| Abstract: | Examined the effects of extensive prior exposure to snakes on subsequent observational conditioning of snake fear in 24 rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta). Three groups of Ss were given 1 of 3 kinds of pretreatment: (1) An immunization group spent 6 sessions watching a nonfearful monkey behave nonfearfully with snakes; (2) a latent inhibition group spent 6 sessions by themselves behaving nonfearfully with snakes with total exposure time to snakes equal to that for the immunization group; and (3) a pseudoimmunization group spent 6 sessions of observational conditioning in which they watched fearful monkeys behave fearfully with snakes. When subsequently tested for acquisition of snake fear, the pseudoimmunization and latent inhibition groups showed significant acquisition, but 6 out of 8 Ss in the immunization group did not. Thus, it seems that for a majority of Ss, prior exposure to a nonfearful model behaving nonfearfully with snakes can effectively immunize against the subsequent effects of exposure to fearful models behaving fearfully with snakes. (36 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
