| dc.description.abstract | Fear conditioning in humans has been researched extensively. When the fearful stimulus is no longer presented, extinction of fear occurs. However, giving people the option to avoid the fearful stimulus during extinction has a negative effect on the fear extinction. Whether this effect is due to the presentation of a visual cue, or due to a behavioral response to this cue is still not clear. This paper aimed to illuminate on this subject, by depriving some participants of executing the avoidance response during extinction. The data showed that people who were not able to perform the avoidance response responded with higher shock expectancies in some cases, which are used to measure fear. We concluded that overall, people who were not able to conduct an avoidance response were more fearful and showed less extinction than people who could avoid. | |
