Conditioned Fear

Synonyms

Fear conditioning

Definition

Conditioned fear is a state of fear (or anxiety) that occurs in animals after a few pairings of a threatening stimulus with a formally neutral stimulus using a classical (Pavlovian) conditioning procedure. For example, in experimental animals, when a tone (i.e., the conditioned stimulus) is paired with the occurrence of a mild footshock (i.e., the unconditioned stimulus), after a few pairing, the presentation of the tone alone is sufficient to elicit a state of fear (i.e., the conditioned response). Sometimes, the fear response is conditioned to specific features of the setting or the context in which the stimulus was presented (i.e., the contextual stimuli). Conditioned fear provides a critical survival function, which activates a range of defensive behaviors that protect the animal against potentially dangerous environmental threats.

Cross-References

Classical (Pavlovian) Conditioning