ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the research on human conditioning that bears on A. Ohman’s account of animal and social fears. Theories of potentiation have either analyzed the phenomenon in terms of general principles governing the formation of associations in Pavlovian conditioning, or in terms of specialized principles specific to the gastrointestinal defense system. Potentiation may reflect a secondary aversion similar to that produced through second-order conditioning or sensory preconditioning. Data from the tests showed that there was a strong aversion to O2, the odor that had been conditioned together with the nonextinguished taste. Taste-mediated potentiation of odor aversion was demonstrated by showing that rats presented with almond odor followed by lithium chloride poisoning learned an odor aversion only if the almond odor was presented in compound with saccharine taste. The preparedness model of human phobias was taken up by Ohman and his colleagues, who began by testing certain of the model’s predictions about the results of human defensive conditioning experiments.
