Figure 1.

Depicted are (A) valence ratings, (B) arousal rating, (C) anxiety ratings, (D) contingency ratings, (E) startle response, and (F) skin conductance level (SCL). Lines (with standard errors) indicate the responses to the anxiety context (CTX+, black lines), the safety context (CTX−, gray lines) and the generalization context (G-CTX, black dotted lines) after (for the ratings) and during (for the physiological responses) the first acquisition phase (Acq1), the second acquisition phase (Acq2), the first generalization phase (Gen1), and the second generalization phase (Gen2). Black dashed lines depict the startle responses during the intertrial interval (ITI). Analysis for the acquisition session revealed that participants rated CTX+ more (A) negative, (B) arousing, and (C) anxiogenic than CTX−. Moreover, participants (D) expected the US more in CTX+ than in CTX− and responded with (E) enhanced startle response and (F) larger SCL to CTX+ compared with CTX−. In the test phase, generalization of contextual fear was found on the explicit level of responses, that is G-CTX was rated as (A) negative, (B) arousing, and (C) axiogenic as CTX+. On the implicit level, we found generalization of contextual safety as indicated by (F) lower startle responses to G-CTX than to CTX+. Interestingly, (E) the G-CTX elicited a higher SCL than the other two rooms.