Are snakes and spiders special? Acquisition of negative valence and modified attentional processing by non-fear-relevant animal stimuli

作者：Purkis Helena M^*; Lipp Ottmar V

来源：Cognition & Emotion, 2009, 23(3): 430-452.

DOI：10.1080/02699930801993973

Previous research has demonstrated differences in processing between fear-relevant stimuli, such as snakes and spiders, and non-fear-relevant stimuli. The current research examined whether non-fear-relevant animal stimuli, such as dogs, birds and fish, were processed like fear-relevant stimuli following aversive learning. Pictures of a priori fear-relevant animals, snakes and spiders, were evaluated as negative in affective priming and ratings and were preferentially attended to in a visual search task. Pictures of dogs, birds and fish that had been trained as CS in an aversive conditioning design were evaluated more negatively and facilitated dot probe detection relative to CS- pictures. The current studies demonstrated that stimuli viewed as positive prior to aversive learning were negative and were preferentially attended to after a brief learning episode. We propose that aversive learning may provide a mechanism for the acquisition of stimulus fear relevance.

• 出版日期2009