The Impact of Continuous and Partial Reinforcement on the Acquisition and Generalization of Human-Conditioned Fear

Abstract

Fear over-generalization as a core symptom of anxiety disorders is manifested by fear responses even to safe stimuli that are very dissimilar to the original dangerous stimulus. The present study investigated the effects of two separate conditioned stimuli–unconditioned stimuli (CS–US) pairing procedures on fear acquisition and generalization using a perceptual discrimination fear-conditioning paradigm, with US expectancy ratings and skin conductance response (SCR) as indicators. One group accepted continuous followed by partial CS–US pairings (C–P group); the other group accepted partial followed by continuous CS–US pairings (P–C group). It was found that compared to the P–C group, the C–P group showed stronger perceptual discrimination of CS+ and CS− in the fear acquisition and showed weaker SCRs and stronger extinction of US expectancy in the generalization. These findings emphasize that CS–US pairings significantly influence fear acquisition and generalization and suggest that continuous-following partial CS–US pairings promote individual discrimination of threat and safety signals and inhibit the generalization of conditioned fear. The results of this study have implications for clinical interventions for patients experiencing negative events.

Keywords

• partial reinforcement
• continuous reinforcement
• fear generalization
• skin conductance