Distinguishing safety from danger is necessary for survival, but is aberrant in individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). While PTSD is more prevalent in women than men, research on sex differences in safety learning is limited. Here, female rats demonstrated greater fear discrimination than males in a CS+/CS- paradigm. To determine…

The present study examined mnemonic discrimination in 5- and 6-yr-old children, 8- and 9-yr-old children, 11- and 12-yr-old children, and young adults. Participants incidentally encoded pictorial stimuli and subsequently judged whether targets (i.e., repeated stimuli), lures (i.e., mnemonically related stimuli), and foils (i.e., novel stimuli)…

Two experiments assessed the effects of extinguishing a conditioned cue on subsequent context conditioning. Each experiment used a different video-game method where sensors predicted attacking spaceships and participants responded to the sensor in a way that prepared them for the upcoming attack. In Experiment 1 extinction of a cue which signaled…

Generalization of fear can involve abnormal responding to cues that signal safety and is common in people diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Differential auditory fear conditioning can be used as a tool to measure changes in fear discrimination and generalization. Most prior work in this area has focused on elevated amygdala activity…