摘要：Learning to avoid threats often occurs by observing others. Most previous research on observational fear learning (OFL) in humans has used pre-recorded standardized video of an actor and thus lacked ecological validity. Here, we aimed to enhance ecological validity of the OFL by engaging participants in a real-time observational procedure (35 pairs of healthy male friends, age 18–27). One of the participants watched the other undergo a differential fear conditioning task, in which a conditioned stimulus (CS ) was paired with an aversive electric shock and another stimulus (CS−) was always safe. Subsequently, the CS and CS− were presented to the observer to test the OFL. While the friend’s reactions to the shock elicited strong skin conductance responses (SCR) in all observers, subsequent differential SCRs (CS > CS−) were found only when declarative knowledge of the CS /US contingency (rated by the participants) was acquired. Contingency-aware observers also showed elevated fear potentiated startle responses during both CS and CS− compared to baseline. We conclude that our real-time procedure can be effectively used to study OFL. The procedure allowed for dissecting two components of the OFL: an automatic emotional reaction to the response of the demonstrator and learning about stimulus contingency.
其他摘要：Abstract Learning to avoid threats often occurs by observing others. Most previous research on observational fear learning (OFL) in humans has used pre-recorded standardized video of an actor and thus lacked ecological validity. Here, we aimed to enhance ecological validity of the OFL by engaging participants in a real-time observational procedure (35 pairs of healthy male friends, age 18–27). One of the participants watched the other undergo a differential fear conditioning task, in which a conditioned stimulus (CS ) was paired with an aversive electric shock and another stimulus (CS−) was always safe. Subsequently, the CS and CS− were presented to the observer to test the OFL. While the friend’s reactions to the shock elicited strong skin conductance responses (SCR) in all observers, subsequent differential SCRs (CS > CS−) were found only when declarative knowledge of the CS /US contingency (rated by the participants) was acquired. Contingency-aware observers also showed elevated fear potentiated startle responses during both CS and CS− compared to baseline. We conclude that our real-time procedure can be effectively used to study OFL. The procedure allowed for dissecting two components of the OFL: an automatic emotional reaction to the response of the demonstrator and learning about stimulus contingency.
