Distress is not delicious: Appetitive conditioning is weaker with high psychological distress

Appetitive and aversive conditioning seemingly plays a role in the development and maintenance of various psychopathologies, including anxiety, mood, eating, and substance use disorders. However, studies on conditioning typically only study either appetitive or aversive conditioning in the context of psychopathology, and they are poorly integrated. In this study, 80 healthy volunteers performed both an appetitive and an aversive conditioning task, in which they associated complex 3D objects with appetitive or aversive tastes. An individual measure of learning asymmetry was calculated by comparing their expectancy ratings for these tastes, which was examined in relation to self-report scales on psychological distress, substance use frequency, impulsivity, and anhedonia to determine whether stronger learning asymmetry is associated with more symptoms of psychopathology. It was found that learning asymmetry was significantly associated with psychological distress (R2 = .05). Aversive learning showed no difference related to distress, but weaker appetitive learning was associated with higher distress. Substance use, impulsivity, and anhedonia showed no relation to learning asymmetry. These findings suggest that relative differences in appetitive and aversive learning may play a role in the sensitivity to psychopathology.