Anxiety and counter-conditioning: the role of the behavioral inhibition system in the ability to associate aversive stimuli with future rewards CeÂsar Avila*, Maria AntoÁnia Parcet, GeneroÂs Ortet, M. Ignacio IbaÂnÄez-Ribes Department de Psicologia Ba Ásica, ClõÂnica i Psicobiologia, Campus de la Carretera de Borriol, Universitat Jaume I, Apartado de Correos 224, 12080 Castellon, Spain Received 14 August 1998; received in revised form 8 January 1999; accepted 11 February 1999 Abstract A total of 130 female undergraduates performed a counter-conditioning choice-task. This task presented two response alternatives and subjects were instructed to earn the maximum number of points. Responses to button 1 were normally followed by an immediate reward (an average gain of 7.5 points). Responses to button 2 were always followed by a punishment (an average loss of 20 points), but caused the next-but-one press on button 1 to give an average gain of 115 points. Thus, subjects were required to learn and maintain this counter-conditioning association. Four groups of subjects were formed according to the scores on the Sensitivity to Punishment and Sensitivity to Reward scales (which are measures of individual dierences of Gray's anxiety and impulsivity personality dimensions, respectively). A 69.2% of subjects learned and maintained the counter-conditioning association. As predicted, personality results con®rmed that subjects with lower scores on the Sensitivity to Punishment scale learned the counter-conditioning association better and faster when compared with high scorers. Results are consistent with Gray's Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) model of anxiety which holds that individual dierences in anxiety may relate to the ability to associate aversive stimuli with a future reward. Assuming that anxiety depends on BIS functioning, our results show that high trait anxious subjects, if compared with low anxious ones, would have a lower ability for associating an aversive event with a later appetitive one. This learning process would serve non-anxious subjects to reduce the Personality and Individual Dierences 27 (1999) 1167±1179 0191-8869/99/$ - see front matter # 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved. PII: S0191-8869(99)00060-4 www.elsevier.com/locate/paid * Corresponding author. E-mail address: avila@nuvol.uji.es (C. Avila)