SAGE Journal Articles

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SAGE Journal User Guide

Article 1
 
Culver, N. C., Vervliet, B. & Craske, M.G.  (2015). Compound extinction: Using the Rescorla-Wagner model to maximize exposure therapy effects for anxiety disorders. Clinical Psychological Science, 3, 335-348. 
 
Summary:
This article examines whether a prediction that the Rescorla-Wagner model makes can be used to produce more effective reduction of anxiety in humans. The authors examine whether compound presentation of fear-provoking stimuli result in more effective treatment than does presentation of individual fear-provoking stimuli.
 
Discussion Questions:
  1. How is exposure therapy for anxiety related to extinction in classical conditioning?
  2. In the terminology used in the text for Pavlovian conditioning, to what does return of fear (ROF) correspond?
  3. Describe the conditioning procedure.
  4. How should the procedure be used with humans to reduce anxiety disorders? Give a specific example and identify the conditioned and the unconditioned stimuli.
 
 
Article 2
 
Horsley, R. R., Moran, P. M., & Cassaday, H. J.  (2008). Appetitive overshadowing is disrupted by systemic amphetamine but not by electrolytic lesions to the nucleus accumbens shell. Journal of Psychopharmacology 22, 172–181 
 
Summary:
This article examines neural mechanisms of overshadowing. It does this in the larger context of schizophrenia as a disorder in which people pay an unusual amount of attention to stimuli with low salience. The authors address the role of a neurotransmitter and brain area important in reward learning.
 
Discussion Questions:
  1. In the Introduction, what brain areas have been studied for their roles in overshadowing?
  2. What neurotransmitter system and what drug are under investigation in this study?
  3. Referring to Figure 1, what effect of drug administration is seen on overshadowing?
  4. From the Discussion, what evidence suggests that latent inhibition and overshadowing rely on the same neural mechanisms? What evidence suggests that they might rely on different neural mechanisms?