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The effect of threat intensity on higher-order fear generalization

Poster Session C - Sunday, March 30, 2025, 5:00 – 7:00 pm EDT, Back Bay Ballroom/Republic Ballroom

lingwei ouyang¹ (lingwei.ouyang@utexas.edu), Isaias De La Rosa¹, Joseph Dunsmoor^2,3; ¹Department of Psychology, University of Texas at Austin, ²Institute for Neuroscience, University of Texas at Austin, ³Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas at Austin

It is often important to infer potential danger without direct knowledge. Such inference can arise from leveraging prior associations formed before an emotional learning experience—a higher-order fear learning process known as sensory preconditioning. A crucial factor that determines the extent of fear generalization following an emotional event is the emotional intensity of such event. However, it remains unclear how emotional intensity affects fear generalization within the framework of sensory preconditioning. For example, does a more intense emotional learning experience lead to stronger transfer of fear to stimuli previously associated with those directly related to threat? In this project, 60 participants were randomly assigned to a high or low fear-conditioning group, with intensity of an electrical shock (unconditioned stimuli, US) as the independent variable. Prior to fear-conditioning, participants associated neutral category images of animals or tools (preconditioned stimuli, PS) with images of either outdoor or indoor scenes, respectively. One scene image category (conditioned stimuli, CS+) was then paired with the US. Images from the PS categories were presented again in a generalization (i.e., transfer) test, followed the next day by a test of recognition memory for the PSs. Results showed greater transfer of autonomic arousal (skin conductance responses) as well as better overall recognition of PSs, in the high versus low intensity group. These results highlight that the intensity of an emotional event impacts the indirect transfer of memory and emotional responses, and may in part explain seemingly irrational threat inferences following highly negative emotional experiences.

Topic Area: LONG-TERM MEMORY: Episodic