Elsevier

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

Review commodity

Don't fright 'fear conditioning': Methodological considerations for the pattern and analysis of studies on man fear acquisition, extinction, and return of fearfulness

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Highlights

Originates from discussions on replicability and researcher's degrees of freedom.

Aims at stimulating discussions on methods applied in fear workout research.

Addresses critical problems on terminology, design, methods, analysis.

Serves every bit comprehensive compendium and critical evaluation of read-out measures.

Highlights methodological considerations when studying private differences.

Abstract

The then-chosen 'replicability crisis' has sparked methodological discussions in many areas of science in full general, and in psychology in particular. This has led to contempo endeavours to promote the transparency, rigour, and ultimately, replicability of research. Originating from this zeitgeist, the challenge to talk over critical issues on terminology, blueprint, methods, and analysis considerations in fear conditioning research is taken upwardly past this work, which involved representatives from fourteen of the major human fear conditioning laboratories in Europe.

This compendium is intended to provide a basis for the development of a mutual procedural and terminology framework for the field of human fear conditioning. Whenever possible, we requite general recommendations. When this is not feasible, we provide testify-based guidance for methodological decisions on study design, outcome measures, and analyses. Importantly, this piece of work is likewise intended to raise sensation and initiate discussions on crucial questions with respect to data drove, processing, statistical analyses, the impact of subtle procedural changes, and data reporting specifically tailored to the research on fear conditioning.

Keywords

Replicability crisis

Methods

Conditioning

Extinction

Return of fright

Individual differences

Statistics

Design

Methods

Terminology