Evaluative Conditioning Procedure Research Articles

Do uncontrolled processes contribute to evaluative learning? Insights from a new two-US process dissociation procedure and ambivalence measures.

The contribution of uncontrolled processes to evaluative learning has been examined in evaluative conditioning procedures by comparing evaluations of conditioned stimuli between tasks or within tasks but between learning instruction conditions. In the present research, we introduced a new procedure that keeps both tasks and instructions constant. In addition, we introduced ambivalence measures to address this uncontrollability question. The new procedure involves forming an impression of conditioned stimuli based on their pairing with one unconditioned stimulus while attending but discarding the influence of another unconditioned stimulus holding the same (congruent trials) versus a different (incongruent trials) valence. When the to-be-used and to-be-discarded unconditioned stimuli share the same (vs. a different) valence, controlled and uncontrolled processes should support the same (vs. opposite) responses. We used this approach in two preregistered experiments (Ntotal = 467) using dichotomous evaluative classifications (Experiments 1 and 2), evaluative ratings, and two measures of attitudinal ambivalence: mouse trajectories and felt ambivalence (Experiment 2). While we failed to find evidence for uncontrolled processes in evaluative classification frequencies separately in Experiments 1 and 2, analyses of aggregated classification frequencies across Experiments 1 and 2 suggested a small contribution of uncontrolled processes. In addition, we found larger felt ambivalence for incongruent than congruent trials. Overall, the present findings are mixed but support the possibility of a contribution of uncontrolled processes to evaluative learning, even when control is applied to a focal stimulus and additional influences come from a to-be-disregarded stimulus.

Choosing What You Like or Liking What You Chose? Sampling’s Impact on Evaluation and the Role of Idiosyncratic Reactions to Valent Stimuli

Recent work incorporating autonomy into an evaluative conditioning procedure provided evidence of a sampling decision effect in which high-autonomy participants positively shifted their evaluations of frequently sampled conditioned stimuli (CSs), regardless of whether they were consistently paired with positive or negative unconditioned stimuli (USs). The current work modified this paradigm by also measuring participants’ evaluations of the sampled USs. Two experiments replicate the sampling decision effect for neutral CSs in a new variant of the paradigm while ruling out the alternative possibility that the effect is driven by idiosyncratic variance in participants’ reactions to the USs. In addition, Experiment 2 suggests that the sampling decision effect does not extend to the paired, valent stimuli. Together, these results further suggest that it is the act of sampling a stimulus more frequently that predicts a positive evaluative shift toward it.

How evaluative pairings improve body dissatisfaction in adult women: evidence from a randomized-controlled online study

BackgroundMany young women are dissatisfied with their bodies. This study investigated the effect on current body dissatisfaction levels of a newly developed evaluative conditioning procedure that paired self-similar and self-dissimilar images of bodies with positive and neutral affective images, respectively. We hypothesized that learning the contingency that self-similar bodies predict positive affectivity is one process that could aid in explaining how these procedures function.MethodsAdult women without disordered eating pathology participated in an online experiment with random assignment to an intervention or a control condition. All participants initially rated body images in self-similarity and were subsequently asked to categorize positive and neutral images by valence as quickly and accurately as possible. In the intervention condition, self-similar bodies systematically preceded positive images, and self-dissimilar images preceded neutral images, creating a similar body → positive contingency. Pairings in the control condition were unsystematic such that no contingency was present. We measured categorization latencies and accuracies to infer contingency learning as well as current body dissatisfaction immediately before and after exposure to the pairings. All participants further completed measures of trait body image concerns and disordered eating psychopathology at baseline, which we examined as moderators of an expected relation between condition assignment, contingency learning, and body dissatisfaction improvements.ResultsWe analyzed data from N = 173 women fulfilling the inclusion criteria. Moderated mediation analyses showed that assignment to the intervention (vs. control) condition predicted increased similar body → positive contingency learning, which in turn predicted improved body dissatisfaction post-intervention, but only among women with higher pre-existing trait body image concerns or disordered eating levels.ConclusionsThe findings point toward the relevancy of further exploring the utility of pairing procedures. Similar body → positive contingency learning predicted improved body dissatisfaction in individuals with normatively high body image concerns, which suggests pairing procedures could help inform future research on reducing body dissatisfaction.

WITHDRAWN: Four studies Yield limited evidence for prepared (disgust) learning via evaluative conditioning

Prepared learning accounts suggest that specialized learning mechanisms increase the retention of associations linked to ancestrally-prevalent threats. Few studies have investigated specialized aversion learning for pathogen threats. In four pre-registered studies (N's = 515, 495, 164, 175), we employed an evaluative conditioning procedure to test whether foods (versus to non-foods) are more readily associated with negative content associated with pathogens than negative content not associated with pathogens. Participants saw negatively valenced (either pathogen-relevant or -irrelevant), neutral or positively-valenced stimuli paired with meats and plants (in Studies 1 and 2) and with meats and abstract shapes (in Studies 3 and 4). They then evaluated each stimulus explicitly via self-reports (Studies 1–4) and implicitly via an Affect Misattribution Procedure (Studies 3 and 4). Linear mixed models revealed general evaluative conditioning effects, but little evidence for specialized (implicit or explicit) learning for a food-pathogen association. However, across Studies 2–4, participants who saw pathogen-relevant (vs. -irrelevant) negative stimuli at any point during evaluative conditioning evaluated the conditioned stimuli more negatively, regardless of whether that stimulus had previously been paired with an unconditioned stimulus. Results speak against the hypothesis that evaluative conditioning effects are stronger for foods paired with disgust-eliciting images than for foods paired with other negative images.

A conditional judgment procedure for probing evaluative conditioning effects in the absence of feelings of remembering.

Attitude research has capitalized on evaluative conditioning procedures to gain insight into how evaluations are formed and may be changed. In evaluative conditioning, a conditioned stimulus (CS; e.g., an unfamiliar soda brand) is paired with an unconditioned stimulus (US) of affective value (e.g., a pleasant picture). Following this pairing, a change in CS liking may be observed (e.g., the soda brand is liked better). A question with far-reaching theoretical and practical implications is whether the change in CS liking is found when participants feel they do not remember the CS-US pairings at the time an evaluation is produced about the CS. Here, we introduce a new conditional judgment procedure-the two-button-sets (TBS) task-for probing evaluative conditioning effects without feelings of remembering about the valence of the US paired with the CS. In three experiments, the TBS is (1) is successfully validated; it is also used to (2) provide preliminary information on the feeling of remembering question, and (3) to examine an affect-consistent bias in memory judgments for CS-US pairings. Results do not support evaluative effects in the absence of feelings of remembering, and they oppose the view that affect-consistent bias is limited to memory uncertainty. We discuss these findings in light of previous evidence and of dual-learning models of attitudes. We also discuss limitations and research avenues related to the new procedure.

Just Playing the Role of Good Study Participants? Evaluative Conditioning, Demand Compliance, and Agreeableness

Evaluative Conditioning (EC) is the change in liking of stimuli due to their co-occurrence with other valenced stimuli. Recent research has shown stronger EC effects for more agreeable individuals. Because EC procedures are prone to demand characteristics, we hypothesized that more agreeable individuals might simply play the role of good study participants and therefore show stronger EC effects. We tested this in two preregistered experiments (N = 700). In Experiment 1, self-reported Agreeableness and a behavioral measure of Demand Compliance moderated EC. However, Agreeableness and Demand Compliance were uncorrelated, and the moderations were independent. Experiment 2 used an instructional EC paradigm, showing only a moderation by Demand Compliance but not Agreeableness. Our studies imply that although EC effects are related to Demand Compliance, more agreeable participants are not more likely to comply with demand characteristics in EC experiments.

The Moderating Role of Neuroticism on Evaluative Conditioning: Evidence From Ambiguous Learning Situations

Numerous studies have demonstrated a link between neuroticism and negative biases. Although some studies suggest that people with high neuroticism give more weight to negative information, others suggest that they respond more strongly to both positive and negative information. We investigated whether neuroticism is related to the evaluation of conditioned stimuli (CSs) in evaluative conditioning procedures that involve ambiguous learning conditions. We created ambiguous situations where CSs were paired with unconditioned stimuli (USs) consisting of both positive and negative pictures (Experiment 1) or paired alternatingly with positive and negative USs (Experiment 2). In addition to CSs consistently paired with positive and negative USs, we introduced neutral USs as a control condition. Our findings revealed that neurotic individuals negatively evaluated the CSs from ambiguous conditions relative to neutral conditions. In addition, participants with high neuroticism scores generally rated CSs more negatively. Theoretical and clinical implications of these results are discussed.

Articulation dynamics and evaluative conditioning: investigating the boundary conditions, mental representation, and origin of the in-out effect

ABSTRACT People prefer linguistic stimuli with an inward (e.g. BODIKA) over those with an outward articulation dynamic (e.g. KODIBA), a phenomenon known as the articulatory in-out effect. Despite its robustness across languages and contexts, the phenomenon is still poorly understood. To learn more about the effect’s boundary conditions, mental representation, and origin, we crossed the in-out effect with evaluative conditioning research. In five experiments (N = 713, three experiments pre-registered), we systematically paired words containing inward versus outward dynamics with pictures of negative versus positive valence. Although this evaluative conditioning procedure reversed the preference for inward over outward words, this was the case only for words with the same consonant sequences as the conditioned words. For words with inward/outward dynamics but different consonant sequences than the conditioned ones, a regular in-out effect emerged. Also, no preference reversal at all emerged for the conditioned consonant sequences when the contingency between single consonants at specific positions and positive/negative valence was zero. Implications of these findings for the in-out effect and evaluative conditioning are discussed.

Evaluative Conditioning: Past, Present, and Future.

Evaluative conditioning (EC) research investigates changes in the evaluation of a stimulus after co-occurrence with an affective stimulus. To explain the motivation behind this research, this review begins with an overview of the history of EC research, followed by a summary of the state of the art with respect to three key questions. First, how should EC procedures be used to influence evaluation? We provide a guide based on evidence concerning the functional properties of EC effects. Second, how does the EC effect occur? We discuss the possible mediating cognitive processes and their automaticity. Third, are EC effects ubiquitous outside the lab? We discuss the evidence for the external validity of EC research. We conclude that the most important open questions pertain to the relevance of EC to everyday life and to the level of control that characterizes the processes that mediate the EC effect after people notice the stimulus co-occurrence.

Enhanced conditioned "liking" of novel visual cues paired with alcohol or non-alcohol beverage container images among individuals at higher risk for alcohol use disorder.

Rationale/ObjectiveThis study used an evaluative conditioning (EC) procedure to assess the affective properties of a CS for ingested drug reward in humans. Specifically, the study tested whether the evaluative response (“liking”/”disliking”) to an arbitrary visual stimulus (“CS2,” e.g., a purple hexagon) could be changed through pairings with an alcohol or non-alcohol beverage cue (“CS1,” e.g., a full wine glass, a juice box), which is ostensibly a conditioned visual predictive stimulus for alcohol or non-alcohol liquid reward, respectively.MethodsParticipants (N = 369, 18–23 years, 66% female, 79% white, 21% reporting no alcohol use ever or in the past year) received 24 CS1 pairings with each CS2. CS2 and CS1 evaluations were assessed pre- and post-conditioning.ResultsAlcohol and non-alcohol CS2 “liking” correlated with alcohol use. “Liking” of the alcohol but not non-alcohol CS1 also correlated with alcohol use. Alcohol CS1 “liking” also correlated with alcohol and non-alcohol CS2 ‘liking,” whereas non-alcohol CS1 ‘liking” correlated with non-alcohol but not alcohol CS2 “liking.”ConclusionsTaken together, findings support the idea that drug-related visual stimuli acquire appetitive (hedonic and/or incentive) properties as a function of individual differences in drug use, which entail individual differences in exposure to the conditioning effects of addictive substances like alcohol. Findings also suggest a link between drug use and the propensity to attribute affective/motivational significance to reward-predictive cues in general.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s00213-022-06231-4.

What’s not to like? Enhancing women’s body satisfaction by means of an evaluative conditioning procedure with positive social feedback

The prevalence of a negative body image among women is high. Because of its serious consequences for individuals’ mental health, there is an urgent need to improve current body image interventions. Recent studies using evaluative conditioning to strengthen the association between women’s body and positive (social) stimuli have shown promising results. In two experimental studies, we tested whether incorporating more age appropriate positive social stimuli as unconditioned stimuli (USs) can strengthen the conditioning procedure as a means to enhance women’s body satisfaction. In the experimental condition, participants’ body pictures were systematically followed by the Facebook like-button and youthful smiling faces (study 1, experimental condition: n = 68; control condition: n = 67) or positive Emojis (study 2, experimental condition: n = 64; control condition: n = 67). The results indicated that neither conditioning procedure enhanced participants’ body satisfaction more than a control procedure, and in both studies, there was no valence transfer from the positive USs to the body pictures. Thus, incorporation of age appropriate USs did not result in the anticipated conditioning effects. These findings challenge the utility of current evaluative conditioning procedures as an intervention technique to address a negative body image.

The architecture of prototype preferences: Typicality, fluency, and valence.

A classic phenomenon known as prototype preference effect (PPE) or beauty-in-averageness effect is that prototypical exemplars of a neutral category are preferred over atypical exemplars. This PPE has been explained in terms of deviance avoidance, hedonic fluency, or preference for certainty and familiarity. However, typicality also facilitates greater activation of category-related information. Thus, prototypes rather than atypical exemplars should be more associated with the valence of the category, either positive or negative. Hence, we hypothesize that the evaluation of a prototype depends on the valence of its category. Results from three experiments crossing a standard PPE paradigm with an evaluative conditioning procedure support our hypothesis. We show that for positive categories, greater typicality increases liking. Critically, for negative categories, greater typicality decreases liking. This pattern of results challenges dominant explanations of prototype evaluation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Can (Instructions About) Stimulus Pairings Influence Automatic and Self-Reported Evaluations in the Presence of More Diagnostic Evaluative Information?

Evaluative conditioning (EC) and persuasion are important pathways for shaping evaluations. However, little is known about how these pathways interact. Two preregistered experiments (total N = 1,510) examined effects of EC procedures (i.e., stimulus pairings) and EC instructions (i.e., instructions about stimulus pairings) on automatic and self-reported evaluations of social groups in the presence of more diagnostic information about the evaluative traits of those groups. Interestingly, both EC procedures and EC instructions still influenced automatic and self-reported evaluations when participants had read more diagnostic persuasive information. In line with predictions of propositional accounts of evaluation, EC instruction effects on automatic evaluations were not mediated by corresponding changes in self-reported evaluations. These results have theoretical implications and also highlight the important role that (instructions about) stimulus pairings have in social learning.

Twenty-five years later: A systematic review of the methodological changes in the Trier Social Stress Test and its confounding variables

The neuro-physiological response to stress has far-reaching implications for learning and memory processes. Here, we examined whether and how the stress-induced release of cortisol, following the socially-evaluated cold pressor test, influenced the acquisition of preferences in an evaluative conditioning (EC) procedure. We found that when the stressor preceded the evaluation phase, cortisol responders showed decreased evaluative conditioning effects. By contrast, impairing effects of a stressor-induced cortisol release before encoding were not found. Moreover, explicit memory was not found to be affected by the stressor or its timing. Implications of the timing-dependent effects of stress-induced cortisol release on EC and the relation between stress and associative memory are discussed.

Make exercise easier: A brief intervention to influence implicit attitudes towards exercise and physical activity behavior

Taking appropriate measures to enhance the positive connection of implicit attitudes towards exercise could be of some significance for the promotion of physical activity. Computerized evaluative conditioning (EC) is a strategy commonly used to alter individual implicit cognition. The aim of these studies was to explore the effects of an EC procedure on implicit attitudes and physical activity behavior over the course of the following week. Study 1 explored whether 100 or 200 EC learning trials change implicit attitudes towards exercise. Study 2 used the EC technology in Study 1 to explore whether modified implicit attitudes towards exercise had any impact on physical activity in the subsequent week. The EC procedure with 200 pairings increased implicit attitudes in comparison to a control group, but no significant effects were found for the EC procedure with 100 pairings. Although there were no significant differences between groups regarding self-reported physical activity, EC learning significantly increased objective physical activity only on the first day in the subsequent week. These findings provide evidence that a single EC learning session can successfully change implicit attitudes towards exercise; however, the effect of EC on behavior is only temporary, lasting in this study for one day. Other studies are needed to develop more effective interventions targeting subsequent physical activity behavior.

The timing-dependent effects of stress-induced cortisol release on evaluative conditioning

The neuro-physiological response to stress has far-reaching implications for learning and memory processes. Here, we examined whether and how the stress-induced release of cortisol, following the socially-evaluated cold pressor test, influenced the acquisition of preferences in an evaluative conditioning (EC) procedure. We found that when the stressor preceded the evaluation phase, cortisol responders showed decreased evaluative conditioning effects. By contrast, impairing effects of a stressor-induced cortisol release before encoding were not found. Moreover, explicit memory was not found to be affected by the stressor or its timing. Implications of the timing-dependent effects of stress-induced cortisol release on EC and the relation between stress and associative memory are discussed.

Implicit interpersonal evaluations as a risk factor for suicidality: Automatic spousal attitudes predict changes in the probability of suicidal thoughts.

Thwarted social connection is a critical risk factor for suicidality, and several theoretical perspectives highlight the importance of interpersonal affect to social connection. Given that marriage is an increasingly important source of social connection, we examined the role of automatic spousal attitudes-conceptualized as spontaneously activated affective associations involving one's spouse-in predicting suicidal thoughts in 3 longitudinal studies of married couples. Studies 1a (N = 204) and 1b (N = 159) demonstrated that more positive automatic spousal attitudes, assessed implicitly shortly after the marriage as the speed with which people categorized positive relative to negative words following photo-primes of their spouse, were associated with a weakened probability of the self-reported suicidal thoughts 1 year later. Study 2 (N = 229) provided further evidence that automatic spousal attitudes predict suicidal thoughts by showing that newly conditioned automatic spousal attitudes predicted suicidal thoughts. In that study, more positive automatic spousal attitudes exhibited after an evaluative conditioning procedure were associated with a reduced probability of suicidal thoughts 2 months later. Across studies, an increase (1 SD) in automatic spousal attitudes was associated with approximately a 50% decreased probability of suicidal thought. In all 3 studies, implicitly measured spousal attitudes captured variance in suicidal thoughts not captured by implicitly measured attitudes toward oneself and self-reported marital satisfaction, both of which proved to be less reliable predictors of suicidal thoughts. These findings highlight the importance of automatic interpersonal processes to well-being generally and suicidality specifically, and may thereby suggest novel methods for reducing risk of suicidality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

On the external validity of evaluative conditioning: Evaluative responses generalize to modified instances of conditioned stimuli

Evaluative conditioning (EC) is a social-cognitive research paradigm that is claimed to serve as an experimental analogue for the acquisition of attitudes towards individuals and groups. Previous research has challenged this claim by showing that the EC effect in facial stimuli is disrupted when a single feature of a face is altered. As the external validity of research paradigms is vital when generalizing findings from an experiment to the social world, the present research reconsiders this previous work in three experiments. Using faces as conditioned stimuli, we demonstrate that neither changes in viewing angle (Experiments 1 and 2), nor changes in features of the conditioned face (Experiment 3) disrupt the EC effect. The present experiments thus demonstrate that attitude acquisition by means of EC procedures generalizes to novel instances of the conditioned stimulus, signifying the adaptive value of EC effects in preparing behavior. Moreover, the present work suggests that conclusions drawn from this research paradigm can be applied to the acquisition of social attitudes.

Reducing body dissatisfaction by means of an evaluative conditioning procedure in undergraduate women: A replication study

The aim was to investigate whether a computer-based evaluative conditioning (EC) procedure using positive social feedback is effective in enhancing body satisfaction. Prior findings in three small-scale studies were mixed showing positive effects in pre-clinical samples, but not in a clinical sample of eating disorder patients. Therefore, our main goal was to replicate the original finding of Martijn et al. (2010) in a well-powered unselected sample of 129 female undergraduates. We assessed the impact of EC on questionnaire measures of body satisfaction as well as on affective ratings of the participants' body pictures used in the task to verify whether the EC procedure was effective in heightening the subjective valence of these pictures. Supporting the validity of the current EC procedure, participants in the experimental condition rated their own pictures after the training as more positive than participants in the control condition. However, this effect of the EC procedure did not transfer to the self-report indices of body satisfaction. In addition, women with relatively high body concern did not profit more from the EC procedure than women with relatively low body concern. Together, these findings suggest that the EC procedure in its present form is not ready for use as an intervention for improving body satisfaction. However, it seems worthwhile to investigate in future studies how the EC procedure can be further strengthened in a way that effects on stimulus ratings eventually also ‘spill over’ to the level of self-reported body satisfaction.

Godless by association: Deficits in trust mediate antiatheist stigma-by-association.

In the United States, atheists elicit high levels of sociopolitical rejection that is primarily motivated by a lack of trust. Across three studies, we use evaluative conditioning (EC) as a theoretical framework to evaluate whether these deficits extended to candidates who are not atheists themselves but merely perceived to be associated with atheism. Study 1 found that implicit trust, explicit trust, and voting intentions toward target candidates were all negatively impacted by an EC procedure that paired a candidate's face with words related to atheism. Study 2 found that trust and political support for a Christian candidate was eroded when he expressed proatheist public policy position. In both experiments, trust mediated the effects of atheist associations on voting intentions for religiously affiliated participants. Study 3 found the same moderated-mediation pattern. Religiously affiliated participants who perceived Barack Obama as being more favorable toward atheists were less likely to vote for him, in large part due to a lack of trust. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).