Avoidance and behavioural flexibility in obsessive compulsive disorder

•A Sidman avoidance task and an operant variability procedure were employed to measure responding in sub-clinical OCD.•Responses were compared between participants with obsessive-compulsive behavioural traits (OCB) and a non-clinical group.•The results suggest that a history of punishment and rigid adherence to previously acquired avoidance response explain OCB.•The generalisation of an avoidance response acquired in the presence of an aversive stimulus can explain maintenance of OCB.

Three experiments measured differences in responding between participants scoring either higher or lower on obsessive-compulsive trait measures. A Sidman avoidance procedure was employed in Experiment 1, in which participants were required to identify an avoidance response that postponed an aversive event, and noted that higher scorers maintained this response more successfully. Experiments 2 and 3 involved an operant variability procedure to differentiate between variable and rigid responding among participants demonstrating high versus low obsessive-compulsive traits, and revealed no differential sensitivity to rigid responding between the groups. The results provide insight into the nature of obsessive-compulsive behavioural traits, suggesting that avoidance but not stereotypy is primary in OCD.