| Abstract: | Conducted 2 experiments with 39 nonphobic undergraduates, 26 in Exp I and 13 in Exp II. Potentially phobic slides of snakes and spiders and neutral pictures of flowers and mushrooms were presented. Bilateral skin conductance responses (SCRs) were obtained during an initial habituation series of slide presentations that were followed by a series in which the participants rated the slides on a 7-point evaluative semantic differential scale ranging from unpleasant (1) to pleasant (7). A final slide series occurred in the absence of ratings. Type of slide did not evoke different SCRs during habituation. Significantly larger mean SCRs occurred to the pictures of snakes and spiders than to the neutral pictures during the rating series in both experiments and in the final nonrating slide presentation in Exp I. Results contradict the view that differential conditioning of SCRs to potentially phobic slides represents biological preparedness and offers an experimental analogue of clinical phobias. Instead, an interpretation is offered in terms of the evocation of orienting reflexes potentiated by their signal value. (23 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
