Reduction of conditioned avoidance via contingency reversal

ABSTRACT

There is an increased interest in how excessive avoidance can diminish. Avoidance reduction is typically tested by using Extinction with Response Prevention (ExRP) protocols, where feared stimuli are presented without any aversive outcome while avoidance is prevented. These effects, however, often do not persist. Here, we tested whether pairing an avoidance response with the presence of an aversive event would reduce avoidance more than ExRP. Participants (N = 58) first saw a picture of a square (A) being paired with a shock whereas another picture of a square (B) not being paired with a shock. Then, they learned to press a button during the presentation of A to avoid the shock. Afterwards, the ExRP group saw unreinforced presentations of A and B without being able to press the avoidance button, whereas the Contingency Reversal group (ConR) received a shock whenever they pressed the button in presence of A. In the test phase, participants saw unreinforced presentations of A and B. Results showed that after successful acquisition of fear and avoidance, in the test phase the ConR group avoided A less often than did the ExRP group. Research on contingency reversal could prove helpful for developing avoidance reduction protocols.

KEYWORDS:

• Reinforcement learning
• Pavlovian learning
• instrumental learning
• exposure
• response-prevention
• therapy

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Febe van der Flier for discussions during the set up of the experiment as well as Anna de Witt, Rosalie van der Meer, and Tessa Nederpel for their assistance with data collection. AMK is also affiliated with KU Leuven.

Data Availability Statement

The performance data of all participants are available at: https://osf.io/z45dx/. All data are fully anonymised.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Contingency reversal is similar to punishment protocols (Azrin & Holz, 1966; Dinsmoor, 1977; Johnston, 1972; Sandler et al., 1966). However, we abstain from using the term punishment because it refers not only to a procedure but also to an effect (behavior reduction), and whether this effect occurs is the key question here.

Additional information

Funding

The study was supported by a VICI grant (453-15-005) awarded to IME by the NetherlandsOrganization for Scientific Resarch (NWO-Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek).