Peter F. Lovibond studied associative learning, threat expectancy and avoidance. Experiments on safety behaviors ask whether protection during a feared situation prevents a change in the expected threat. Distinguishing the experienced outcome from what a participant attributes to the safety behavior helps explain why an apparently safe trial need not produce the same learning in every condition. [ref]
Safety behaviours preserve threat beliefs by Peter F. Lovibond and others. 2009, safety behaviors and subsequent threat beliefs
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