Sensory deprivation and autocontrolled aversive stimulation in the reduction of snake avoidance.

Selected 30 female snake-aversive college students based on responses to the Fear Survey Schedule. Ss in Group 1 (n = 10) underwent 5 hrs of sensory deprivation. Periodically during 3 subsequent hours, they could initiate the presentation of slides which showed snakes in varying degrees of realism. 5 of these Ss saw the slides in random order, and 5 saw them in order of increasing verisimilitude. 10 other Ss could do the same without previous deprivation; 10 more, without deprivation, saw the slides with frequencies yoked to an S in Group 1. Deprived Ss evidenced significantly more fear reduction, both on approach behavior to a live snake and on a self-report measure, than the other 2 groups. Random presentations evoked more viewing responses, and more fear reduction in deprived Ss, than hierarchical order. Results suggest that sensory deprivation may be a useful tool in behavior modification contexts. (French summary) (25 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)