View article

A two-stage (associative and instrumental) learning task was developed to examine the role of personality in mediating: (1) the development of appetitive and aversive CS-UCS associations; and (2) passive avoidance of aversive CSs, and approach to appetitive CSs, in instrumental learning. The results showed: (1) that harm avoidance [as measured by the Tridimensional Personality Questionnaire (TPQ)] predicted aversive CS-UCS associations, while [TPQ] reward dependence predicted appetitive CS-UCS associations (no personality factors predicted neutral CS-UCS associations); and (2) that subjects high in impulsivity [as measured by the IVE scale of the Eysenck Personality Scales (EPS)] showed poor passive avoidance to the aversive-CS, while subjects high in trait anxiety [as measured by the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI)] showed poor approach behaviour to the appetitive-CS. A correlational study …