Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry
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J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry · Jun 2015
Randomized Controlled TrialSymbolic online exposure for spider fear: habituation of fear, disgust and physiological arousal and predictors of symptom improvement.
This research compared the effects of real versus hyper-real images on anxiety, disgust, and physiological arousal during internet-delivered exposure in high spider-fearfuls. Hyper-real images were digitally altered to highlight fearful aspects. A further aim was to examine self-reported and behavioural therapeutic outcomes and exposure-related predictors of these outcomes. ⋯ Findings provide evidence in support of the efficacy of online image-based exposure and have implications for informing further research into the underlying mechanisms of image-based exposure treatment.
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J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry · Jun 2015
Fear conditioning with film clips: a complex associative learning paradigm.
We argue that the stimuli used in traditional fear conditioning paradigms are too simple to model the learning and unlearning of complex fear memories. We therefore developed and tested an adapted fear conditioning paradigm, specifically designed for the study of complex associative memories. Second, we explored whether manipulating the meaning and complexity of the CS-UCS association strengthened the learned fear association. ⋯ The fear conditioning paradigm as presented in the negative-relevant context condition holds considerable promise for the study of complex associative fear memories and therapeutic interventions for such memories.