Blootstelling en incubatie

Summary

Exposure and incubation

Report of incubation of fear responses seem to be based more on clinical than on experimental evidence. While clinical cases show that phobic fear is generally increasing over time, the phenomenon of genuine fear incubation due to exposure is rather scarcely documented in the experimentalliterature. Brief exposuresto the fear provoking stimulus have been thought of crucial importance in this fear incubation process. However, at the theoretica! level, few approaches offer convincing models to understand the processes leading to fear incubation. In the present article, these models are critically reviewed and an alternative line of thinking is advanced. Preliminary data collected along this line of reasoning is presented.