Research—Basic Empirical Research Extinction of aversive eliciting functions as an analog of exposure to conditioned fear: Does it alter avoidance responding? Carmen Luciano a,n , Sonsoles Valdivia-Salas a , Francisco J. Ruiz a , Miguel Rodríguez-Valverde b , Dermot Barnes-Holmes c , Michael J. Dougher d , Francisco Cabello e , Vanessa Sánchez a , Yvonne Barnes-Holmes c , Olga Gutierrez f a Universidad de Almería, Spain b Universidad de Jaén, Spain c National University of Ireland, Irealnd d University of New Mexico, USA e Universidad de Murcia, Spain f Universidad de Barcelona, Spain article info Article history: Received 17 January 2012 Received in revised form 10 April 2013 Accepted 1 May 2013 Keywords: Aversive conditioning Respondent extinction Avoidance Transfer and transformation of functions Skin conductance Human fear abstract Exposure techniques rely on the assumption that the extinction of the classically conditioned response (i.e., fear) will result in the disruption of limiting forms of avoidance behavior, both directly trained and derived/indirectly established. This report presents translational research that attempts to test this assumption in laboratory conditions in two experiments with human volunteers. The procedure in both experiments included six phases: (1) conditional discrimination training for the formation of two 6-member equivalence classes; (2) classical conditioning of elicited responses to Class 1 (A1/B1) and Class 2 (A2/B2) members in the white context, followed by conditioning of avoidance/approach responses to Class 1/Class 2 members, respectively, in the green context; (3) test for the transfer of avoidance/ approach functions and of eliciting respondent functions to D1/F1 and D2/F2 in the green context; (4) extinction of classically conditioned responses to A1/B1 in the white context; (5) test of the effects of respondent extinction on avoidance responding to the A, B, D, and F stimuli in the green context; and (6) test of derived symmetry and equivalence relations. Results show that after successful respondent extinction in the white context, only 33.3% participants stopped showing avoidance behavior in the green context, and that respondent elicitation was reinstalled during the test (Phase 5). In Phase 4 of Experiment 2, in addition to undergoing respondent extinction, participants were instructed that the white and green contexts were similar. Results show that after successful respondent extinction in the white context during Phase 4, only 10% participants stopped showing avoidance behavior in the green context, and that respondent elicitation was almost eliminated during the test (Phase 5). We discuss these findings and their applied implications. & 2013 Association for Contextual Behavioral Science. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Traditionally, conditioning-based approaches to the explana- tion of anxiety disorders have assumed that a history of direct aversive conditioning is necessary for the acquisition of fear and avoidance responses (Barlow, 2002). Although clinical data indi- cate that fears often emerge in the absence of any identifiable aversive conditioning (e.g., Rachman, 1977, 1991), and recent research in derived relational responding (see Dymond & Roche, 2009) and associative learning (Field, 2006) has identified ways in which fear and avoidance can be learned indirectly, it could be said that the assumption still holds in general terms, with some aversive conditioning experience needed at some point in the genesis of anxiety. Conditioning-based approaches have led to the design of exposure techniques, widely used in behavior therapy for the treatment of anxiety disorders (e.g., Barlow, 2002; Deacon & Abramowitz, 2004; Marks, 1981). Exposure therapy is based on the assumption that repeated exposure to the feared object or event (conditioned stimulus), produces the extinction of the aversively conditioned responses (i.e., fear) and, hence, the reduc- tion of their behavioral outcome, namely avoidance (e.g., Craske & Mystkowski, 2006; Mowrer, 1960). In fact, preventing avoidance is Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jcbs Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science 2212-1447/$ - see front matter & 2013 Association for Contextual Behavioral Science. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcbs.2013.05.001 n Correspondence to: Facultad Psicología, Universidad Almería, 04120 Almería, Spain. Tel.: +34 950 015260. E-mail address: mluciano@ual.es (C. Luciano). Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science 2 (2013) 120–134