empirical study pavlovian conditioning emotional learning
22834521
Emotional eating and Pavlovian learning: evidence for conditioned appetitive responding to negative emotional states
ABSTRACT Appetitive learning has been demonstrated several times using neutral cues or contexts as a predictor of food intake and it has been shown that humans easily learn cued desires for foods. It has, however, never been studied whether internal cues are also capable of appetitive conditioning. In this study, we tested whether humans can learn cued eating desires to negative moods as conditioned stimuli (CS) thereby offering a potential explanation of emotional eating (EE) Female participants were randomly presented with 10 different stimuli eliciting either negative or neutral emotional states, with one of these states paired with eating chocolate. Expectancy to eat, desire to eat, salivation, and unpleasantness of experiencing negative emotions were assessed. After conditioning, participants were brought into a negative emotional state and were asked to choose between money and chocolate. Data showed differential conditioned responding on the expectancy and desire measures, but not on salivation. Specific conditioned effects were obtained for participants with a higher BMI (body mass index) on the choice task, and for participants high on EE on the unpleasantness ratings. These findings provide the first experimental evidence for the idea that negative emotions can act as conditioned stimuli, and might suggest that classical conditioning is involved in EE.
Cognition emotion
Peggy Bongers Anita T M Jansen
72335472
Mindfulness training disrupts Pavlovian conditioning
Classical conditioning is a quintessential learning process; however, maladaptive forms of conditioning sustain many unhealthy behaviors (e.g. addiction) Mindfulness training is theorized to de automatize conditioned behavior by decoupling stimulus and response. This study assessed the effect of mindfulness training on conditioned behavior during a classical conditioning task. Findings indicated mindfulness training decreased classically conditioned behavior relative to an active control condition, delaying the onset of first conditioned response and decreasing conditioned response frequency. Thus, mindfulness training may be one method of increasing volitional control over maladaptive conditioned behaviors that contribute to the development and maintenance of clinical disorders.
Physiology Behavior
Adam W Hanley Eric L Garland
209167159
Aberrant reward prediction error during Pavlovian appetitive learning in alexithymia
Abstract Extensive literature shows that alexithymia, a subclinical trait defined by difficulties in identifying and describing feelings, is characterized by multifaceted impairments in processing emotional stimuli. Nevertheless, its underlying mechanisms remain elusive. Here, we hypothesize that alexithymia may be characterized by an alteration in learning the emotional value of encountered stimuli and test this by assessing differences between individuals with low (LA) and high (HA) levels of alexithymia in the computation of reward prediction errors (RPEs) during Pavlovian appetitive conditioning. As a marker of RPE, the amplitude of the feedback related negativity (FRN) event related potential was assessed while participants were presented with two conditioned stimuli (CS) associated with expected or unexpected feedback, indicating delivery of reward or no reward. No reward (vs reward) feedback elicited the FRN both in LA and HA. However, unexpected (vs expected) feedback enhanced the FRN in LA but not in HA, indicating impaired computation of RPE in HA. Thus, although HA show preserved sensitivity to rewards, they cannot use this response to update the value of CS that predict them. This impairment may hinder the construction of internal representations of emotional stimuli, leaving individuals with alexithymia unable to effectively recognize, respond and regulate their response to emotional stimuli.
Social cognitive and affective neuroscience
Francesca Starita Mattia Pietrelli Caterina Bertini Giuseppe di Pellegrino
53722518
Sympathetic responding to unconditioned stimuli predicts subsequent threat expectancy, orienting, and visuocortical bias in human aversive Pavlovian conditioning
Threat expectancy is the ability to predict an aversive outcome. What is not known is the influence of initial threat responding on the acquisition of verbal, attentional and perceptual biases towards conditioned threat cues. This study evaluated the extent to which initial unconditioned stimulus (UCS) responding was related to trial by trial self reported expectancy, sensory processing (visuocortical EEG) and orienting (heart rate deceleration) to threat cues during extinction learning. Participants (n 38) viewed oriented Gabor gratings, associated with the presence (CS+ or absence (CS of a 96 dB white noise (UCS) flickering at 12 Hz to elicit steady state visually evoked potentials (ssVEPs) Multivariate multiple regression revealed greater initial UCS skin conductance responding to predict extinction responding: enhanced visuocortical discrimination, greater heart rate deceleration to CS+ and greater threat expectancy endorsements. These results suggest that the motivational intensity of initial threat reactivity (sympathetic UCS responding) drives learning induced defensive dispositions across multiple response systems.
Biological Psychology
L Forest Gruss Andreas Keil
4919060
Anticipatory prefrontal cortex activity underlies stress induced changes in Pavlovian fear conditioning
ABSTRACT Excessive stress exposure often leads to emotional dysfunction, characterized by disruptions in healthy emotional learning, expression, and regulation processes. A prefrontal cortex (PFC) amygdala circuit appears to underlie these important emotional processes. However, limited human neuroimaging research has investigated whether these brain regions underlie the altered emotional function that develops with stress. Therefore, the present study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate stress induced changes in PFC amygdala function during Pavlovian fear conditioning. Participants completed a variant of the Montreal Imaging Stress Task (MIST) followed (25min later) by a Pavlovian fear conditioning task during fMRI. Self reported stress to the MIST was used to identify three stress reactivity groups (Low, Medium, and High) Psychophysiological, behavioral, and fMRI signal responses were compared between the three stress reactivity groups during fear conditioning. Fear learning, indexed via participant expectation of the unconditioned stimulus during conditioning, increased with stress reactivity. Further, the High stress reactivity group demonstrated greater autonomic arousal (i.e. skin conductance response, SCR) to both conditioned and unconditioned stimuli compared to the Low and Medium stress reactivity groups. Finally, the High stress group did not regulate the emotional response to threat. More specifically, the High stress reactivity group did not show a negative relationship between conditioned and unconditioned SCRs. Stress induced changes in these emotional processes paralleled changes in dorsolateral, dorsomedial, and ventromedial PFC function. These findings demonstrate that acute stress facilitates fear learning, enhances autonomic arousal, and impairs emotion regulation, and suggests these stress induced changes in emotional function are mediated by the PFC. HIGHLIGHTSAcute stress leads to abrupt shifts in emotional learning and regulation processes.Altered PFC amygdala function may underlie disruption of these emotion processes.Psychosocial stress was induced prior to a Pavlovian fear conditioning task.Behavior and fMRI signal during conditioning were compared with stress reactivity.Stress appears to disrupt anticipatory PFC functions that mediate emotional processes.
NeuroImage
Adam M Goodman Nathaniel G Harnett Muriah D Wheelock Danielle R Hurst Tyler R Orem Ethan W Gossett Chelsea A Dunaway Sylvie Mrug David C Knight
151224465
An Empirical Study on the Impact of Using an Adaptive e Learning Environment Based on Learner's Personality and Emotion.
Emotions and personality are important parts of human characteristics and they play a significant role in parts of adaptive e learning systems, it is essential to consider them in designing these systems. This paper presents an empirical study on the impact of using an adaptive e learning environment based on learner's personality and emotion. This adaptive e learning environment uses the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) model for personality and the Ortony, Clore Collins (OCC) model for emotion modeling. The adaptive e learning environment is compared with a simple e learning environment. The results show that students deal with the adaptive e learning environment (experimental group) expressed the adaptive e learning environment is more attractive and close to their personality traits than others (control group) Moreover, the adaptive e learning environment understand their emotional state better, has a suitable reaction to them, and improves their learning rate.
Somayeh Fatahi Shakiba Moradian
149679500
Emotional Intelligence Enhancement Impacts on Developing Speaking Skill among EFL Learners: an Empirical Study
Affective factors play a role in learning in general and language learning in particular. The current study tried to empirically examine the influence of one of these factors namely 'Emotional Intelligence' to check its influence on Speaking Skill. Participants were Intermediate level students who took the IELTS test (International English Language Testing System) so that the researchers could evaluate their proficiency in speaking skill at the beginning of the project. Next, the Emotional Intelligence of them was calculated and afterwards Emotional Intelligence (EI) was taught. After a one educational year course of simultaneously teaching EI and Speaking skill, the same IELTS along with the Emotional Quotient (EQ) questionnaire was administered in experimental and control group. To observe the development in each category, the difference in scores of both EQ and IELTS test (pre test and post test) were calculated. Ultimately, it was found that both EQ and speaking skill of the learners in treatment group were developed in a significant way whereas only speaking skill of control group progressed but it was not significant. The findings of the study can contribute in the promotion of the knowledge on the effect of EI in language learning.
Mohammad Reza Ebrahimi Hooshang Khoshsima Esmail Zare-Behtash Tahereh Heydarnejad
188367769
Social Emotional Learning in Chemistry Learning Group Investigation dan Contextual Learning Integration to Develop Student's Social Emotional Competencies
This article presents the results from integrating Social Emotional Learning (SEL) through cooperative learning and contextual approach in chemistry learning. This study was conducted on 10th grade students in the academic year of 2016/2017. Collaborative learning, as well as the use of real life scenario, are some of the teaching practices for facilitating Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and promotes students' social emotional competenciesthat aligned with affective competencies in Indonesia's 2013 curricula. The proposed teaching practices also answer the challenges faced by the implementation of the 2013 curricula, finding proper teaching practices to integrate to develop student's character through learning activity. The empirical work of the study is based on a qualitative approach. Six Group Investigation's stage integrated with the use of real life scenario was analyzed through various method such as observations, interviews, reflective journals, and student's worksheets answer. The results found that students showed positive attitudes and perspective's change towards chemistry learning, establish positive relationship with peers, cooperative skill, tolerance, and responsible decision making by considered himself, others, and community within the learning process.
JKPK (Jurnal Kimia dan Pendidikan Kimia)
Maulidya Virginanti Yuli Rahmawati Fera Kurniadewi
197733891
Linking Pavlovian Disgust Conditioning and Eating Disorder Symptoms: An Analogue Study.
Although the experience of disgust is commonly endorsed among women with eating disorders, it remains unclear how to best model this emotion in relation to disordered eating. The present study sought to identify potential disgust conditioning abnormalities that may underlie the development of eating disorder symptoms. Individuals high and low in eating disorder symptoms (HED, n 19; LED, n 18) completed a Pavlovian conditioning procedure in which one neutral food item (conditioned stimulus; CS+ was followed by disgusting videos of individuals vomiting (unconditioned stimulus; US) and another neutral food item (CS was not reinforced with the disgusting video. Following this acquisition procedure, there was an extinction procedure in which both CSs were presented unreinforced. The results showed that ratings of disgust, fear, and willingness to eat the CS+ and CS did not significantly vary as a function of the conditioning phase for the LED group. However, the HED group rated the CS+ as significantly more disgusting and fear inducing than the CS after the acquisition phase and this pattern persisted after extinction. These conditioning effects were also observed to be significantly larger for disgust compared to fear. The HED group also reported being significantly less willing to eat the CS+ compared to the CS after the acquisition phase and this pattern also persisted after extinction. In the full sample, only discriminant disgust responding after acquisition was associated with the amount of calorie consumption over the 24 hour period after conditioning. These findings suggest that eating disorder symptoms may result from a heightened proneness to associate disgusting outcomes with otherwise neutral food items. This pattern of disgust learning may reinforce food avoidance in eating disorders and appears to be difficult to fully unlearn.
Behavior therapy
Bunmi O Olatunji
201063510
Pupil dilation as an implicit measure of appetitive Pavlovian learning.
Appetitive Pavlovian conditioning is a learning mechanism of fundamental biological and pathophysiological significance. Nonetheless, its exploration in humans remains sparse, which is partly attributed to the lack of an established psychophysiological parameter that aptly represents conditioned responding. This study evaluated pupil diameter and other ocular response measures (gaze dwelling time, blink duration and count) as indices of conditioning. Additionally, a learning model was used to infer participants' learning progress on the basis of their pupil dilation. Twenty nine healthy volunteers completed an appetitive differential delay conditioning paradigm with a primary reward, while the ocular response measures along with other psychophysiological (heart rate, electrodermal activity, postauricular and eyeblink reflex) and behavioral (ratings, contingency awareness) parameters were obtained to examine the relation among different measures. A significantly stronger increase in pupil diameter, longer gaze duration and shorter eyeblink duration was observed in response to the reward predicting cue compared to the control cue. The Pearce Hall attention model best predicted the trial by trial pupil diameter. This conditioned response was corroborated by a pronounced heart rate deceleration to the reward predicting cue, while no conditioning effect was observed in the electrodermal activity or startle responses. There was no discernible correlation between the psychophysiological response measures. These results highlight the potential value of ocular response measures as sensitive indices for representing appetitive conditioning.
Psychophysiology
Charlotte Pietrock Claudia Ebrahimi Teresa Katthagen Stefan P Koch Andreas Heinz Marcus Rothkirch Florian Schlagenhauf