Costly habitual avoidance is reduced by concurrent goal-directed approach in a modified devaluation paradigm

Behav Res Ther. 2021 Sep 10;146:103964. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2021.103964. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTAvoidance habits potentially contribute to maintaining maladaptive, costly avoidance behaviors that persist in the absence of threat. However, experimental evidence about costly habitual avoidance is scarce. In two experiments, we tested whether extensively trained avoidance impairs the subsequent goal-directed approach of rewards. Healthy participants were extensively trained to avoid an aversive outcome by performing simple responses to distinct full-screen color stimuli. After the subsequent devaluation of the aversive outcome, participants received monetary rewards for correct responses to neutral object pictures, which were presented on top of the same full-screen colors. These approach responses were either compatible or incompatible with habitual avoidance responses. Notably, the full-screen colors were not relevant to inform approach responses. In Experiment 1, participants were not instructed about post-devaluation stimulus-response-reward contingencies. Accuracy was lower in habit-incompatible than in habit-compatible trials, indicating costly avoidance, whereas reaction times did not differ. In Experiment 2, contingencies were explicitly instructed. Accuracy differences disappeared, but reaction times were slower in habit-incompatible than in habit-compatible trials, indicating low-cost habitual avoidance tendencies. These findings suggest a small but consistent i...

Source: Behaviour Research and Therapy - September 21, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Valentina M Gl ück Katharina Zwosta Uta Wolfensteller Hannes Ruge Andre Pittig Source Type: research