Dissection of appetitive conditioning. Does impulsivity play a role?

Area of Science:

• Behavioral Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Clinical Psychology

Background:

• Cue-reactivity in substance and eating disorders is often linked to appetitive Pavlovian learning.
• Existing interventions like cue exposure with response prevention assume consistent extinction of conditioned responses.
• Individual differences in impulsivity may moderate cue-reactivity, yet their role in appetitive learning is under-researched.

Purpose of the Study:

• To replicate findings on the acquisition and differential extinction of appetitive learned responses.
• To investigate the influence of impulsivity traits on appetitive learning processes.

Main Methods:

• Fifty participants completed a laboratory session involving appetitive conditioning.
• Impulsivity traits including reward sensitivity, response inhibition, and sensation seeking were assessed.
• A paradigm adapted from Van Gucht et al. (2010) was used to condition and extinguish subjective responses (craving, expectancy, liking) to milk chocolate.

Main Results:

• Successful acquisition of appetitive conditioned responses was achieved.
• Expectancy responses were fully extinguished, whereas craving and liking responses were not.
• Impulsivity traits did not demonstrate a significant role in the acquisition or extinction phases of appetitive conditioning.

Conclusions:

• Findings support the concept of differential extinction sensitivity across various appetitive response systems.
• The study highlights that the impact of impulsivity on appetitive behavior remains an open question.
• Theoretical, methodological, and clinical implications are discussed concerning appetitive learning and extinction.