Use of Conditioned Autonomic Responses in the Study of Anxiety

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Abstract
Pavlovian conditioning is explored as a tool for the study and objective demonstration of unconscious affect, and for the study of the difference between conscious and unconscious cognitive and affective processes. The subjects (42 male college freshmen) chain-associated for 15 seconds to each of a list of 40 stimulus words. After each of 6 presentations of 1 of these words electric shock is given. Although the subject is unaware of the relationship between word-signal and shock, as determined by intensive interview, their autonomic responses in the 15-second interval between hearing the stimulus words and receiving the shock reveal the existence of unconscious anticipation of shock. This unconscious anxiety is not limited to the conditioned word-stimulus itself but spreads to other words meaningfully related to the conditioned word. Subjects shocked after the word "cow" develop over-reaction to other words with rural connotations. Conditioning curves of aware and unaware subjects differ sharply. Aware subjects immediately show a strong emergency response that does not grow as a function of the number of reinforcements, . but instead shows gradual adaptation. Unaware subjects show typical conditioning curves at a much lower level of autonomic activity and discrimination. Spread of anxiety as seen in curves of generalization is greater at the unconscious than at the conscious level. The chronic anxiety level of the subject, psycho-metrically identified by means of the Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale, may be related to the ease of acquisition and spread of new anxiety responses. Low anxiety subjects condition better but generalize less. This implies more accurate discrimination and appropriateness of response in low anxiety subjects.

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