Universität zu Köln

Sperlich, Lea M. and Unkelbach, Christian (2022). When do people learn likes and dislikes from co-occurrences? A dual-force perspective on evaluative conditioning. J. Exp. Soc. Psychol., 103. SAN DIEGO: ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE. ISSN 1096-0465

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Abstract

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 phe-nomenon: 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 exper-iments (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.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Sperlich, Lea M. UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Unkelbach, Christian UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-661247
DOI:	10.1016/j.jesp.2022.104377
Journal or Publication Title:	J. Exp. Soc. Psychol.
Volume:	103
Date:	2022
Publisher:	ACADEMIC PRESS INC ELSEVIER SCIENCE
Place of Publication:	SAN DIEGO
ISSN:	1096-0465
Language:	English
Faculty:	Unspecified
Divisions:	Unspecified
Subjects:	no entry
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language CONTINGENCY AWARENESS; IMPLICIT MISATTRIBUTION; PROCESS ACCOUNTS; EFFECTS DEPEND; ATTENTION; MEMORY; INSTRUCTIONS; ATTITUDES; EXPLANATION; INHIBITION Multiple languages Psychology, Social Multiple languages
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/66124