Derived generalization of attentional bias for laboratory-induced threat: Yes but

There is laboratory evidence that fear conditioning underlies the emergence of

attentional bias (AB) for threat. Our main objective was to test, for the first time,

whether derived or symbolic responding contributes to the generalization of

AB across non-conditioned stimuli. Participants were all university students

(N = 86) with no pre-existing conditions. We first employed an exogenous

cueing paradigm with two color slides (i.e., A1 or to-be CS+, and A2 or to-be

CS−) serving as cues, and loud white noise serving as unconditioned stimulus

during conditioning trials. We then employed a match-to-sample procedure to

establish a derived equivalence relation between color A1 and arbitrary shape

C1 as well as between color A2 and arbitrary shape C2. Next, we investigated

the transfer of AB across non-conditioned stimuli: participants performed

the same spatial cueing task with non-conditioned C1 and C2 stimuli serving

as cues. Results replicated previous findings on the conditioning basis of AB,

and most importantly, showed preliminary evidence of AB transfer: those

participants who appraised C1 and not C2 as a signal of impending noise

showed AB toward C1. This is the first laboratory demonstration that AB may

generalize to stimuli physically unrelated to directly conditioned threats.

Unfortunately, the small number of participants showing this effect calls for

cautious considerations