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CHAPTER 5 130 Threat expectancy Immediately after each CS presentation, but before (possible) US presentation, participants rated to what extent they expected the loud noise to follow on a 0 ( certain no loud noise ) to 100 ( certain loud noise ) visual analogue scale (VAS) that was presented on the computer screen. Valence and pleasantness After the experimental task, participants rated the valence of each CS on a 100 mm VAS from negative (left) to positive (right) with neutral in the middle. Participants also rated the (un)pleasantness of the US and the safety behavior on two 100 mm VAS from extremely unpleasant (left) to extremely pleasant (right). Procedure After the informed consent procedure, participants filled out the STAI. Participants then received oral instructions from the experimenter, followed by written instructions on the computer screen. Participants were told that there was a relationship between the CS and the US, and that they should try to discover this relationship. Participants were told that there was a picture of a plug visible during each CS presentation, and that this picture could be grey or green. They were explained that they could unplug the headphones from the sound amplifier when the picture was green. They were shown how to unplug the headphones (i.e., safety behavior) and plug them back into the sound amplifier, but they were not told what the consequence of unplugging the headphones was. At the start of the experimental task, participants practiced rating threat expectancy twice and using safety behavior twice. After finishing the experimental task, participants filled out the questionnaire about valence and pleasantness. Next, they were debriefed, thanked, and rewarded. Scoring and analysis Drawing conclusions on the renewal of fear is only appropriate when both fear acquisition and fear extinction took place. We defined Pavlovian awareness as a