ADD. Revista Latinoamericana de Psicología · 2026

Role of early adverse experiences and intolerance of uncertainty in fear, avoidance, and relief learning

This study replicates a previous online study in vivo, examining fear discrimina tion learning and avoidance generalisation in a laboratory setting. We investigated whether trait anxiety, intolerance of uncertainty (IU), and early maltreatment experiences are associated with variability in fear conditioning, avoidance behaviour, and relief-related responding in a non-clinical adult sample. Method: Forty-two university students completed a three-phase paradigm (fear conditioning, avoidance conditioning, generalisation test). Conditioned stimuli were coloured lights (avoidable CS+, unavoidable CS+, CS−); the US (unconditioned stimuli) consisted of aversive images from the Interna tional Affective Picture System IAPS (#1304, #1525). Outcomes were expectancy and anxiety ratings, avoidance frequency, relief ratings, and skin conductance responses (exploratory). Individual differences (trait anxiety, intolerance of uncertainty, early adverse experiences) were also examined. Results: Participants discriminated CS+ from CS− in expectancy and anxiety, replicating prior findings. Skin conductance did not show differential responding. Trait anxiety and intolerance of uncertainty showed no consistent effects. In an exploratory MAES (Maltreatment Abuse and Exposure Scale) subsample (n = 33), higher exposure to childhood sexual abuse was associated with higher relief during avoidance. An exploratory cluster analysis identified two response profiles differing in anticipatory expectancy and avoidance consistency. Conclusions: These findings replicate discrimination learning under controlled laboratory conditions and extend prior work by characterising avoidance behaviour, relief responding, and individual differences in learning trajectories. Results should be interpreted with caution given the sample size and the exploratory nature of several analyses.