:
CEKLJ, FFLJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PEFLJ
Avoiding stimuli that were previously associated with threat is essential for adaptive functioning, but excessive avoidance that persists in the absence of threat can turn dysfunctional and results ...in severe impairments. Fear and avoidance conditioning models have substantially contributed to the understanding of safety behaviors towards learnt fear stimuli. Safety behaviors are executed in the presence of a feared stimulus to prevent the upcoming threat and are well-established in laboratory models. Avoidance of learnt fear, i.e., avoidance of the feared stimulus itself, is typically initiated before the onset of a feared stimulus: individuals oftentimes avoid fear stimuli to prevent negative emotions evoked by them or ultimately the associated threat. Avoidance of learnt fear is surprisingly understudied despite its prevalence in pathological anxiety. The current overview proposes potential behavioral mechanisms and neural circuits of avoidance of learnt fear in humans, and discusses findings and paradigms suitable for examining it. Specifically, higher-order conditioning, decision making paradigms, and context-cue conditioning investigate distinct forms of avoidance of learnt fear. We also discuss the clinical prospects and future directions of research in avoidance of learnt fear.
-Avoidance of learnt fear prevents the presence of feared stimuli-In fear conditioning, avoidance of learnt fear prevents the CS+ (CS-avoidance)-Narrative review of laboratory studies of CS-avoidance in humans-We propose paradigms suitable for examining CS-avoidance in humans-We propose potential behavioral mechanisms and neural circuits of CS-avoidance
Prior research suggests that repeatedly approaching or avoiding a stimulus changes the liking of that stimulus. In two experiments, we investigated the relationship between, on one hand, effects of ...approach–avoidance (AA) training on implicit and explicit evaluations of novel faces and, on the other hand, contingency awareness as indexed by participants’ memory for the relation between stimulus and action. We observed stronger effects for faces that were classified as contingency aware and found no evidence that AA training caused changes in stimulus evaluations in the absence of contingency awareness. These findings challenge the standard view that AA training effects are (exclusively) the product of implicit learning processes, such as the automatic formation of associations in memory.
The learning principles that guide the acquisition and extinction of avoidance are not fully understood. We developed a novel paradigm to study the temporal dynamics of relief, a putative reinforcer ...of avoidance, and the recovery of fear and avoidance following extinction. During conditioning, the avoidance action canceled the aversive unconditional stimulus (US), without terminating the predictive conditional stimulus (CS). Relief pleasantness was rated after fixed CS offsets, when US omission occured. Avoidance was effective to one CS, but not to another, to track stimulus-specific avoidance learning. Fear was extinguished under response prevention in a separate context. Recovery tests took place 24 h later, in both contexts and with a monetary cost added to the avoidance action. We found that avoidance gradually became stimulus-specific during conditioning, but hardly recovered during delayed testing. Across all phases, initial omissions of the aversive US triggered relief that gradually declined over consecutive omissions, in line with a theoretical prediction error signal. Participants that scored low on distress tolerance, however, displayed sustained levels of relief over continuous omissions. We propose that such forms of sustained relief may produce over-reinforcement of foregoing avoidance actions and promote the development of pathological avoidance. The current paradigm represents an efficacious tool to study the temporal dynamics of relief across avoidance learning and fear extinction and to characterize relief dysregulations in relation to psychopathology.
•Relief is a putative reinforcer of avoidance behaviors, but has receveid little empirical scrutiny.•A new avoidance paradigm tracked the temporal dynamics of relief and the influence of fear extinction and recovery in healthy individuals.•Relief ratings followed a theoretical course of prediction error signaling during avoidance conditioning, extinction and re-extinction.•Skin conductance and ratings of expectancy/relief recovered during delayed testing, but avoidance was greatly reduced under a monetary cost.
Rewards for approaching a feared stimulus may compete with fear reduction inherent to avoidance and thereby alter fear and avoidance learning. However, the impact of such competing rewards on fear ...and avoidance acquisition has rarely been investigated. During acquisition, participants chose between one option (CS+ option) associated with a neutral stimulus followed by an aversive unconditioned stimulus (US) and another option (CS− option) associated with another neutral stimulus followed by no US (N = 223 randomized into three groups). In a subsequent test, no more USs occurred. In one group, competing rewards were established by linking the CS+ option to high rewards and the CS− option to low rewards during acquisition and test (Reward Group). In a second group, rewards were present during acquisition, but discontinued during test (Initial-Reward Group). In a third group, rewards were completely absent (No-Reward Group). Without competing rewards, significant avoidance was acquired and persisted in the absence of the US. Competing rewards attenuated avoidance acquisition already after the first experience of the aversive US. Avoidance remained attenuated even when rewards were discontinued during test. Rewards did, however, not change the level of fear responses to the CS+ (US expectancy, skin conductance). Finally, rewards did not change the level of fear reduction during test, which was, however, experienced earlier. Summarized, rewards for approaching aversive events do not buffer fear acquisition, but can prevent avoidance. This damping of avoidance may initiate fear extinction.
•The impact of rewards for approach on fear and avoidance acquisition was tested.•Avoidance was attenuated by competing rewards even in presence of an aversive US.•Without competing rewards, avoidance persisted even when no more US occurred.•Rewards did not change the level of fear acquisition or reduction, but reduction was experienced earlier.•In sum, rewards for approach did not buffer fear acquisition, but prevented avoidance to expedite fear extinction.
One long-standing theoretical model of shyness proposes that the origins and maintenance of shyness are associated with an approach-avoidance motivational conflict (Asendorpf, 1990), such that shy ...individuals are motivated to socially engage (high approach motivation) but are too anxious to do so (high avoidance motivation). However, this model has not been empirically tested in predicting the development of shyness. In two separate longitudinal studies, we used the Carver and White (1994) Behavioral Inhibition and Activation System (BIS/BAS) scales as a proxy of approach-avoidance motivations and growth curve analyses to examine whether individual differences in these hypothesized motivational tendencies were associated with the development of shyness across 3 years from late childhood to adolescence (Study 1, N = 1284; 49.8% female, Mage = 10.72, SDage = 1.73, M level of parental education fell between associate's degree/diploma and undergraduate degree) and across nearly a decade from emerging adulthood to young adulthood (Study 2, N = 83; 57.8% females, Mage = 23.56 years, SDage = 1.09 years, 92.8% had at least a high school education). Contrary to the approach-avoidance conflict model of shyness, we found that a combination of high BIS/low BAS, not high BIS/high BAS, was associated with relatively higher shyness contemporaneously and across development in both studies. We discuss the processes that might link individual differences in approach-avoidance motivations to the development of shyness in adolescence and young adulthood.
Full text
Available for:
CEKLJ, FFLJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PEFLJ
47.
Parasite avoidance behaviours in aquatic environments Behringer, Donald C.; Karvonen, Anssi; Bojko, Jamie
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B. Biological sciences,
07/2018, Volume:
373, Issue:
1751
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
Parasites, including macroparasites, protists, fungi, bacteria and viruses, can impose a heavy burden upon host animals. However, hosts are not without defences. One aspect of host defence, ...behavioural avoidance, has been studied in the terrestrial realm for over 50 years, but was first reported from the aquatic environment approximately 20 years ago. Evidence has mounted on the importance of parasite avoidance behaviours and it is increasingly apparent that there are core similarities in the function and benefit of this defence mechanism between terrestrial and aquatic systems. However, there are also stark differences driven by the unique biotic and abiotic characteristics of terrestrial and aquatic (marine and freshwater) environments. Here, we review avoidance behaviours in a comparative framework and highlight the characteristics of each environment that drive differences in the suite of mechanisms and cues that animals use to avoid parasites. We then explore trade-offs, potential negative effects of avoidance behaviour and the influence of human activities on avoidance behaviours. We conclude that avoidance behaviours are understudied in aquatic environments but can have significant implications for disease ecology and epidemiology, especially considering the accelerating emergence and re-emergence of parasites.
This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue ‘Evolution of pathogen and parasite avoidance behaviours'.
Previous research examining the relationship between social anxiety (SA) and approach and avoidance motivations has been rather limited, and the results – contradictory. We sought to investigate the ...motivational profiles in SA while differentiating between approach and avoidance motivations in the social-rank and affiliation domains. Based on cognitive, evolutionary, and interpersonal models of SA, we expected that SA will be positively associated with affiliation and social-rank avoidance motivations, and negatively associated with affiliation and social-rank approach motivations. To examine these hypotheses, we conducted three studies. In Study 1 (N = 212), SA was uniquely associated with higher avoidance and lower approach motivations in the domain social-rank. In Study 2 (N = 648), SA was uniquely associated with lower approach motivations in both interpersonal domains. In Study 3 (N = 366), SA was associated with higher avoidance and lower approach motivations in both interpersonal domains. The findings in all three studies were significant above and beyond depression severity and age. These results highlight the importance of motivational profiles for the understanding of SA, which may be useful for the construction of personalized treatments for this condition.
•We examined the profiles of interpersonal motivations in social anxiety (SA).•SA is negatively associated with affiliation and social-rank approach motivations.•SA is positively associated with affiliation and social-rank avoidance motivations.
Elevated levels of fear and avoidance are core symptoms across the anxiety disorders. It has long been known that fear serves to motivate avoidance. Consequently, fear extinction has been the primary ...focus in pre-clinical anxiety research for decades, under the implicit assumption that removing the motivator of avoidance (fear) would automatically mitigate the avoidance behaviors as well. Although this assumption has intuitive appeal, it has received little scientific scrutiny. The scarce evidence from animal studies is mixed, while the assumption remains untested in humans. The current study applied an avoidance conditioning protocol in humans to investigate the effects of fear extinction on the persistence of low-cost avoidance. Online danger-safety ratings and skin conductance responses documented the dynamics of conditioned fear across avoidance and extinction phases. Anxiety- and avoidance-related questionnaires explored individual differences in rates of avoidance. Participants first learned to click a button during a predictive danger signal, in order to cancel an upcoming aversive electrical shock (avoidance conditioning). Next, fear extinction was induced by presenting the signal in the absence of shocks while button-clicks were prevented (by removing the button in Experiment 1, or by instructing not to click the button in Experiment 2). Most importantly, post-extinction availability of the button caused a significant return of avoidant button-clicks. In addition, trait-anxiety levels correlated positively with rates of avoidance during a predictive safety signal, and with the rate of pre- to post-extinction decrease during this signal. Fear measures gradually decreased during avoidance conditioning, as participants learned that button-clicks effectively canceled the shock. Preventing button-clicks elicited a sharp increase in fear, which subsequently extinguished. Fear remained low during avoidance testing, but danger-safety ratings increased again when button-clicks were subsequently prevented. Together, these results show that low-cost avoidance behaviors can persist following fear extinction and induce increased threat appraisal. On the other hand, fear extinction did reduce augmented rates of unnecessary avoidance during safety in trait-anxious individuals, and instruction-based response prevention was more effective than removal of response cues. More research is needed to characterize the conditions under which fear extinction might mitigate avoidance.
Caenorhabditis elegans must distinguish pathogens from nutritious food sources among the many bacteria to which it is exposed in its environment
. Here we show that a single exposure to purified ...small RNAs isolated from pathogenic Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA14) is sufficient to induce pathogen avoidance in the treated worms and in four subsequent generations of progeny. The RNA interference (RNAi) and PIWI-interacting RNA (piRNA) pathways, the germline and the ASI neuron are all required for avoidance behaviour induced by bacterial small RNAs, and for the transgenerational inheritance of this behaviour. A single P. aeruginosa non-coding RNA, P11, is both necessary and sufficient to convey learned avoidance of PA14, and its C. elegans target, maco-1, is required for avoidance. Our results suggest that this non-coding-RNA-dependent mechanism evolved to survey the microbial environment of the worm, use this information to make appropriate behavioural decisions and pass this information on to its progeny.
PDF
