Abstract :
To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2005.11.004 Byline: Lisa C. Liberman, Ottmar V. Lipp, Susan H. Spence, Sonja March Keywords: Fear learning; Child anxiety; Electrodermal responses; Blink startle Abstract: The habituation to intense acoustic stimuli and the acquisition of differentially conditioned fear were assessed in 53 clinically anxious and 30 non-anxious control children and young adolescents. Anxious children tended to show larger electrodermal responses during habituation, but did not differ in blink startle latency or magnitude. After acquisition training, non-anxious children rated the CS+ as more fear provoking and arousing than the CS- whereas the ratings of anxious children did not differ. However, anxious children rated the CS+ as more fear provoking after extinction, a difference that was absent in non-anxious children. During extinction training, anxious children displayed larger blink magnitude facilitation during CS+ and a trend towards larger electrodermal responses, a tendency not seen in non-anxious children. These data suggest that extinction of fear learning is retarded in anxious children. Author Affiliation: School of Psychology, The University of Queensland, QLD, 4072, Australia Article History: Received 26 April 2005; Revised 20 October 2005; Accepted 3 November 2005