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Sensitivity to masked conditioned stimuli predicts conditioned response magnitude under masked conditions
Author(s) -
Cornwell Brian R.,
Echiverri Aileen M.,
Grillon Christian
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.2007.00519.x
Subject(s) - psychology , skin conductance , audiology , conditioned response , perception , response bias , measures of conditioned emotional response , masking (illustration) , backward masking , cognitive psychology , developmental psychology , classical conditioning , neuroscience , conditioning , social psychology , unconditioned stimulus , medicine , art , biomedical engineering , visual arts , statistics , mathematics
Abstract Expression of conditioned fear has been reported to be independent of perceptual awareness of conditioned stimuli (CSs). Previous studies have been criticized, however, for not adequately assessing perceptual awareness. We fear‐conditioned participants to one of two symbols and measured skin conductance responses to dichoptically masked and unmasked CSs. Participants also performed a target detection task and sensitivity ( d ′) to the masked conditioned stimuli (CS+, CS−) was measured. Results showed that sensitivity under masking conditions was related to conditioned responses to masked CSs but not unmasked CSs. Thus, a strong relationship between expression of conditioned fear and awareness of the CS+ emerges when the latter is assessed by signal detection methods. Without consensus on how awareness should be defined, these findings bring balance to previous studies that have typically used less sensitive assessments of awareness.