A preregistered multi-lab replication of Maier et al. (2014, Exp. 4) testing retroactive avoidance.

ABSTRACT: The term "retroactive avoidance" refers to a special class of effects of future stimulus presentations on past behavioral responses. Specifically, it refers to the anticipatory avoidance of aversive stimuli that were unpredictable through random selection after the response. This phenomenon is supposed to challenge the common view of the arrow of time and the direction of causality. Preliminary evidence of "retroactive avoidance" has been published in mainstream psychological journals and started a heated debate about the robustness and the true existence of this effect. A series of seven experiments published in 2014 in the Journal of Consciousness Studies (Maier et al., 2014) tested the influence of randomly drawn future negative picture presentations on avoidance responses based on key

SUBMITTER: Maier MA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7458331 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature