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. 2018 Jan 1;71(10):2052–2069. doi: 10.1177/1747021817737727

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© Experimental Psychology Society 2017

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

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Figure 1. — Schematic figures of the free operant observing task and procedure. At any given time, only one of the sides (and hence shapes) is active, thereby yielding rewards, while the other side/stimuli is inactive. (a) Participants can press either of two keys to earn rewards. (b) Key presses lead to the shape outline on the active side becoming briefly thicker and are accompanied by a click. (c) Participants may press the centre blue observing key to check which side is currently active. Observing results in a light blue square appearing (1.5 s) behind the shape on the active side. (d) Rewards are conveyed by a filled symbol on the active side, points and an uplifting noise. In the punishment condition, pressing on the inactive side yields punishment (see text for details). (e) Punishments are conveyed by a symbol filled in black on the inactive side, loss of points and an aversive noise. The procedure involves two successive sessions comprising of a main observing phase followed by briefer post observing stage where the observing cue is extinguished. (f) Participants also rate their current level of anxiety on a visual analog scale (VAS) throughout the task.