Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-09T15:19:44.142Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A Conceptual and Theoretical Analysis of Evaluative Conditioning

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 April 2014

Jan De Houwer*
Affiliation:
Ghent University, Belgium
*
Correspondence should be addressed to Jan De Houwer, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium. Phone: 0032 9 264 64 45. FAX: 0032 9 264 64 89. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

Evaluative conditioning is best defined as an effect, that is, as a change in the valence of a stimulus that results from pairing the stimulus with another stimulus. This definition has several advantages that are made explicit in this paper. One of the advantages is that it clarifies that evaluative conditioning can be due to multiple processes. Therefore, the conditions under which evaluative conditioning is observed can depend on the processes that underlie a particular manifestation of evaluative conditioning. This could explain why there are so many conflicting results about the conditions under which evaluative conditioning can be found. Future research should adopt a meta-conditional approach that focuses not only on whether a certain condition is crucial for obtaining evaluative conditioning but should also examine when a certain condition is crucial.

El condicionamiento evaluativo se define como un efecto, es decir, un cambio en la valencia de un estímulo que resulta de emparejar ese estímulo con otro. Esta definición tiene varias ventajas que se explicitan en este trabajo. Una de las ventajas es que aclara que el condicionamiento evaluativo puede deberse a múltiples procesos. Las condiciones bajo las cuales se observa el condicionamiento evaluativo dependen, concretamente, de los procesos que subyacen a cada manifestación particular del mismo. Esto podría explicar por qué hay tantos resultados conflictivos referidos a las condiciones bajo las cuales se puede encontrar el condicionamiento evaluativo. La investigación futura debe adoptar un enfoque meta-condicional que no solo se centre en si una condición determinada es crucial para obtener el condicionamiento evaluativo, sino que examine también cuándo esa condición es crucial.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allport, G.W. (1935). Attitudes. In Murchison, C.M. (Ed.), Handbook of social psychology (pp. 796834). Winchester, MA: Clark University Press.Google Scholar
Baeyens, F., Crombez, G., Van den Bergh, O., & Eelen, P. (1988). Once in contact, always in contact: Evaluative conditioning is resistant to extinction. Advances in Behaviour Research and Therapy, 10, 179199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baeyens, F., & De Houwer, J. (1995). Evaluative conditioning is a qualitatively distinct form of classical conditioning: A reply to Davey (1994). Behaviour Research and Therapy, 33, 825831.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baeyens, F., Eelen, P., & Van den Bergh, O. (1990). Contingency awareness in evaluative conditioning: A case for unaware affective-evaluative learning. Cognition and Emotion, 4, 318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baeyens, F., Eelen, P., Van den Bergh, O., & Crombez, G. (1990). Flavor-flavor and color-flavor conditioning in humans. Learning and Motivation, 21, 434455.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beckers, T., De Houwer, J., & Eelen, P. (2002). Automatic integration of non-perceptual action effect features: The case of the associative affective Simon effect. Psychological Research, 66, 166173.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bolles, R.C. (1979). Learning theory (2nd ed.). New York: Holt, Rinehart, & Winston.Google Scholar
Bornstein, R.F. (1989). Exposure and affect. Overview and meta-analysis of research 1968- 1987. Psychological Bulletin, 106, 265289.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brewer, W.F. (1974). There is no convincing evidence of conditioning in adult humans. In Weimer, W.B. & Palermo, D.S. (Eds.), Cognition and the symbolic processes (pp. 142). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Craft, J.L., & Simon, J.R. (1970). Processing symbolic information from a visual display: Interference from an irrelevant directional cue. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 83, 415420.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davey, G.C.L. (1994). Defining the important questions to ask about evaluative conditioning: A reply to Martin and Levey (1994). Behaviour Research and Therapy, 32, 307310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Houwer, J. (2003). A structural analysis of indirect measures of attitudes. In Musch, J. & Klauer, K.C. (Eds.), The psychology of evaluation: Affective processes in cognition and emotion (pp. 219244). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
De Houwer, J. (2006a). What are implicit measures and why are we using them? In Wiers, R.W. & Stacy, A.W. (Eds.), The handbook of implicit cognition and addiction (pp. 1128). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Houwer, J. (2006b). Using the implicit association test does not rule out an impact of conscious propositional knowledge on evaluative conditioning. Learning and Motivation, 37, 176187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Houwer, J., Baeyens, F., & Field, A.P. (2005). Associative learning of likes and dislikes: Some current controversies and possible ways forward. Cognition and Emotion, 19, 161174.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Houwer, J., Beckers, T., & Moors, A. (in press). Novel attitudes can be faked on the Implicit Association Test. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.Google Scholar
De Houwer, J., & Eelen, P. (1998). An affective variant of the Simon paradigm. Cognition and Emotion, 12, 4561.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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, 853869.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
De Houwer, J., Vandorpe, S., & Beckers, T. (2005). On the role of controlled cognitive processes in human associative learning. In Wills, A. (Ed.), New directions in human associative learning (pp. 4163). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Diaz, E., Ruis, G., & Baeyens, F. (2005). Resistance to extinction of human evaluative conditioning using a between-subjects design. Cognition and Emotion, 19, 245268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dickinson, A., & Brown, K.J. (2007). Flavor-evaluative conditioning is unaffected by contingency knowledge during training with color-flavor compounds. Learning & Behavior, 35, 3642.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Eelen, P. (1980). Klassieke conditioning: Klassiek en toch modern [Classical conditioning: Classic but nevertheless modern]. In Liber Amicorum Prof.Nuttin, J.R., Gedrag, dynamische relatie en betekeniswereld [Behaviour, dynamic relation, and world of meaning], Leuven, Belgium: Universitaire Pers Leuven.Google Scholar
Field, A.P., & Davey, G.C.L. (1999). Reevaluating evaluative conditioning: A nonassociative explanation of conditioning effects in the visual evaluative conditioning paradigm. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behaviour Processes, 25, 211224.Google ScholarPubMed
Gawronski, B., & Bodenhausen, G.V. (2006). Associative and propositional processes in evaluation: An integrative review of implicit and explicit attitude change. Psychological Bulletin, 132, 692731.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hermans, D., Baeyens, F., & Eelen, P. (2003). On the acquisition and activation of evaluative information in memory: The study of evaluative learning and affective priming combined. In Musch, J. & Klauer, K.C. (Eds.), The psychology of evaluation: Affective processes in cognition and emotion (pp. 139168). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Levey, A.B., & Martin, I. (1975). Classical conditioning of human ‘evaluative’ responses. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 4, 205207.Google Scholar
Lipp, O.V., Oughton, N., & LeLievre, J. (2003). Evaluative learning in human Pavlovian conditioning: Extinct, but still there? Learning and Motivation, 34, 219239.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lipp, O.V., & Purkis, H.M. (2006). The effects of assessment type on verbal ratings of conditional stimulus valence and contingency judgement: Implications for the extinction of evaluative learning. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 32, 431440.Google ScholarPubMed
Lovibond, P.F. (2003). Causal beliefs and conditioned responses: Retrospective revaluation induced by experience and by instruction. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 29, 97106.Google ScholarPubMed
Martin, I., & Levey, A.B. (1978). Evaluative conditioning. Advances in Behaviour Research and Therapy, 1, 57102.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meersmans, T., De Houwer, J., Baeyens, F., Randell, T., & Eelen, P. (2005). Beyond evaluative conditioning: Searching for associative transfer of non-evaluative stimulus properties. Cognition and Emotion, 19, 283306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, C.J., Anderson, N.E., & Lovibond, P.F. (2003). Measuring evaluative conditioning using the Implicit Association Test. Learning and Motivation, 34, 203217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moors, A., & De Houwer, J. (2006a). Automaticity: A conceptual and theoretical analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 132, 297326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moors, A., & De Houwer, J. (2006b). Problems with dividing the realm of cognitive processes. Psychological Inquiry, 17, 199204.Google Scholar
Pleyers, G., Corneille, O., Luminet, O., & Yzerbyt, V. (2007). Aware and (dis)liking: Item- based analyses reveal that valence acquisition via evaluative conditioning emerges only when there is contingency awareness. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory & Cognition, 33, 130144.Google ScholarPubMed
Poulton, R., & Menzies, R.G. (2002). Non-associative fear acquisition: A review of the evidence from retrospective and longitudinal research. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 40, 127149.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rachman, S. (1977). The conditioning theory of fear-acquisition: A critical examination. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 15, 375387.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Shanks, D.R. (1995). Is human learning rational? Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 48A, 257279.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shanks, D.R., & St. John, M.F. (1994). Characteristics of dissociable human learning systems. Behavioural and Brain Sciences, 17, 367447.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strack, F., & Deutsch, R. (2004). Reflective and impulsive determinants of social behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 8, 220247.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Walther, E., & Nagengast, B. (2006). Evaluative conditioning and the awareness issue: Assessing contingency awareness with the four-picture recognition test. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 32, 454459.Google ScholarPubMed
Walther, E., Nagengast, B., & Traselli, C. (2005). Evaluative conditioning in social psychology: Facts and speculations. Cognition and Emotion, 19, 175196.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed