DIENES_Journal_of_Experimental_Psychology_General_DEC_2019_author_copy.pdf (401.91 kB)
Evaluative conditioning of artificial grammars: evidence that subjectively-unconscious structures bias affective evaluations of novel stimuli
journal contribution
posted on 2023-06-09, 20:11 authored by Razvan Jurchi?, Andrei Costea, Zoltan DienesZoltan Dienes, Mircea Miclea, Adrian OpreEvaluative conditioning (EC) refers to the acquisition of emotional valence by an initially-neutral stimulus (conditioned stimulus; CS), after being paired with an emotional stimulus (unconditioned stimulus; US). An important issue regards whether, when participants are unaware of the CS-US contingency, the affective valence can generalize to new stimuli that share similarities with the CS. Previous studies have shown that generalization of EC ef-fects appears only when participants are aware of the contingencies, but we suggest that this is because (a) the contingencies typically used in these studies are salient and easy to detect consciously, and (b) the performance-based measures of awareness (so-called “ob-jective measures”), typically used in these studies, tend to overestimate the amount of available conscious knowledge. We report a preregistered study in which participants (N = 217) were exposed to letter strings generated from two complex artificial grammars that are difficult to decipher consciously. Stimuli from one grammar were paired with positive USs, while those from the other grammar were paired with negative USs. Subsequently, partici-pants evaluated new, previously-unseen, stimuli from the positively-conditioned grammar more positively than new stimuli from the negatively-conditioned grammar. Importantly, this effect appeared even when trial-by-trial subjective measures indicated lack of relevant conscious knowledge. We provide evidence for the generalization of EC effects even with-out subjective awareness of the structures that enable those generalizations.
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Publication status
- Published
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- Accepted version
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Journal of Experimental Psychology: GeneralISSN
0096-3445Publisher
American Psychological AssociationExternal DOI
Department affiliated with
- Psychology Publications
Full text available
- Yes
Peer reviewed?
- Yes
Legacy Posted Date
2020-01-10First Open Access (FOA) Date
2020-01-10First Compliant Deposit (FCD) Date
2020-01-09Usage metrics
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