Evaluative conditioning of high-novelty stimuli does not seem to be based on an automatic form of associative learning

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 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 inconsistent evidence for specialized (implicit or explicit) learning for a food-pathogen association. However, results from a mega-analysis across studies revealed stronger conditioning effects for meats paired with pathogen-relevant negative stimuli than pathogen-irrelevant negative stimuli.

WITHDRAWN: Four studies Yield limited evidence for prepared (disgust) learning via evaluative conditioning

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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.

Risk Perception and Security Attitudes: the Role of Human Values on Brazilian Police Officers and Civilians

Studies on crime and parking facilities also appear to have a strong focus on car theft with small emphasis on psychological and cognitive variables to investigate potential crimes in this environment. Furthermore, there is limited literature on such crimes in South America, particularly in Brazil. This study has the objective of offering an instrument to assess risk perception in public and private parking lots of free circulation, as well as to understand and describe how individual values influence this variable regarding civilians' and police officers' perception of hazards present in free circulation public and private parking lots. A psychometrically valid risk perception and security attitude scale is presented. The scores of the two groups were predicted by human values. It was observed a mapping of risk situations in parking lots, as well as attitudes that can prevent crimes. Implications for the development of social public safety policies are discussed.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11896-022-09511-z.

Attitudinal Effects of Stimulus Co-occurrence and Stimulus Relations: Paradoxical Effects of Cognitive Load

Research suggests that evaluations of an object can be jointly influenced by (a) the mere co-occurrence of the object with a pleasant or unpleasant stimulus (e.g., mere co-occurrence of object A and negative event B) and (b) the object's specific relation to the co-occurring stimulus (e.g., object A starts vs. stops negative event B). Three experiments investigated the impact of cognitive load during learning on the effects of stimulus co-occurrence and stimulus relations. Counter to the shared prediction of competing theories suggesting that effects of stimulus relations should be reduced by cognitive load during learning, effects of stimulus relations were greater (rather than smaller) under high-load compared with low-load conditions. Effects of stimulus co-occurrence were not significantly affected by cognitive load. The results are discussed in terms of theories suggesting that cognitive load can influence behavioral outcomes via strategic shifts in resource allocation in response to task-specific affordances.

Distinguishing the role of conscious and unconscious knowledge in evaluative conditioning

Evaluative conditioning (EC) refers to a change in liking of a conditioned stimulus (CS) subsequent to its repeated pairing with a valent stimulus (US). Two studies that bring new light on the highly debated question of the role of awareness in EC were conducted. We developed an innovative method motivated by higher order and integration theories of consciousness to distinguish between the role of conscious and unconscious knowledge about the pairings. On each trial of the awareness test, participants had to indicate the valence of the US associated with a given CS and to make a 'structural knowledge attribution' by reporting the basis of their response. Valence identification accuracy was used to evaluate knowledge while the knowledge attribution was used to measure the conscious status of knowledge. Memory attribution indicated conscious knowledge about the pairings while feeling-based and random attributions indicated unconscious knowledge. A meta-analysis of the two studies revealed that valence identification accuracy was above chance level for memory and feeling-based attributions but not for the random attribution. EC was found in the three attributions. While EC effect size was medium for the memory attribution it was small for feeling-based and random attributions. Moreover, Experiment 2 included a delayed test. EC was still present 24 h after the conditioning took place. The results obtained for memory and feeling-based attributions suggest that both conscious and unconscious knowledge may underlie EC. The results obtained for random attribution suggest that EC may also occur without any knowledge of US valence.

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.

A Declarative Memory Model of Evaluative Conditioning

I propose a Declarative Memory Model (DMM) of evaluative conditioning (EC). EC effects are changes in the valence of a conditioned stimulus (CS) due to previous pairings with a positive or negative unconditioned stimulus (US; e.g., De Houwer, 2007, https://doi.org/10.1017/S1138741600006491). According to the DMM, EC effects are found if (1) a memory trace is formed in the learning phase that links the CS to evaluative information from the US, if (2) this trace survives the retention interval, if (3) the trace or part of it is consciously retrieved when the CS is being evaluated, and if (4) the retrieved trace is used in the CS evaluation. For each of these stages, I make separate predictions about EC effects, many of which are based on empirical research on declarative memory. Where available, I report and discuss empirical evidence on EC that speaks to these hypotheses. The available empirical evidence is largely in line with the predictions of the DMM. Several predictions, however, have yet to be tested and some findings are ambiguous. While the DMM specifies conditions under which CS-US pairings should lead to a valence change, it does not deny the possibility that other processes might lead to a change in attitude as well. Advantages of the DMM are its foundation on declarative memory research, its applicability for attitude change effects in general, and its suitability for predictions of EC effects in the real world.

Associative Attitude Learning: A Closer Look at Evidence and How It Relates to Attitude Models

Associative attitude learning is typically viewed as a low-level process that automatically registers mere co-occurrences between stimuli, independent of their validity and relational meaning. This view invites to critically examine how attitude formation conforms to four operating conditions (i.e., unawareness, efficiency, goal independence, and uncontrollability) and two operating principles (i.e., unqualified registration of mere co-occurrences between stimuli and formation of direct stimulus–response links), which is the main purpose of the present contribution. The general discussion examines how contemporary attitude models endorse these conditions and principles. Overall, this contribution calls for (a) a nuanced understanding of the nature and scope of associative attitude learning, (b) a fine-grained understanding of how contemporary attitude models endorse conditions and principles reviewed here and find them relevant to their theorization of attitude formation, (c) a clarification of how direct and indirect evaluative measures relate to these conditions and principles, and (d) enhanced efforts in specifying contemporary attitude formation models.

Resource Availability and Explicit Memory Largely Determine Evaluative Conditioning Effects in a Paradigm Claimed to be Conducive to Implicit Attitude Acquisition

In three experiments, we investigated how preventing the explicit encoding of conditioned stimulus–unconditioned stimulus (CS–US) pairings by imposing a secondary task at learning influences evaluative conditioning (EC) effects in a paradigm claimed to be conducive to implicit EC. We additionally used a multinomial processing tree model to examine how the resource depletion manipulation affects explicit and implicit memory contributions to EC. In all experiments, the EC effect largely vanished when a secondary task was employed that severely reduced participants’ explicit memory for the CS–US pairings. Furthermore, no evidence obtained for an implicit memory contribution to EC effects. In conclusion, the present research yields evidence for explicit learning, but no support for the contribution of implicit processes to EC in a paradigm claimed to facilitate implicit EC.

Dual-task interference in evaluative conditioning: Similarity matters!

Evaluative conditioning (EC) refers to changes in liking that are due to the pairing of stimuli. Although the question of whether a secondary task can interfere with the occurrence of EC is of great theoretical relevance, previous research has not obtained a consistent pattern of results. Whereas in some studies EC remains intact under dual-task conditions, in others a secondary task resulted in reduced or diminished EC. In order to reconcile these inconsistent findings, we hypothesized that dual-task interference in EC depends on the similarity of demands incurred by processing the stimuli used in the conditioning procedure and the secondary task. Specifically, we assumed that interference only occurs when similar verbal or visuospatial demands are imposed. In order to test this hypothesis, we investigated the occurrence of EC under conditions of a demanding 3-back working memory task while using either orthographic or pictorial stimuli to manipulate verbal and visuospatial processing demands, respectively. Relative to conditions using dissimilar types of stimuli, we found that the 3-back task interfered with the occurrence of EC only when the same types of stimuli were used. The implications for the underlying processes of EC are discussed.

The role of awareness in attitude formation through evaluative conditioning

This article provides a review of past and contemporary debates regarding the role of awareness in attitude formation through evaluative conditioning (EC), that is, by repeatedly pairing a stimulus with other stimuli of positive or negative valence. Because EC is considered the most prototypical method to form and change the network of evaluative associations in memory, the role of awareness in this effect is critical to the question of whether attitudes may be formed and changed through dual processes. We analyze the reasons why there has been so much discussion and disagreement regarding the role of awareness, review past and contemporary methodologies and their limitations, discuss the role of mental processes and conditioning procedures, and identify promising directions for future research in this area.

Overcoming Correlational Pitfalls

Do people need to explicitly encode conditioned stimuli–unconditioned stimuli (CS–US) pairings for evaluative conditioning (EC) effects to emerge? Despite the large number of studies that addressed this issue, no simple answer has emerged yet. In part, this is due to the relative lack of experimental evidence for the role of awareness of the CS–US contingency at encoding in EC. In the present experiment, participants’ encoding of the CS–US pairings was experimentally manipulated by relying on foveal and parafoveal presentations of the CSs. More specifically, spatial locations (i.e., foveal vs. parafoveal) of the CSs and US valence (i.e., positive vs. negative) were manipulated within participants, and CS–US pairings were counterbalanced across participants. Results reveal explicit encoding of the CSs and EC effects for the foveal CS presentations only. We discuss the implications of these experimental findings for the associative and propositional approach to EC.

On the Stability of Evaluative Conditioning Effects

Evaluative conditioning (EC) refers to valence changes in neutral stimuli (CSs) through repeated pairing with liked or disliked stimuli (USs). The present study examined the stability of EC effects in the course of 1 week. We investigated how this stability depends on memory for US valence and US identity. We also investigated whether CSs evaluations occurring immediately after conditioning (i.e., evaluative consolidation) are necessary for stable EC effects. Participants showed stable EC effects on direct and indirect measures, independent of evaluations immediately after conditioning. EC effects depended on memory for US valence but not for US identity. And although memory decreased significantly over time, EC effects remained stable. These data suggest that evaluative consolidation is not necessary, and that conditioned preferences and attitudes might persist even when people do not remember the concrete source anymore.