Evaluative Conditioning Research Research Articles

Unconstraining Evaluative Conditioning Research by Using the Reverse Correlation Task

In the evaluative conditioning effect, pairing neutral stimuli (conditioned stimuli) with valenced stimuli (unconditioned stimuli) changes the evaluation of the former. We examined this effect with a reverse correlation task that assesses how participants visually remember the conditioned stimuli. Importantly, this measure (1) does not require participants to evaluate stimuli and (2) allows them to capture multiple trait attributions. In a pre-registered experiment with US Prolific Academic users, we observed an evaluative conditioning effect in both an evaluation task and a reverse correlation task. Moreover, the effect in the reverse correlation task went beyond mere changes in valence. Our work opens new empirical and theoretical challenges for future conditioning research.

From Deviant Likes to Reversed Effects: Re-Investigating the Contribution of Unaware Evaluative Conditioning to Attitude Formation

Evaluative Conditioning (EC) is the change in liking of an object due to its mere pairing with a positive/negative stimulus. A central question in EC research is whether EC effects also emerge without awareness of the stimulus pairings. This is often tested by asking participants after the conditioning whether an object had been paired with positive or negative stimuli. If participants’ answers in these memory measures mismatch with the US valence (e.g., “positive” response when an object was paired with a negative stimulus), the pairings are classified as unaware. The last decade of EC research has found mostly no evidence for unaware EC, and sometimes even reversed unaware EC effects when using such memory measures. The present work demonstrates that such valence memory measures underestimate unaware EC effects due to differences between the normed and the subjective US valence. In two simulation studies, a re-analysis of previous studies, and four preregistered experiments (N = 502), we assess when this bias is more or less severe, depending on common procedural variations in EC experiments. We also propose an improved memory measure of aware/unaware EC. Yet, even when the bias was reduced in the corrected measure, no evidence for unaware EC could be found. Overall, our research shows that unaware EC may be difficult to detect with valence memory measures. Also, they support current memory-based and propositional EC accounts.

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.

When do people learn likes and dislikes from co-occurrences? A dual-force perspective on evaluative conditioning

Evaluative Conditioning (EC) research shows that people learn their likes and dislikes due to the co-occurrence of stimuli (CS and US) in the environment. Most recent EC research addressed processes underlying this phenomenon: how do people acquire their likes and dislikes? We address the question of when people learn from co-occurrences. To understand when learning occurs rather than how it occurs, we apply a dual-force perspective (Bless & Fiedler, 2006). We propose that the environment provides a bottom-up force, for example, via spatial and temporal closeness of CS and US. The organism provides a top-down force, for example, by active inferences or existing knowledge about CS and US. We propose that these forces jointly determine when people learn from co-occurrences. We tested this dual-force perspective by creating experimental conditions that should lead to EC effects from both associative and propositional EC process models but should prevent EC effects from a dual-force perspective. Across four pre-registered laboratory experiments (N = 568) and two pre-registered online experiments (N = 440), we found that changing the top-down force weakened and eliminated (Experiments 1–3) or reinstated EC effects (Experiment 4), using a backward (Experiments 1–4) or forward conditioning procedure (Experiment 5–6), while keeping the environmental bottom-up force constant (Experiment 6). Independent of the how question (e.g., associative or propositional), these results support the dual-force perspective as a framework to predict when people learn their likes and dislikes from the co-occurrence of CS and US in the environment.

How to promote healthy eating in preschool children: Evidence from an associative conditioning procedure with non-food stimuli

Given the increasing rates and severe consequences of childhood obesity, how to encourage children to eat low-calorie and healthy foods is an important question. Building on evaluative conditioning research, this study investigated how associating fruits and vegetables with positive, non-food stimuli influences preschool children's food choice and consumption. Consistent with this idea, it was found in two experiments that 3- to 6-year-old children's healthy food choice and consumption increased by pairing a healthy food's picture systematically with a positive, non-food image. These findings highlight a simple yet effective means of changing young children's eating behavior, which may complement existing intervention procedures.

The Role of Relational Qualifiers in Attribute Conditioning: Does Disliking an Athletic Person Make You Unathletic?

In attribute conditioning (AC), neutral stimuli (CSs) acquire specific attributes through mere pairings with other stimuli possessing that attribute (USs). For example, if a neutral person "Neal" is paired with athletic "Wade," participants judge Neal as more athletic compared with when Wade would be unathletic. Building on Evaluative Conditioning research, we introduced relational qualifiers between CS and US to probe the contribution of propositional processes to the AC effect. Concretely, CSs either liked or disliked USs. Four experiments (total n = 1,002) showed that these relations moderate AC effects for athleticism ("athletic" vs. "unathletic"; Experiments 1-3) and relationship status ("single" vs. "in a relationship"; Experiment 4); for example, when Neal disliked athletic Wade, he was judged as unathletic. We discuss how these findings constrain process theories of AC.

An action control perspective of evaluative conditioning

ABSTRACTAttitudes are at the core of many topical issues, and a meeting point for research and discussion. This pervasiveness is not surprising given an attitude’s utility in reducing the complexity of the environment into relatively simple likes or dislikes of stimuli. How attitudes are formed is usually addressed by means of evaluative conditioning (EC). EC has been addressed from a traditional cognitive and a functional account. In this article, we present a different perspective on EC, which is situated in action control research. This perspective tries to take advantage of the strengths of both existing EC accounts by focusing on those cognitive processes that enjoy high levels of experimental control and that are necessary to explain how stimuli find their way into mental processing and ultimately into an evaluative response. Implications of this action control based account for EC research in specific and for attitude research in general are discussed.

“Paint It Black”

Abstract. The present study is a first attempt to link self-reported difficulties in everyday emotion regulation (ER) with evaluative conditioning (EC). We conducted a within-subject study in which participants (n = 90) filled the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS) and were exposed to neutral conditioned stimulus (CS) paired with mildly or highly arousing negative unconditioned stimuli (USs) and positive USs. Participants then filled a contingency awareness measure. Results showed (i) that CSs paired with highly arousing negative USs were more negatively evaluated, (ii) that the EC effect with highly and mildly arousing negative USs was stronger among participants with greater self-reported difficulties in everyday ER. Moreover, participants were more likely to be aware of the CS-US contingencies with highly (vs. mildly) arousing negative USs. Implications for the understanding of maladaptive behaviors and for future directions in EC research are discussed.

Emotional Ability and Associative Learning: How Experiencing and Reasoning about Emotions Impacts Evaluative Conditioning

This article extends evaluative conditioning research by examining how differences in emotional ability impact implicit and explicit attitude formation from conditioning.

Positive, negative, or all relative? Evaluative conditioning of ambivalence

In evaluative conditioning (EC), the pairing of a positively or negatively valenced stimulus (US) with a neutral stimulus (CS) leads to a corresponding change in liking of the CS. EC research so far has concentrated on using unambiguously positive or negative USs. However, attitude objects are often ambivalent, i.e., can simultaneously possess positive and negative features. The present research investigated whether ambivalence can be evaluatively conditioned and whether contingency awareness moderates this effect. In two studies, positive, negative, neutral, and ambivalent USs were paired with affectively neutral CSs. Results showed standard EC effects that were moderated by contingency awareness. Most interestingly, EC effects were also obtained for the ambivalent USs, indicating that ambivalence can indeed be conditioned. However, contingency awareness seemed to play a lesser role in ambivalence conditioning. Ambivalence EC effects were obtained on subjective and objective direct measures of ambivalence as well as on a more indirect measure.

Is Evaluative Conditioning Moderated by Big Five Personality Traits?

Evaluative conditioning (EC), a change in liking of a stimulus due to its paired presentation with a positive or negative stimulus, is a key concept in attitude formation. The present article examines to what extent EC effects are moderated by Big Five personality. For this purpose, 567 participants completed an EC procedure and the Big Five Inventory. People high on neuroticism and agreeableness showed stronger EC effects than people low on those personality traits. In conclusion, attitude formation via EC depends in part on Big Five personality. This novel insight has important ramifications for EC research and personality research. As to EC research, the moderation by neuroticism suggests that EC effects intensify with an increased focus on valent stimuli. As to personality research, our findings reinforce the fundamental nature of the Big Five because they are evidentially able to moderate such basic learning phenomena as EC.

Editorial: Conceptual, Theoretical, and Methodological Challenges in Evaluative Conditioning Research

To understand the impact of social cognition on behavior, it is essential to understand how attitudes are acquired, updated, and mapped onto judgments, decisions, and actions. Evaluative conditioning (EC) affords an experimental model of a particular procedural notion of attitude acquisition and change. The present editorial offers an overview of past and current developments in EC research in general and the new developments and theoretical ideas covered in this special issue in particular. We discuss three central issues: the automaticity question, mechanistic views of EC, and its definition, and discuss how the articles in this special issue inform all of these topics. Our editorial closes with a new constructivist view on EC that has the potential to integrate several of the latest developments in the field.

The Assimilative Effect of Co-Occurrence on Evaluation Above and Beyond the Effect of Relational Qualifiers

Evaluative conditioning research has investigated the effect of mere stimuli co-occurrence on evaluation and found an assimilative effect—a novel stimulus acquires the valence of the co-occurring stimulus. However, most learning episodes include stimulus co-occurrence with additional relational information. For instance, viewers learn that Batman co-occurs with crime and that he fights crime. Does co-occurrence with crime increase negativity toward Batman parallel to an increase of positivity because Batman fights crime? We examined whether co-occurrence influences evaluation above and beyond the effect of relational qualifiers. We review initial supporting evidence and report five novel experiments (total N = 505) that suggest that co-occurrence with affective stimuli has an assimilative effect on evaluation even when explicit relational information suggests the opposite valence. We suggest further empirical directions for studying the effects of co-occurrence versus other relational information on evalu...

Evaluative Conditioning as a Symbolic Phenomenon: On the Relation between Evaluative Conditioning, Evaluative Conditioning via Instructions, and Persuasion

Evaluative conditioning (EC) is sometimes portrayed as a primitive way of changing attitudes that is fundamentally different from persuasion via arguments. We provide a new perspective on the nature of EC and its relation to persuasion by exploring the idea that stimulus pairings can function as a symbol that conveys the nature of the relation between stimuli. We put forward the concept of symbolic EC to refer to changes in liking that occur because stimulus pairings function as symbols. The idea of symbolic EC is consistent with at least some current theories of persuasion. It clarifies what EC research can add to the understanding of the origins of our preferences and has implications for how (symbolic and non-symbolic) EC can be established, the boundaries of EC research, and cognitive and functional models of EC.

What Do I Know About It Versus How Do I Feel About It? A Theoretical Analysis of Response Processes in Evaluative Conditioning

Evaluative conditioning (EC) is defined as the change in the evaluation of a conditioned stimulus (CS) due to its pairing with a valenced unconditioned stimulus (US). Because EC involves the acquisition of evaluative responses, previous EC research has paid relatively little attention to the processes involved in the expression of evaluative responses. Drawing on research on response processes underlying evaluative judgments, we argue that EC effects on evaluative judgments can be mediated by the use of (1) recollective memory for events involving the CS or (2) one's spontaneous affective reaction toward the CS. Because the two proximal outcomes of CS-US pairings can have independent effects on evaluative judgments as a distal outcome, influences on expression-related processes can lead to inaccurate conclusions when they are attributed to acquisition-related processes. Our analysis suggests that a deeper understanding of EC requires a broader theoretical approach that includes both acquisition-related and expression-related processes.

Evaluative conditioning: Recent developments and future directions

Evaluative conditioning (EC) is generally considered to be one of the routes via which likes and dislikes are acquired. We identify recent trends in EC research and speculate about the topics that will dominate future research on EC. Many of the recent developments in EC research were shaped by functional definitions of EC that refer only to environmental conditions, but not to mental processes and representations. These functional definitions stimulated the development of and debates between theories about the mental processes that mediate EC. These trends, as well as greater methodological and conceptual sophistication, inspired meta-conditional studies that aim at determining the conditions under which EC is characterized by certain properties. The question of whether EC depends on contingency awareness remains a central topic, albeit with a stronger link to theorizing about underlying mental processes. Other automaticity features have gained enhanced interest, as can for example be seen in research investigating whether EC is goal-independent and whether EC is resource-independent. We argue that future research would benefit from a sharper distinction between processes that operate during acquisition (i.e., when CS–US pairs are presented) and processes that operate during measurement (i.e., when the effects of CS–US pairings are assessed). We conclude with a short summary of all articles in this Special Issue, relating them to the identified trends in EC research.

At the crossroads: Attention, contingency awareness, and evaluative conditioning

Evaluative conditioning (EC) refers to changes in the evaluation of a conditioned stimulus (CS) due to its repeated pairing with an unconditioned stimulus (US). One of the most debated topics in EC research is whether or not EC is dependent on contingency awareness. In this study, we go beyond this debate by examining whether contingency awareness mediates the impact of attentional resources and goal-directed attention on EC. Attentional resources were manipulated by presenting CSs and USs either within the same modality or in different modalities. Goal-directed attention was manipulated by asking participants to respond to the CSs or to the USs. Results indicate that the effect of goal-directed attention on EC is mediated by contingency awareness, whereas the effect of attentional resources on EC is not.

One but not the same: Evaluative conditioning with mixed-valence USs

In evaluative conditioning (EC), the pairing of a positively or negatively valenced stimulus (US) with another neutral stimulus (CS) leads to a corresponding change in liking of the CS. EC research so far has concentrated on using unambiguously positive or negative USs. However, attitude objects often possess multiple features that can be positive and negative at the same time. The present research addresses the question of how EC is affected by using such mixed-valence stimuli as USs. In two studies, USs of mixed valence (i.e., positive behavior and membership in a negative group or vice versa) were paired with affectively neutral CSs. Interestingly, results showed that the mixed-valence USs were evaluated according to the valence of the behavioral information. In contrast, the evaluation of associated CSs was more strongly influenced by the valence of the group information that was presented about the USs. Possible explanations as well as implications for EC research are discussed.

Implicit learning of evaluative vs. non-evaluative covariations: The role of dimension accessibility

Implicit covariation learning, the development of simple associations without awareness, has been demonstrated repeatedly along the evaluative dimension [De Houwer, J., Thomas, S., & Baeyens, F. (2001). Associative learning of likes and dislikes: A review of 25 years of research on human evaluative conditioning. Psychological Bulletin, 127, 853–869], but associations involving other dimensions appear more difficult to learn implicitly. The present research highlights the unique properties of the evaluative dimension that may predispose it to implicit learning. We provide evidence in the first experiment that implicit covariation learning occurs along the evaluative dimension, but does not spontaneously occur along non-evaluative dimensions. In Experiment 2, implicit learning along non-evaluative dimensions occurred when participants were subliminally primed with the to-be-learned dimension. In the discussion, we integrate findings from implicit evaluative conditioning research with the broader implicit learning literature.