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Learning to fear a second-order stimulus following vicarious learning.
Gemma Reynolds1, Andy P Field2, Chris Askew1
1a Department of Psychology , Kingston University , Kingston-upon-Thames , Surrey , UK.
Cognition & Emotion
|December 10, 2015
Summary
Children can learn fear indirectly, even for stimuli not directly observed with fear. This second-order vicarious fear learning shows fear can spread to associated items without direct fearful experience.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Behavioral Science
Background:
- Vicarious fear learning is acquiring fear by observing others' reactions.
- Previous research established basic vicarious fear learning.
- The capacity for second-order vicarious fear learning in children remains underexplored.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate second-order vicarious fear learning in children aged 5-11 years.
- To determine if fear responses can transfer from a directly observed fearful stimulus to an associated, unobserved stimulus.
- To extend understanding of observational fear acquisition in child development.
Main Methods:
- Children observed images of animals paired with fearful or neutral faces.
- Fear responses were measured for initially presented animals and subsequently presented, associated animals.
- A control condition with no faces was used for comparison.
Main Results:
- Children showed increased fear responses to animals seen with fearful faces.
- A significant second-order effect was observed: fear responses transferred to animals associated with the fear-paired stimulus.
- This transfer occurred even when the associated animals were not directly linked to fearful expressions.
Conclusions:
- Children aged 5-11 exhibit second-order vicarious fear learning.
- Fear can generalize to new stimuli through association, without direct observation of fear.
- Findings may explain fear development without recalled traumatic events.
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