What you see is what will change: Evaluative conditioning effects depend on a focus on valence

Acquisition and generalization of emotional and neural responses to faces associated with negative and positive feedback behaviours

Faces can acquire emotional meaning by learning to associate individuals with specific behaviors. Here, we investigated emotional evaluation and brain activations toward faces of persons who had given negative or positive evaluations to others. Furthermore, we investigated how emotional evaluations and brain activation generalize to perceptually similar faces. Valence ratings indicated learning and generalization effects for both positive and negative faces. Brain activation, measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), showed significantly increased activation in the fusiform gyrus (FG) to negatively associated faces but not positively associated ones. Remarkably, brain activation in FG to faces to which emotional meaning (negative and positive) was successfully generalized was decreased compared to neutral faces. This suggests that the emotional relevance of faces is not simply associated with increased brain activation in visual areas. While, at least for negative conditions, faces paired with negative feedback behavior are related to potentiated brain responses, the opposite is seen for perceptually very similar faces despite generalized emotional responses.

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

BACKGROUND

Many 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.

METHODS

Adult 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.

RESULTS

We 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.

CONCLUSIONS

The 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.

Sixty Years After Orne's American Psychologist Article: A Conceptual Framework for Subjective Experiences Elicited by Demand Characteristics

Study participants form beliefs based on cues present in a testing situation (demand characteristics). These beliefs can alter study outcomes (demand effects). Neglecting demand effects can threaten the internal and external validity of studies (including their replication). While demand characteristics garnered much attention following Orne's introduction of this notion, consideration of their effects has become sparse in experimental reports. Moreover, the concept remains confusing. Here, we introduce a conceptual framework for subjective experiences elicited by demand characteristics. The model distinguishes between participants' awareness of the hypothesis, their motivation to comply with it, and the strategy they use to meet situational requirements. We stress that demand characteristics can give rise to genuine experiences. To illustrate, we apply the model to Evaluative Conditioning and the Rubber Hand Illusion. In the General Discussion, we discuss risks and opportunities associated with demand characteristics, and we explain that they remain highly relevant to current research.

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.

Learning of affective meaning: revealing effects of stimulus pairing and stimulus exposure

Charles E. Osgood's theory of affective meaning defines affect as interplay of three meaning dimensions - evaluation, potency, and activity - that represent the central constituents of our affective ecology. Based on a rigorous Brunswikian sampling procedure, we selected a representative set of stimuli that mirror this ecology. A germane informative analysis explicates and corroborates the sampling approach. We then report two experiments testing whether these dimensions of affective meaning can be learnt by means of stimulus pairing and stimulus exposure. Our findings yield evidence for (1) stimulus pairing effects on evaluation and activity, and (2) stimulus exposure effects on potency and activity. Overall, the findings reveal that stimulus pairing and stimulus exposure differentially influence the learning of dimensions of affective meaning. We discuss implications of this research for current emotion theories as well as its contribution to research in the cognition-emotion interface. Finally, we argue that the implementation of representative design by virtue of Brunswikian sampling promotes theory development and opens new research avenues for an original and creative science of cognition and emotion.

All I Need Is Two: The Clinical Potential of Adding Evaluative Pairing Procedures to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Changing Self-, Body- and Food-Related Evaluations

Pairing procedures are among the most frequently used paradigms for modifying evaluations of target stimuli related to oneself, an object, or a specific situation due to their repeated pairing with evaluative sources, such as positive or negative images or words. Because altered patterns of evaluations can be linked to the emergence and maintenance of disordered cognitions and behaviors, it has been suggested that pairing procedures may provide a simple yet effective means of complementing more complex intervention approaches, such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Here, we summarize recent studies that explored the clinical potential of pairing procedures for improving self-esteem, body satisfaction, and food and consumption preferences. While no study has yet combined pairing procedures with CBT, there are several successful examples of pairing procedures in clinically relevant domains and clinical populations. We discuss potential sources of heterogeneity among findings, provide methodological recommendations, and conclude that pairing procedures may bear clinical potential as an add-on to classical psychotherapy.

How E-Learning Environmental Stimuli Influence Determinates of Learning Engagement in the Context of COVID-19? SOR Model Perspective

The COVID-19 pandemic at the beginning of 2020 has changed the conventional learning mode for most students at schools all over the world, and the e-learning at home has become a new trend. Taking Chinese college students as the research subject and drawing on the stimulus–organism–response (S-O-R) model, this paper examines the relationship between the peer referent, perceived closeness, and perceived control and the learning engagement. Using data from 377 college students who have used e-learning, this study shows that perceived closeness, perceived control, and peer referents in e-learning have a positive effect on the self-efficacy and well-being of students, thus improving students’ enthusiasm for learning. Our intent is to assist researchers, instructors, designers, and others in identifying effective methods to conceptualize and measure student engagement in e-learning.

Automatic processes in evaluative learning

This special issue of Cognition and Emotion assembles recent advances in theorising and empirical research on the automaticity of evaluative learning. Based on a taxonomy of automatic processes in evaluative learning, we distinguish between processes that are involved in translating evaluative experiences into evaluative mental representations (acquisition), and processes that translate these representations into evaluative biases in perception, thought, and action (activation and application). We emphasise that automaticity concerns the operating conditions of these processes (unawareness, unintentionality, uncontrollability, efficiency), not their operating principles, and thus can vary within specific processes (e.g. inferences can occur in either an automatic or non-automatic fashion). We review and discuss contemporary theories and methodological approaches to automatic processes in evaluative learning against the backdrop of our framework, and we highlight the contributions of the papers of this special issue to the question whether and when evaluative changes can occur in an automatic manner.

Research With Implicit Measures: Suggestions for a New Agenda of Sub-Personal Psychology

Research with implicit measures has been criticized for an unclear meaning of the term implicit and inadequate psychometric properties, as well as problems regarding internal validity and low predictive validity of implicit measures. To these criticisms, we add an overly restrictive theoretical focus and research agenda that is limited to the narrow dichotomy between associations versus propositional beliefs. In this article, we address the last problem by introducing a new perspective of a sub-personal psychology. This broad approach expands the conceptual horizon in order to make use of the full potential that experimental paradigms can offer for assessing, explaining, predicting, and modifying human functioning and behavior. Going beyond the analysis of associations and beliefs, we highlight the use of experimental paradigms to examine and modify motivational, environmental, and episodic memory factors that influence human action.

Response production during extinction training is not sufficient for extinction of evaluative conditioning

Two high-powered experiments examined the role of evaluative response production in the extinction of evaluative conditioning (EC) by positioning EC in the procedural and conceptual framework of classical conditioning (CC). According to Rescorla's response inhibition hypothesis, more frequent responding during extinction training results in larger extinction during testing. Experiment 1 used three extinction conditions following response acquisition in an EC procedure: evaluative responses were measured only after extinction; after acquisition and after extinction; or were continuously measured after acquisition, during extinction and after extinction. Based on Rescorla's response inhibition hypothesis, we predicted that extinction of EC would be the highest in the third condition. Experiment 2 was aimed at further facilitating extinction of EC by encouraging participants to experience that their evaluation may change over the course of the experiment. To this end, half of the participants completed pre- and post-acquisition ratings prior to practicing continuous response expression in the extinction phase. Contrary to our predictions, no extinction of EC was observed in either of these experiments. We conclude that Rescorla's inhibition response hypothesis may not apply to EC and discuss the theoretical implications of this finding.

Evaluative Conditioning as Memory-Based Judgment

The article proposes a view of evaluative conditioning (EC) as resulting from judgments based on learning instances stored in memory. It is based on the formal episodic memory model MINERVA 2. Additional assumptions specify how the information retrieved from memory is used to inform specific evaluative dependent measures. The present approach goes beyond previous accounts in that it uses a well-specified formal model of episodic memory; it is however more limited in scope as it aims to explain EC phenomena that do not involve reasoning processes. The article illustrates how the memory-based-judgment view accounts for several empirical findings in the EC literature that are often discussed as evidence for dual-process models of attitude learning. It sketches novel predictions, discusses limitations of the present approach, and identifies challenges and opportunities for its future development.

The Implicit Misattribution Model of Evaluative Conditioning

Evaluative conditioning (EC) refers to a change in one’s attitude toward an object based on its contiguous pairing with other positive or negative objects. EC can, in principle, occur through multiple mechanisms, some more and some less thoughtful. We argue that one relatively low-thought route through which EC produces evaluative change is implicit misattribution. Our Implicit Misattribution Model (IMM) is premised on research indicating: a) attributional thinking is pervasive and relatively automatic, b) affective experiences are pervasive and relatively automatic, and c) errors in automatic attributional processing can lead to misattribution of affect from one object to another, resulting in the latter object taking on the affect produced by the former. Research employing the “surveillance paradigm” we developed provides support for the model, particularly its key moderating variable, source confusability. We further discuss assumptions of the model in terms of encoding, storage, and retrieval/application of the conditioned attitude, as well as the role of contingency awareness and other central issues in the EC literature.

A Model of Attribute Conditioning

We present a model of attribute conditioning, the phenomenon that people’s assessment of stimuli’s specific attributes (e.g., a person’s characteristics) changes due to pairings with other stimuli possessing these specific attributes (e.g., another "athletic" person). These changes in attribute assessments go beyond evaluation changes due to these pairings (i.e., evaluative conditioning effects). We provide a short historical overview of the phenomenon and the available data. Then we present a potential mental model of the effect: We assume attribute conditioning to be a form of stimulus-stimulus learning. CS-US pairings establish an enduring referential link between CS and US. We present an associative as well as a distributed memory variant of this referential link. Based on this model, we provide the answers to the specific questions that guide the present special issue. Finally, we discuss the relation of evaluative and attribute conditioning.

What You Feel Is What You See: A Binding Perspective on Evaluative Conditioning

In this paper, we outline the predominant theoretical perspectives on evaluative conditioning (EC)—the changes in liking that are due to the pairing of stimuli—identify their weaknesses, and propose a new framework, the binding perspective on EC, which might help to overcome at least some of these issues. Based on feature integration theory (Treisman & Gelade, 1980, https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0285(80)90005-5) and the theory of event coding (TEC; Hommel, Müsseler, Aschersleben, & Prinz, 2001, https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X01000103), we assume that EC depends on a selective integration mechanism that binds relevant CS, US, and action features into an event-file, while simultaneously inhibiting features irrelevant for current goals. This perspective examines hitherto unspecified processes relevant to the encoding of CS-US pairs and their consequences for behavior, which we hope will stimulate further theoretical development. We also present some preliminary evidence for binding in EC and discuss the scope and limitations of this perspective.

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.

Evaluative Conditioning From the Perspective of the Associative-Propositional Evaluation Model

Evaluative conditioning (EC) is defined as the change in the evaluation of a conditioned stimulus (CS) due to its pairing with a positive or negative unconditioned stimulus (US). According to the associative-propositional evaluation (APE) model, EC effects can be the result of two functionally distinct learning mechanisms: associative and propositional learning. The current article reviews the core assumptions of the APE model regarding (1) the defining features of associative and propositional learning, (2) the mental representations resulting from the two learning mechanisms, (3) the processes involved in the behavioral expression of these representations, and (4) the automatic versus controlled nature of the processes underlying EC effects. In addition to reviewing the core assumptions of the APE model, the article reviews relevant evidence to illustrate the theory’s main hypotheses, its explanatory and predictive power, as well as empirical challenges for the theory.

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.

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.

Is the devil in the detail? Evidence for S-S learning after unconditional stimulus revaluation in human evaluative conditioning under a broader set of experimental conditions

Whether valence change during evaluative conditioning is mediated by a link between the conditional stimulus (CS) and the unconditional stimulus (US; S-S learning) or between the CS and the unconditional response (S-R learning) is a matter of continued debate. Changing the valence of the US after conditioning, known as US revaluation, can be used to dissociate these accounts. Changes in CS valence after US revaluation provide evidence for S-S learning but if CS valence does not change, evidence for S-R learning is found. Support for S-S learning has been provided by most past revaluation studies, but typically the CS and US have been from the same stimulus category, the task instructions have suggested that judgements of the CS should be based on the US, and USs have been mildly valenced stimuli. These factors may bias the results in favour of S-S learning. We examined whether S-R learning would be evident when CSs and USs were taken from different categories, the task instructions were removed, and more salient USs were used. US revaluation was found to influence explicit US evaluations and explicit and implicit CS evaluations, supporting an S-S learning account and suggesting that past results are stable across procedural changes.

Evaluative conditioning increases with temporal contiguity. The influence of stimulus order and stimulus interval on evaluative conditioning

Evaluative conditioning (EC) is a change in valence that is due to pairing a conditioned stimulus (CS) with another, typically valent, unconditioned stimulus (US). This paper investigates how basic presentation parameters moderate EC effects. In two studies we tested the effectiveness of different temporal relations of the CS and the US, that is, the order in which the stimuli were presented and the temporal distance between them. Both studies showed that the size of EC effects was independent of the presentation order of CS and US within a stimulus pair. Contrary to classical conditioning effects, EC effects are thus not most pronounced after CS-first presentations. Furthermore, as shown in Experiment 2, EC effects increased in magnitude as the temporal interval between CS and US presentations decreased. Experiment 1 showed largest EC effects in the condition with simultaneous presentations - which can be seen as the condition with the temporally closest presentation. In this Experiment stimuli were presented in two different modalities, which might have facilitated simultaneous processing. In Experiment 2, in which all stimuli were presented visually, this advantage of simultaneous presentation was not found. We discuss practical and theoretical implications of our findings.

Approach–Avoidance Training Effects Are Moderated by Awareness of Stimulus–Action Contingencies

Prior research suggests that repeatedly approaching or avoiding a stimulus changes the liking of that stimulus. In two experiments, we investigated the relationship between, on one hand, effects of approach–avoidance (AA) training on implicit and explicit evaluations of novel faces and, on the other hand, contingency awareness as indexed by participants’ memory for the relation between stimulus and action. We observed stronger effects for faces that were classified as contingency aware and found no evidence that AA training caused changes in stimulus evaluations in the absence of contingency awareness. These findings challenge the standard view that AA training effects are (exclusively) the product of implicit learning processes, such as the automatic formation of associations in memory.

Cue competition in evaluative conditioning as a function of the learning process

Evaluative conditioning (EC) is the change in the valence of a stimulus resulting from pairings with an affective (unconditioned) stimulus (US). With some exceptions, previous work has indicated that this form of conditioning might be insensitive to cue competition effects such as blocking and overshadowing. Here we assessed whether the extent of cue competition in EC depends upon the type of contingency learning during conditioning. Specifically, we contrasted a learning task that biased participants toward cognitive/inferential learning (i.e., predicting the US) with a learning task that prevented prolonged introspection (i.e., a rapid response made to the US). In all cases, standard EC effects were observed, with the subjective liking of stimuli changed in the direction of the valence of the US. More importantly, when inferential learning was likely, larger EC effects occurred for isolated stimuli than for compounds (indicating overshadowing). No blocking effects on explicit evaluations were observed for either learning task. Contingency judgments and implicit evaluations, however, were sensitive to blocking, indicating that the absence of a blocking effect on explicit evaluations might be due to inferences that occur during testing.

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.

Can the Formation of Conditioned Attitudes Be Intentionally Controlled?

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). Counter to views that EC is the product of automatic learning processes, recent research has revealed various characteristics of nonautomatic processing in EC. The current research investigated whether the formation of conditioned attitudes can be intentionally controlled. Whereas EC effects on self-reported evaluations were reduced (enhanced) when participants were instructed to prevent (promote) the influence of CS-US pairings, EC effects on an evaluative priming measure remained unaffected by control instructions. Moreover, although EC effects on self-reported evaluations varied as a function of evaluative priming effects and recollective memory for CS-US pairings, motivation to control the influence of CS-US pairings qualified only the predictive relation of recollective memory. The results highlight functionally distinct contributions of uncontrollable encoding-related processes and controllable expression-related processes to EC effects.

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.

“Although Quite Nice, I Was Somehow Not Attracted by That Person”

Individuals who are motivated to find a romantic partner do not only have to detect desirable mating options but also have to prevent becoming committed to attractive but unpromising contacts. We thus propose that an acquisition of highly positive evaluations of already romantically committed opposite-sex others is prevented by self-regulatory processes. In two experiments, positive evaluative conditioning (EC) effects were obtained for facial photos (conditioned stimulus) of other opposite-sex singles when these pictures were paired with positive trait adjectives or odors (unconditioned stimulus). In line with our hypothesis, however, this positive EC effect did not obtain for faces of other persons who were presented as being already involved in a romantic relationship. The results demonstrate that the acquisition of positive attitudes during mate searching is modulated by self-regulatory processes that inhibit the emergence of futile commitments.