Fear behavior, fear imagery, and the psychophysiology of emotion: The problem of affective response integration.

Exp I compared the psychophysiological reactions of 25 Ss with 2 fears, focal phobia and social-performance anxiety. Ss were determined by questionnaire (e.g., Differential Personality Questionnaire, Fenz-Epstein Anxiety Scale) and interview to be at the high extreme of their respective fear reference groups. Each group was exposed to both its own and the other group's primary fear stress (i.e., a snake-exposure test and a public speaking performance). These same Ss were also instructed to imagine both types of fear situations as well as control scenes. Results indicate a different psychophysiological response for the 2 fear groups across the 2 fear contents. Thus, snake-phobic Ss showed greater arousal when exposed to a live snake than did socially anxious Ss. Despite significantly greater verbal reports of fear and arousal by socially anxious Ss, both fear groups showed a similar marked increase in physiological arousal during speech performance. Neither group generated a significant physiological reaction to either fear content during imagery assessment. Exp II examined emotional imagery with 40 undergraduates from the same 2 fear populations. An imagery pretraining program, based on the reinforcement of verbal report of somatic response content in imagery, led to a significant visceral arousal response during fear imagery. Response-trained Ss showed a pattern of heart rate change during imagery that varied between Ss and fear contents. Response-trained Ss also showed relatively greater concordance between verbal and visceral measures than did untrained Ss. (60 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Alcohol and human emotion: A multidimensional analysis incorporating startle-probe methodology.

The effect of alcohol intoxication on emotional response was investigated using a model of emotion that includes both arousal and valence dimensions. Thirty-six university students were exposed to multiple presentations of photographic slides selected to elicit distinctive emotional reactions ranging from very pleasant to very unpleasant; half of them received a moderate (approximately .75 ml/kg) dose of ethanol. The students' psychophysiological responses indicated that both general startle reactivity and autonomic indices specific to emotional arousal were diminished by alcohol. However, the affective modulation of startle, occurring with emotional states manipulated by slides with distinct valences, remained intact. These findings suggest that "stress-response dampening" by alcohol may involve a nonspecific attenuation of arousal reactions evident for positive as well as negative stimuli and that theories of motivation for drinking that are based on mood alteration may need refinement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fear and social comparison.

Schachter (1959) had found a positive relationship between fear and the desire to be with others (affiliation). Schachter concluded, following Festinger (1954), that a person will attempt to reduce cognitive dissonance with regard to his self-picture in terms of information obtainable from others. This investigation attempts to determine the validity of this hypothesis by focusing on the dimension of the intensity of the emotion. "If a person is uncertain as to the intensity of his emotional reaction, he should seek information from others that will help him measure it. To the extent that he has information from others regarding the intensity of their reactions, his desire to be with them prior to the impending experience should be reduced." The hypothesis was supported; however, factors such as sex and order of birth were seen to affect S's reaction to threat. From Psyc Abstracts 36:04:4GE86G. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fear and attitude change.

To explore attitude change under high-fear conditions, an experimental group of student nurses was tested 3 times during a 6-wk. TB affiliation. This group showed significantly greater attitude change than a control group. In the experimental group, anticipatory-fear and fear-decrease scores were positively correlated with favorable attitude-change scores. High fear apparently facilitated attitude change in this group. The relationship between fear and attitude change in the high fear experimental group was monotonic with no decrease in attitude change at the highest fear levels. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fear and autonomic arousal.

32 female undergraduates were classified as having high fear (HF) or low fear (LF) of spiders. After reduction of orienting responses to pictures of neutral animals, experimental Ss were shown pictures of a spider, and control Ss were shown pictures of a snake. Using the response to the last neutral stimulus as a base line, HF experimental Ss when 1st shown a spider yielded greater GSRs than other groups. This increase in GSR responding for HF experimental Ss was, for 2 more trials, maintained relative to control Ss. HF experimental Ss also yielded GSRs of greater duration than all other groups when 1st shown the spider stimulus. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Oral imagery and alcoholism.

20 hospital patients with histories of heavy daily alcoholic consumption were matched on age, education, IQ, and diagnosis with 20 patients with no history of reliance on alcohol. Their Rorschach scores on a measure of orality were compared. As predicted, the alcoholics gave more oral dependent responses than the controls. Although total scores on oral sadism did not discriminate between groups, the alcoholic Ss gave more responses on 2 of the oral sadistic subcategories, burdens and overwhelming figures. The striking similarity of subcategory performance of this group to an earlier group of obese Israelis is discussed. (16 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Mental imagery and aging.

Young adult (aged 18–23 yrs) and elderly (aged 55–71 yrs) Ss performed 4 visual mental imagery tasks, each of which tapped different processes. The elderly had relatively impaired image rotation and image activation (the process of accessing and activating stored visual memories), and there was a hint that aging may impair the ability to maintain images. In contrast, the elderly were able to compose (the process of generating the segments of the shape, one by one) and scan visual mental images as well as young adults. However, when the authors correlated the mean performance of each age group across all the tasks, they found that the reaction times (RTs) of the elderly were almost perfectly predicted by the performance of the young Ss but that the error rates were not correlated. These findings suggest that although there is slowing with age, individual imagery processes are affected selectively by aging. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Working memory and the vividness of imagery.

The working memory framework was used to investigate the factors determining the phenomenological vividness of images. Participants rated the vividness of visual or auditory images under control conditions or while performing tasks that differentially disrupted the visuospatial sketchpad and phonological loop subsystems of working memory. In Experiments 1, 2, and 6, participants imaged recently presented novel visual patterns and sequences of tones; ratings of vividness showed the predicted interaction between stimulus modality and concurrent task. The images in experiments 3, 4, 5, and 6 were based on long-term memory (LTM). They also showed an image modality by task interaction, with a clear effect of LTM variables (meaningfulness, activity, bizarreness, and stimulus familiarity), implicating both working memory and LTM in the experience of vividness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Studies in imagery and identity.

The constructs for which reliable scales are developed include identity, ego, body-ego, superego, and id derivatives. These measures were related in 2 samples of 102 and 79 undergraduates (Exps I and II, respectively) to previously developed measures of vividness of self-imagery for current activities, for the past, and for the future. The new measures were also related to ratings and reports that assess 3 basic processes of imagery: figural, mimetic, and symbolic. Exps III and IV, with 82 and 81 undergraduates, respectively, showed significant external validity for imagery measures of identity, superego, and id derivatives. (18 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Nicotine Enhances Contextual Fear Conditioning and Ameliorates Ethanol-Induced Deficits in Contextual Fear Conditioning.

Nicotine and ethanol are 2 commonly used and abused drugs that have divergent effects on learning. The present study examined the effects of acute nicotine (0.25 mg/kg), ethanol (1.0 g/kg), and ethanol-nicotine coadministration on fear conditioning in C57BL/6 mice. Mice were assessed for contextual and cued fear conditioning at 1 day and 1 week posttraining. Ethanol disrupted acquisition but not consolidation of contextual fear conditioning; nicotine enhanced contextual fear conditioning and ameliorated ethanol-associated deficits in contextual fear conditioning. Mecamylamine antagonized this effect. Fear conditioning was reassessed 1 week after initial testing with no drug administered. At the 1-week retest, mice previously treated with nicotine continued to show enhanced contextual fear, and mice previously treated with ethanol continued to show contextual fear deficits. Thus, nicotine both produces a long-lasting enhancement of contextual fear conditioning and protects against ethanol-associated deficits. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Anticipatory imagery and spatial operations.

Performed 5 experiments with approximately 152 students in Grades 1-5 to identify levels of children's operatory development on a task requiring the transformation of objects in accord with stipulated rotations through space and to determine whether observed operatory levels would predict performance on tasks requiring other types of imagined movements. In Exp I, Ss anticipated the results of rotating an object 180Deg.. Three types of imagery performance were found: transposition, in which change of location was acknowledged but changes in the object's features were not; transformation, in which changes of location were coordinated with changes in the object's features; and intermediate, which included elements of the 2 other approaches. These approaches were correlated with age. In Exp II and III, findings were replicated with 90Deg. rotation and with the referent object shielded from sight. In Exp IV, Ss were assessed on a version of the traditional perspective-taking task. Degree of success was lowest for Ss who had manifested spatial transposition on the rotation problem. Finally, in Exp V, Ss from each grade who took extreme approaches were studied. Again, performance on rotation was related to perspective taking and also to imagining water level in a tilted bottle. (1971) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fear, anger, and risk.

Drawing on an appraisal-tendency framework (J. S. Lerner & D. Kelmer, 2000), the authors predicted and found that fear and anger have opposite effects on risk perception. Whereas fearful people expressed pessimistic risk estimates and risk-averse choices, angry people expressed optimistic risk estimates and risk-seeking choices. These opposing patterns emerged for naturally occurring and experimentally induced fear and anger. Moreover, estimates of angry people more closely resembled those of happy people than those of fearful people. Consistent with predictions, appraisal tendencies accounted for these effects: Appraisals of certainty and control moderated and (in the case of control) mediated the emotion effects. As a complement to studies that link affective valence to judgment outcomes, the present studies highlight multiple benefits of studying specific emotions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fear of success: Motive and cognition.

Conducted 2 experiments to investigate whether projective and objective methods of measuring fear of success (FOS) differentially enable the assessment of motives and cognitions. In Exp I, 67 male and 85 female 14- and 15-yr-olds wrote 3 stories to story cues representing sex-appropriate success, sex-inappropriate success, and sex-appropriate nonsuccess. Ss then completed a concern-over-negative-consequences-of-success scale (CONCOSS), and their stories were judged for negative content. In Exp II, 29 14- and 15-yr-old girls viewed a film conveying positive information about a specific sex-inappropriate activity, and measures of FOS were taken 2 days later. 23 controls who did not view the film completed the same procedure as Ss in Exp I. Overall results reveal that, contrary to the predictions of motivation theory, stories written in response to sex-inappropriate success cues did not correlate negatively with sex-appropriate nonsuccess cues. Viewing the film resulted in long-term positive changes in story content, consistent with the cognition explanation but not in long-term change in CONCOSS score, consistent with the motive explanation. Sex and ability differences were found on CONCOSS but not on the projective measure, and the 2 measures did not correlate. Findings suggest that sex-inappropriate cues are culturally marked and, lacking the ambiguity characteristic of other projective tests, elicit culturally based rather than motive-based stories. (49 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fear and affiliation in domesticated male rats.

Male rats actively seek the opportunity to interact with other male rats. Three experiments with 208 Long-Evans males examined the hypothesis that the presence of conspecifics can reduce the behavioral signs of fear and that this capacity provides part of the attraction to conspecifics. In Exp I, the immobility response was measured following exposure to a stressful noise. Ss that were observed in groups exhibited shorter durations of immobility than those observed alone. The "group" effect was sufficiently powerful to nullify different housing conditions and different degrees of familiarity among the Ss. Exp II compared social and nonsocial stimuli and found that only the former effectively reduced the immobility response. In Exp III, stressed Ss were more likely to choose to interact with a conspecific in a T-maze than were nonstressed Ss. Again, rearing conditions made little difference; both individually and group housed Ss were highly attracted to a conspecific. (41 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fear of failure and unrealistic vocational aspiration.

Realistic or unrealistic vocational aspiration was related to need for achievement and assessment of one's capability. The person more strongly motivated to avoid failure, rather than to achieve success, tended to be unrealistic in his vocational aspiration (under or over) rather than to aspire towards some realistic goal wherein he might actually have to prove himself. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fear conditioning increases NREM sleep.

To understand the role that sleep may play in memory storage, the authors investigated how fear conditioning affects sleep-wake states by performing electroencephalographic (EEG) and electromyographic recordings of C57BL/6J mice receiving fear conditioning, exposure to conditioning stimuli, or immediate shock treatment. This experimental design allowed us to examine the effects of associative learning, presentation of the conditioning stimuli, and presentation of the unconditioned stimuli on sleep-wake states. During the 24 hr after training, fear-conditioned mice had approximately 1 hr more of nonrapid-eye-movement (NREM) sleep and less wakefulness than mice receiving exposure to conditioning stimuli or immediate shock treatment. Mice receiving conditioning stimuli had more delta power during NREM sleep, whereas mice receiving fear conditioning had less theta power during rapid-eye-movement sleep. These results demonstrate that a single trial of fear conditioning alters sleep-wake states and EEG oscillations over a 24-hr period, supporting the idea that sleep is modified by experience and that such changes in sleep-wake states and EEG oscillations may play a role in memory consolidation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Fear and pain: Investigating the interaction between aversive states.

Pain and fear often co-occur and appear to interact, although the nature and direction of their relation is not clearly delineated. The present study investigates how exposure to the experience of one of these states subsequently affects responding to the other. Pressure stimulation and carbon dioxide-enriched air (CO?) were used to induce pain and fear, respectively, in 48 healthy individuals. The order in which the stimuli were introduced was manipulated, as was the CO? level. Measures of overt behavior, physiological responding, and self-report were obtained; analyses of stimuli effects generally supported their ability to produce pain or fear. Results indicate that the stimulus rated as the most aversive, the higher level of CO?, led to the highest levels of distressed responding across dependent measures. This pattern was replicated for the stimuli found to be less aversive (i.e., pressure stimulation and low-level CO?, respectively). The authors conclude that fear and pain, in and of themselves, do not dictate the nature of their interaction; the most important factor is how aversive they are perceived to be in relation to one another. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bizarre imagery, interference, and distinctiveness.

Previous studies have shown that bizarre and common images produce equivalent levels of recall in unmixed-list designs. Using unmixed lists, we tested the view that bizarre images would be less susceptible than common images to common sources of interference. In all experiments, subjects imaged a list of either bizarre or common sentences and then performed some kind of interfering task before recalling the initial list of sentences. Experiment 1 showed that bizarre images were better accessed than common images after imaging an intervening list of common sentences. Also, components of common images tended to be better recalled than those of bizarre images after imaging an intervening list of bizarre sentences. Experiments 2a and 2b showed that interfering tasks consisting of studying lists of common concrete nouns did not differentially affect memory for bizarre and common images. In Experiment 3, labeling and imaging an interfering list of common pictures produced higher recall of bizarre images. Generally, bizarre images appeared to be less susceptible than common images to interference from certain types of common encodings. Importantly, the superior recall of bizarre images was always due to greater image (sentence) access, whereas higher recall of common images was associated with greater recovery of the image (sentence) constituents. Explanation of the precise pattern of results requires consideration of the distinctive properties of bizarre images. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Iconic imagery in overinclusive and nonoverinclusive schizophrenics.

R. A. Knight et al (1977) found a significant relation among schizophrenics between good picture-recognition memory and R. W. Payne's index of overinclusion as measured by the Object Classification Test (OCT). The present experiment addressed the problem of what specific stages in information processing might be involved in the differences among schizophrenics in visual memory. It investigated iconic imagery in schizophrenia, using a modification of G. Sperling's paradigm with 41 males in a psychiatric ward of VA Hospital. Ss were divided into 3 groups of schizophrenics (overinclusives, middle inclusives, and underinclusives) and a nonpsychotic control group on the basis of their OCT responses. Results show that the overinclusive schizophrenics and nonpsychotics had an adequate iconic store—they performed better in partial report than in full report, and information in the partial report decayed rapidly. The middle-inclusive and underinclusive schizophrenics, however, were significantly inferior in using this first visual process—their partial-report information decay was found. Findings are discussed in relation to the several theories of schizophrenics' cognitive deficit. (1? p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)