The role of expectancy violation in extinction learning: A two-day online fear conditioning study

Background Exposure therapy is at the core of treatment pathological anxiety. While inhibitory learning model proposes a framework for mechanisms underlying exposure therapy, in particular expectancy violation, causal evidence its assumptions remains elusive. Therefore, aim current study was to provide influence violation on extinction retention by manipulating magnitude during learning. Method In total, 101 individuals completed web-based fear conditioning protocol, consisting acquisition and phase, as well spontaneous recovery reinstatement test 24h later. To experimentally manipulate participants were presented only with states conditioned stimulus that either weakly or strongly predicted aversive outcome. Consequently, absence any outcomes phase resulted low high respectively. Results We found successful manipulation which associated reduced threat ratings compared group directly after On Day 2, CS-noUS associations could be retrieved ratings, whereas there no substantial differences ratings. Conclusion These findings indicate related retrieval conscious expectancies, but it unclear how these changes translate affective components (i.e., ratings) response symptoms