Flipbook
2 DO SAFETY BEHAVIORS PRESERVE THREAT BELIEFS? 53 In the Test phase, threat expectancy showed a main effect of Stimulus, F (1.12,62.77) = 437.53, p < .001, η p 2 = .89, Condition, F (2,56) = 59.99, p < .001, η p 2 = .68, and a Stimulus x Condition interaction, F (2,112) = 47.20, p < .001, η p 2 = .63. Threat expectancy was higher for A than for B, F (1,56) = 7603.51, p < .001, η p 2 = .99. This did not differ between conditions or show a Stimulus x Condition interaction, both F s < 1. Thus, the experimental manipulation of full avoidance, subtle safety behavior, or no avoidance or safety behavior during the Extinction phase had not differentially influenced threat expectancy ratings for danger stimulus A and safety stimulus B. The experimental manipulation had, however, caused differences between conditions in threat expectancy ratings for C in the Test phase. In line with our hypothesis, threat expectancy for C was higher in the Full avoidance condition than in the Control condition, t (20.53) = 66.53, p < .001, d = 21.59, and in the Subtle safety behavior condition, t (20.05) = 5.36, p < .001, d = 1.61 (see Figure 3, C- in the Test phase is higher in the top panel than in the middle and bottom panel). This indicates that full avoidance maintained threat expectancy for C. Additionally, threat expectancy for C was higher in the Subtle safety behavior condition than in the Control condition, t (20.74) = 3.94, p = .001, d = 1.19 (see Figure 3, C- in the Test phase is higher in the middle panel than in the bottom panel). This suggests that not avoiding or using subtle safety behavior during unreinforced C trials (i.e., during the Extinction phase) resulted in a larger reduction of threat expectancy than when subtle safety behavior was used during unreinforced C trials. Next, we examined threat expectancy for C compared with A and B in the Test phase for the Subtle safety behavior and Control condition to investigate whether using subtle safety behavior during unreinforced C trials had prevented extinction learning. In line with our hypothesis, threat expectancy was higher for A than for C in the Control condition, t (18) = 44.07, p < .001, d = 16.72, and Subtle safety behavior condition, t (20) = 5.09, p < .001, d = 1.62 (see Figure 3, C- is lower than A+ in the Test phase in the middle and bottom panel). This indicates that extinction learning occurred in the Subtle safety behavior and Control condition. However, in the
Made with FlippingBook
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTk4NDMw