Effects of intolerance of uncertainty on subjective and psychophysiological measures during threat acquisition and delayed threat extinction
Access DataAbstract
Individuals who score high in self-reported Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) tend to find uncertainty unacceptable and aversive. In recent years, research has shed light on the role of IU in modulating subjective (i.e. expectancy ratings) and psychophysiological responses (i.e. skin conductance) across different classical fear conditioning procedures. In particular, during immediate extinction higher IU is associated with disrupted safety learning. However, there remain gaps in understanding how IU, in comparison to other negative emotionality traits (STAI-T), impact different types of subjective and psychophysiological measures during different classical fear conditioning procedures. In our exploratory study, we analyzed IU, STAI-T, subjective (i.e. fear ratings) and psychophysiological (i.e. skin conductance, auditory startle blink) data recorded during fear acquisition training and 24 h-delayed extinction training (n = 66). Higher IU, controlled for STAI-T, was: (1) significantly associated with greater fear ratings to the learned fear cue during fear acquisition training, and (2) at trend associated with greater fear ratings to the learned fear versus safe cue during delayed extinction training. Null results were observed for both IU and STAI-T in relation to skin conductance and auditory startle blink during fear acquisition training and delayed extinction training. These results add to and extend our current understanding of the role of IU on subjective and physiological measures during different fear conditioning procedures particularly that of subjective fear ratings during acquisition and delayed extinction training. Implications of these findings and future directions are discussed.
ID 188
Authors
Maren Klingelhöfer-Jens, Department of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf Jayne Morris, Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and Neurodynamics, School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, University of Reading, Reading, UK Tina B. Lonsdorf, Department of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf
Year
2022
DOI of Publication
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2022.05.006
Persistent Identifier to Dataset
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5648055
Where was the data collected?
University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany
How to Cite
Klingelhöfer-Jens, M., Morriss, J., & Lonsdorf, T. B. (2021). Effects of intolerance of uncertainty on subjective and psychophysiological measures during threat acquisition and delayed threat extinction (1.0) [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5648055
Participant Information
Experimental Group
Affect induction group: - 16 emotionally negative slides between extinction training and short re-extinction training on day 2 No Affect Induction Group: - 16 emotionally neutral slides between extinction training and short re-extinction training on day 2 Description of slides: To induce the affect (affect induction phase, see section Procedure), 16 neutral or 16 emotionally negative slides were presented for 6 s without ISIs. Each slide contained a picture (270 x 215 mm) with a sentence above it (font: Calibri; font color: white; height of the sentences: 45 mm). The added sentences on the emotionally negative slides emphasized the uncontrollability of the shown events (Pacheco-Unguetti, Acosta, Callejas, & Lupianez, 2010), for instance, “Horrible accidents can happen to you everywhere”. They were aimed at eliciting a fearful interpretation of the pictures and therefore intensifying their anxiety inducing effect. On the neutral slides, the sentences, which were added to align the conditions, consisted of boring facts such as “The eye color blue occurs particularly often in people with blond hair”.