Reductions in children’s vicariously learnt avoidance and heart rate responses using positive modeling

Article


Reynolds, G., Field, A. and Askew, C. 2018. Reductions in children’s vicariously learnt avoidance and heart rate responses using positive modeling. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology. 47 (4), pp. 555-568. https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2016.1138410
TypeArticle
TitleReductions in children’s vicariously learnt avoidance and heart rate responses using positive modeling
AuthorsReynolds, G., Field, A. and Askew, C.
Abstract

Recent research has indicated that vicarious learning can lead to increases in children’s fear beliefs and avoidance preferences for stimuli and that these fear responses can subsequently be reversed using positive modeling (counterconditioning). The current study investigated children’s vicariously acquired avoidance behavior, physiological responses (heart rate), and attentional bias for stimuli and whether these could also be reduced via counterconditioning. Ninety-six (49 boys, 47 girls) 7- to 11-year-olds received vicarious fear learning for novel stimuli and were then randomly assigned to a counterconditioning, extinction, or control group. Fear beliefs and avoidance preferences were measured pre- and post-learning, whereas avoidance behavior, heart rate, and attentional bias were all measured post-learning. Control group children showed increases in fear beliefs and avoidance preferences for animals seen in vicarious fear learning trials. In addition, significantly greater avoidance behavior, heart rate responding, and attentional bias were observed for these animals compared to a control animal. In contrast, vicariously acquired avoidance preferences of children in the counterconditioning group were significantly reduced post-positive modeling, and these children also did not show the heightened heart rate responding to fear-paired animals. Children in the extinction group demonstrated comparable responses to the control group; thus the extinction procedure showed no effect on any fear measures. The findings suggest that counterconditioning with positive modelling can be used as an effective early intervention to reduce the behavioral and physiological effects of vicarious fear learning in childhood.

PublisherRoutledge
JournalJournal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology
ISSN1537-4416
Electronic1537-4424
Publication dates
Online23 Mar 2016
Print04 Jul 2018
Publication process dates
Deposited04 Apr 2016
Accepted15 Dec 2015
Output statusPublished
Publisher's version
License
Copyright Statement

Published with license by Taylor & Francis
© Gemma Reynolds, Andy P. Field, and Chris Askew
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproductionin any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/15374416.2016.1138410
Web of Science identifierWOS:000438132100004
LanguageEnglish
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