The study of Öhman, Flykt & Esteves (2001):Öhman, Flykt & Esteves (2001) One assumption of the Fear Module assumption (Öhman & Mineka, 2001). is that activation is selective. That is, activation only occurs for fear stimuli that have been correlated with threatening encounters in the past. This includes evolutionary history (Preparedness Hypothesis) and the individual’s history (i.e., Pavlovian conditioning).Öhman & Mineka, 2001fearPreparedness Hypothesis Contributor© POSbase 2005 Activation of The Fear Module is Selective

There are three broad domains of fear stimuli: Social fears, animal fears, and nature fears. These domains correlate with the three classes of phobias in DSM-IV (social phobias, animal phobias and nature phobias). Do evolutionary fear stimuli such as spiders and snakes capture our attention more than neutral stimuli such as flowers and mushrooms? stimuli © POSbase 2005 Activation of The Fear Module is Selective

Participants searched for a target stimulus (neutral versus threatening) among matrices of fear-irrelevant pictures (flowers, mushrooms). Search times were faster for snakes and spiders among flowers and mushrooms than vice versa. Similar results were found for face-stimuli (Öhman, Lundqvist, & Esteves, 2001). © POSbase 2005 Activation of The Fear Module is Selective

Moreover, participants specifically fearful of snakes but not spiders showed facilitated search for snakes, but did not differ from controls in search for spiders. In contrast, participants specifically fearful of spiders but not snakes showed facilitated search for spiders but did not differ from controls in search for snakes. In sum, these results show that evolutionary relevant threatening stimuli were effective in selectively capturing attention and fits the assumption of an evolved fear module (Öhman & Mineka, 2001).Öhman & Mineka, 2001 © POSbase 2005 Activation of The Fear Module is Selective