Stimulus generalization and fear of snakes

Hypothesized that if anxiety is a drive (here, fear of for snakes), it should lead to overgeneralization. Phrases describing snakes were scaled for connoted anxiety. College students high, average, and low in fear of snakes were used as Ss. They were trained to pull a handle hard in response to stimuli connoting intense anxiety (fear of snakes), and then the spread of this response to milder stimuli was tested. In Exp. I anxiety led to overgeneralization. In Exp. II the cognitive aspects of fear of snakes were controlled, and then anxiety did not lead to overgeneralization. Thus, it was cognition, not drive, that led to the apparent overgeneralization. It is concluded that anxiety does not lead to overgeneralization.