Does residual valence at the end of extinction predict fear after renewal: A conceptual replication

Anxiety disorders are common and despite effective treatments relapse rates remain high. In the laboratory, fear conditioning is used to investigate the processes underlying the acquisition, extinction and subsequent return of fear. It is understood that in extinction, the original fear is not unlearnt, but rather overlayed with new safety learning. It is currently unclear why this safety learning remains for some while it disappears for others leading to relapse. In human fear conditioning, electrodermal responding and self-reported fear of the conditional stimuli (CSs) are often used to monitor fear conditioning. It is known that self-reported CS pleasantness is also impacted by fear conditioning and un-pleasantness of a CS remains even when fear has been extinguished. Past research suggests that residual unpleasantness at the end of extinction can predict return of fear. However, these studies employed long duration CSs or non-standard measures of fear conditioning and are limited to fear reinstatement. This study aims to extend these findings in a standard renewal paradigm. Using 72 first year Psychology students (65 female, 7 male), we show that the residual CS un-pleasantness at the end of extinction predicts self-reported fear after the renewal test. However, the relationship is not found between pleasantness and electrodermal responding during renewal, possibly due to other non-fear related drivers of electrodermal responding at the start of renewal like orienting. This research provides further evidence that self-reported CS un-pleasantness predicts return of fear.