Research Projects

Exploring the boundaries of preferential processing of fear-relevant stimuli

Why are people more afraid of snakes and spiders than of cars, given that, objectively, the latter pose a greater threat to our well-being? Öhman and Mineka (2001) proposed that some stimuli, such as snakes, spiders, or angry faces, possess a phylogenetically mediated fear-relevance. If encountered they activate a fear module that is selective to these stimuli, activated pre-attentively, encapsulated from cognition, and derived from a dedicated neural circuitry. We are currently pursuing results from our laboratories that challenge this theory. For example, there is some evidence that animal and social fear relevant stimuli are processed differentially.

Information processing biases as correlates and determinants of childhood anxiety

This research examines biases in the early stages of information processing using procedures from cognitive and psychophysiological research. The project will provide benchmark data for normal development of information processing of threat information as well as comparative data relating to childhood anxiety. We propose that children who show bias towards detection and processing of threatening material will be more likely to develop anxiety problems than their peers. A longitudinal investigation will examine whether these biases precede or follow the onset of anxiety problems. The data may enable us to identify children at risk for anxiety problems and would guide the content of preventive interventions.

Probing attention with blink reflexes: The role of stimulus modality

Assessment of attentional and emotional processing with blink reflexes is increasingly popular in basic and in applied research. The current literature states that attentional blink modulation is stimulus modality specific which indicates that reflex probes reflect early stages of stimulus processing. Modality specificity is also used to distinguish attentional from emotional blink modulation. Recent findings of modality non-specific attentional blink modulation question these interpretations. The present project will delineate the effects of stimulus modality on attentional and emotional reflex modulation. It will enhance our understanding of emotion and attention and will aid the design of future applied research.

Extinct, but still there: The effect of extinction on human Pavlovian conditioning

The reduction of anxiety behaviour in behavioural treatments is attributed to the extinction of fear mediated by Pavlovian conditioning. Recent research in animal learning suggests, however, that extinction does not eradicate the potential of a conditional stimulus to elicit a conditional response. Rather, extinction renders conditional stimuli ambiguous so that they can continue to elicit conditioned responses. The present project will investigate whether manipulations that reinstate conditional responding in animals, context change and unpaired presentations of the unconditional stimulus, are also effective in human conditioning. The results will contribute to our understanding of human associative learning and inform the design of therapeutic interventions.

Evaluative and propositional learning in humans

A recent proposal distinguishes two learning systems in human Pavlovian conditioning, an expectancy system and a referential system. The expectancy system is said to govern the learning of signals that predict the presence or absence of important events whereas the referential system is said to mediate changes in the evaluation of a stimulus. The present project employs physiological measures like startle potentiation that are sensitive to evaluative change to confirm the existence of the two learning systems in humans. The results will enhance our knowledge about human learning and have implications for applied areas such as clinical psychology.

Potentiation of human blink startle during Pavlovian conditioning

The fear potentiated startle paradigm has been successfully utilized to analyse the pharmacological and neuroanatomical basis of conditioned fear in animals. Recent studies on emotional behaviour in humans have suggested that startle potentiation may be an appropriate tool to monitor emotional processes in human aversive conditioning. The present project will investigate this claim in more detail and evaluate the impact of non-emotional processes such as sensitization and selective attention, which are also known to affect startle responding, on startle potentiation in human aversive and non-aversive conditioning.

The boundaries of fear-relevance: Animal fear, social fear and intergroup fear

Threat to personal safety can take a number of guises, a snake in the grass, an angry neighbour or a stranger who looks different. The present project will test the hypothesis that responding to these different threats is mediated by a set of common attentional and emotional processes. It will document the extent to which these processes can be modulated to avoid unnecessary responses to non-threatening events and investigate how events acquire the potential to be threatening. The research will enhance our understanding of how people respond to threat and contribute to the development of strategies that facilitate adaptation to a constantly changing environment.