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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Apr 7, 2026

Investigating Pain-Related Avoidance Behavior using a Robotic Arm-Reaching Paradigm

Investigating Pain-Related Avoidance Behavior using a Robotic Arm-Reaching Paradigm

Published on: October 3, 2020

Learned, instructed and observed pathways to fear and avoidance.

Gemma Cameron¹, Bryan Roche², Michael W Schlund³

¹Department of Psychology, Swansea University, Swansea, SA2 8PP, United Kingdom.

Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry

|July 6, 2015

Summary

Avoidance learning can occur through direct experience, instructions, or observation, similar to instrumental learning. These pathways are comparable in humans and may inform anxiety disorder research.

Keywords:

Avoidance Fear Instructions Observation

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Area of Science:

Psychology
Neuroscience
Behavioral Science

Background:

Conditioned fear can develop without direct pairings of conditioned stimulus (CS) and unconditioned stimulus (US).
Understanding indirect pathways of avoidance learning is crucial for clinical applications.

Purpose of the Study:

To compare instrumental, instructed, and observational learning pathways for acquiring avoidance responses.
To investigate if avoidance can be learned indirectly without direct CS-US experience.

Main Methods:

Participants learned avoidance responses through direct experience (instrumental), verbal instructions, or observing a demonstrator.
Fear conditioning involved CS+ paired with shock and CS- unpaired.
Testing occurred in extinction with various CS types.

Main Results:

Avoidance was acquired through instructions and observation, mirroring instrumental learning, without direct US-avoidance contingency learning.
US expectancy ratings were influenced by the perceived presence or absence of avoidance.
Instrumental, instructed, and observational learning pathways for avoidance in humans demonstrated similarities.

Conclusions:

Instrumental, instructed, and observational learning pathways for avoidance are comparable in humans.
Findings suggest implications for understanding the origins of clinical avoidance behaviors in anxiety disorders.