Research Project: ?Watch out!?: How verbal instructions shape subsequent fear conditioning.

Abstract

In the context of experimental studies about fear conditioning, verbal instructions were not considered as a possible influencing factor during the past decades. Therefore, they are often not at all or only partly reported in the methodological section of scientific articles. This study focused on the effect of verbal instructions on fear conditioning. A hypothesis was established that presentation of the CS+ should lead to increased startle responsiveness and skin conductance responses in two verbal contingency instructions groups with different degrees of specificity, whereas participants of the no contingency-group were predicted to require more time for a corresponding response. This hypothesis was tested by providing participants with either no, general, or precise instructions about the combination of a conditioned stimulus with an electric shock, and measuring their fear potentiated startle (FPS) and skin conductance response (SCR) during the experiment. In addition, the participants’ contingency awareness was assessed afterwards. The results for the FPS indicate that conditioning was more outspoken in the general and precise contingency than in the no contingency instruction, whereas information about the CS-type influenced the SCR in all three contingency groups, but mostly so in the precise contingency group. An additional analysis revealed that anxiety level of participants, as assessed by three questionnaires, did not differ significantly between contingency groups. These results suggest that fear conditioning of the FPS and SCR are influenced by verbal instructions, even though the degree of specificity of the instructions might have a varying influence. Therefore, verbal instructions should be included in the methodological sections of scientific articles.