Behavioral Measurement of Conditioned Fear11This chapter was completed in February, 1969, while the authors were at Syracuse University.

Abstract

This chapter presents the current status of the concept of fear from a consistent viewpoint. Fear was considered to be a classically conditioned response, defined in terms of the prior appropriate pairing of neutral and noxious stimuli. As fear is unobservable, it may be measured only by its effect on other observable responses. Owing to this state of affairs, it is necessary, in studying fear, to maintain a clear conceptual separation between the fear response and the response used as its index. The chapter discusses four index responses that permit such a distinction. The chapter reviews the conditioning, measurement, and definition of fear. It focuses on aversive learning situations in which the conditioning of fear and its measurement are generally considered to be independent. Specifically, the interest will be in situations in which the noxious unconditioned stimulus is usually assumed to have its effect on the conditioning of fear but not directly on the measured response. The chapter describes four measures of fear and discusses some of the strengths and weaknesses of each measure and a theoretical rationale for the use of each as an index of fear.