Abstract
In the present study, spider-phobic children (N = 22) were exposed to subliminal presentations of spiders, snakes, and mushrooms, while skin conductance responses (SCRs) were measured. In addition, pre- and post-treatment symptom severity data were obtained. As a group, spider-phobic children did not react with differential SCRs to masked phobic pictures. In addition, no convincing evidence was found to suggest that individual variation in differential SCRs to phobic stimuli is linked to pre-treatment symptom severity or therapy outcome. These findings cast doubts on the idea that phobics' phenomenal experience of their fear as irrational and uncontrollable is a result of pre-attentive physiological fear activation.
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Mayer, B., Merckelbach, H. & Muris, P. Spider-Phobic Children Do Not React with Differential Skin Conductance Responses to Masked Phobic Stimuli. Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment 21, 237–248 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022877431975
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022877431975