Work

Increased generalisation in trait anxiety is driven by aversive value transfer

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Anxiety has been linked to increased generalisation of threat expectations to perceptually similar stimuli. Such generalisation can arise either from a failure to distinguish threatening from non-threatening stimuli (perceptual mechanism) or from the transfer of learned values between stimuli (value-based mechanism). Yet, how these mechanisms contribute to generalisation remains unclear. Here we assess how participants (n = 140) generalise outcome expectancies to perceptually similar stimuli, using personalised stimulus spaces. Computational modelling revealed that individuals differ in the extent to which they generalise value and in the underlying value function. We further found that stronger generalisation in trait anxiety was best explained by greater reliance on value transfer. In this work, we characterise individual differences in the generalisation of aversive stimuli and link stronger generalisation in trait anxiety to preferential reliance on value transfer.

Source: Communications Psychology

DOI: 10.1038/s44271-026-00415-w

Authors: Luianta Verra, Bernhard Spitzer, Nicolas W. Schuck, Ondrej Zika