Abstract
Enhanced fear-learning for fear-relevant stimuli has been demonstrated in procedures with adults in the laboratory. Three experiments investigated the effect of stimulus fear-relevance on vicarious fear-learning in 6 to 11 year old children (aged 6-11 years). Pictures of stimuli with different levels of fear-relevance (flowers, caterpillars, snakes, worms and Australian marsupials) were presented alone or together with scared faces. In line with previous studies, children’s fear beliefs and avoidance increased for stimuli they had seen with scared faces. However, in contrast to evidence with adults, learning was similar for all three stimulus types irrespective of fear-relevance. The results support a proposal that stimulus preparedness is bypassed when children observationally learn threat-related information from adults.