Studies // Cited work
Avoidance learning: A review of theoretical models and recent developments
Krypotos, A.-M., Effting, M., Kindt, M., & Beckers, T. (2015). Avoidance learning: A review of theoretical models and recent developments.
Level D Review doi:10.3389/fnbeh.2015.00189
What this study supports
Supports claims about past and contemporary theories of how adaptive and maladaptive avoidance is acquired and maintained and their clinical implications. Narrative review; the underlying experiments are largely laboratory fear-conditioning studies.
- Who was studied
- Not applicable: a narrative review of theories and experiments on avoidance learning.
- Design
- Review
- Level of evidence
- Cross-sectional, observational, qualitative work and narrative reviews.
Claims that rest on it
Each claim states what the site asserts, at what strength, and with what caveat.
TheoreticalLevel DConfidence MODERATE
Two-factor and later theories of avoidance learning propose that avoidance is acquired through fear learning and maintained because it ends or prevents an aversive state, which also prevents the learning that the feared outcome would not have occurred.
- Scope
- Learning theories grounded mainly in laboratory fear-conditioning research.
- Caveat
- Contemporary models add cognitive and goal-directed processes, and not all avoidance is maladaptive.
Last reviewed · Review due · avoidance-maintained-by-relief