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THEORY-1193: How far fear falls during an extinction or exposure session, or across sessions, does not predict how much fear is expressed at follow-up, in animals, human laboratory samples and fearful human samples

2 min read

Properties5
StatusProposed
Tagspsychopathology-and-treatment, learning-and-conditioning
SourceLIT-1500 — Maximizing exposure therapy: An inhibitory learning approach
ExtendsTHEORY-921 — As Craske et al.'s 2014 review reports it, citing six studies and reporting no data of its own, how far fear falls during an extinction or exposure session, or across sessions, does not predict how much fear is expressed at follow-up, in animals, human laboratory samples and fearful, mostly analog, human samples
Bears onQUESTION-333 — Does how far fear falls within or across exposure or extinction sessions predict fear at follow-up once initial fear is controlled, in the studies Craske et al. 2014 cite or a later meta-analysis, and in well-powered clinical samples?

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Source

Craske, Treanor, Conway, Zbozinek & Vervliet (2014), LIT-1500, read in full from the PMC author manuscript in NOTE-1137. The paper reports no data of its own, and the six studies it cites were not read. What it reports is THEORY-921, which this entry extends.

The claim

The paper states two findings as established. “The amount by which fear has reduced at completion of extinction is not predictive of the amount of fear expressed at the follow-up extinction retest in either animals or human laboratory samples”, and “the amount by which fear reduces by the end of an exposure trial or series of exposure trials is not predictive of the fear level expressed at follow-up assessment in fearful human samples”. NOTE-1137 records it as claim C2, moderate: several cited studies, analog samples. It is the basis of the authors’ case against habituation-based exposure.

This entry states the finding in the record’s voice and in the paper’s words, “fearful human samples”, without the narrowed entry’s note that those samples are mostly analog.

What would settle it

The promote_when, carried from THEORY-921 unchanged: a reading of the six cited studies or of a later meta-analysis that finds the same. It is refuted by a well-powered clinical sample in which fear reduction during exposure predicts outcome once initial fear is controlled. QUESTION-333 asks the same.

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