STIMULUS AVOIDANCE AND PERCEPTUAL ADAPTATION - A VICIOUS CYCLE PARADIGM

Restricting the encountered range of stimuli on a particular stimulus dimension changes a person's perceptual frame of reference, or adaptat ion level, for such stimuli. The present experiment explores the effec t of stimulus avoidance on perceptual adaptation and subsequent avoida nce. Results converge with previous findings to indicate that avoidanc e of danger signals reduces perceptual adapation level for those signa ls. In the present experiment, subjects first avoided high-pitched dan ger-signal tones, thus restricting the range of tone stimuli they enco untered, and subsequently overestimated the pitches of low-pitched saf ety-signal tones. They consequently avoided the low tones as if they w ere high-pitched danger signals. Perceptual adaptation was evident in subjects' tone pitch ratings only if they had rated the tones througho ut their avoidance trials. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights r eserved.