Failure to loose fear: The impact of cognitive load and trait anxiety on extinction. Raes, A. K., Raedt, R. D., Verschuere, B., & Houwer, J. D. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 47(12):1096–1101, December, 2009.
Failure to loose fear: The impact of cognitive load and trait anxiety on extinction [link]Paper  doi  abstract   bibtex   
Exposure therapy is an effective technique for fear reduction. However, whether effective exposure requires attentional allocation to the feared situation remains a debated clinical issue. In the present study, the impact of attention allocation in extinction was investigated in an experimental conditioning study. Through a between-subjects manipulation of cognitive load, we created a condition in which participants could allocate their attention to the feared stimulus during extinction (low load condition), and a condition in which attentional allocation was impaired (high load condition). The influence of cognitive load on extinction was examined by comparing electrodermal responses and verbal ratings for the conditioned stimuli in the two extinction load conditions. The results show less successful extinction in the high load condition than in the low load condition. However, this effect was found only in low anxious participants, and it was prominent only on the skin conductance responses. The present results suggest that extinction is not automatic but requires cognitive resources.
@article{raes_failure_2009,
	title = {Failure to loose fear: {The} impact of cognitive load and trait anxiety on extinction},
	volume = {47},
	issn = {00057967},
	url = {https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19716551 https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0005796709002010},
	doi = {10.1016/j.brat.2009.08.002},
	abstract = {Exposure therapy is an effective technique for fear reduction. However, whether effective exposure requires attentional allocation to the feared situation remains a debated clinical issue. In the present study, the impact of attention allocation in extinction was investigated in an experimental conditioning study. Through a between-subjects manipulation of cognitive load, we created a condition in which participants could allocate their attention to the feared stimulus during extinction (low load condition), and a condition in which attentional allocation was impaired (high load condition). The influence of cognitive load on extinction was examined by comparing electrodermal responses and verbal ratings for the conditioned stimuli in the two extinction load conditions. The results show less successful extinction in the high load condition than in the low load condition. However, this effect was found only in low anxious participants, and it was prominent only on the skin conductance responses. The present results suggest that extinction is not automatic but requires cognitive resources.},
	number = {12},
	journal = {Behaviour Research and Therapy},
	author = {Raes, An K. and Raedt, Rudi De and Verschuere, Bruno and Houwer, Jan De},
	month = dec,
	year = {2009},
	keywords = {Adolescent, Anxiety, Attention, Classical, Cognition, Conditioning, Extinction, Fear, Female, Galvanic Skin Response, Habituation, Humans, Male, Photic Stimulation, Psychological, Psychophysiologic},
	pages = {1096--1101},
}

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