Evaluative conditioning: missing, presumed dead

Abstract

Although research into evaluative conditioning (EC) has progressed considerably over the past 30 years, there have been some doubts about the strength and reliability of conditioning effects – especially when visual stimuli are used. Partly this has been due to well-documented methodological debates and empirical evidence of alternative causes of apparent learning (Field & Davey, 1999). The seeds of doubt have undoubtedly been nurtured, also by the numerous informal reports of researchers failing to obtain EC effects – even when replicating previously successful paradigms. This has led some to talk of boundary conditions that could enhance or eliminate the effects in EC experiments (De Houwer, Baeyens, Vansteenwegen & Eelen, 2000). This paper summarises 12 experiments that have explored this elusive phenomenon with mixed results (even when replicating past procedures). These various experiments are used to attempt to draw conclusions about what boundary conditions might exist for evaluative conditioning

Affective learning in adults with intellectual disability: an experiment using evaluative conditioning

“…The role of cognitive factors in evaluative conditioning is currently the focus of much debate. Some studies suggest that the availability of cognitive resources (Pleyers et al ; Davies et al ) and an explicit awareness of the association between stimuli (Field et al ) are necessary for evaluative conditioning to occur. In our results, while contingency awareness was limited, evaluative conditioning still occurred, even in participants with ID.…”

Evidence for the role of cognitive resources in flavour–flavour evaluative conditioning

“…Several studies have provided evidence of EC effects in the absence of contingency awareness (Baeyens, Eelen, Van den Bergh, & Crombez, 1990;Dijksterhuis, 2004), supporting the idea that EC relies mainly on implicit processes. However, other studies provide evidence that EC may occur only when participants are classed as contingency aware (Field, Lascelles, Lester, Askew, & Davey, 2008;Lovibond & Shanks, 2002). Thus, findings at this stage remain inconclusive.…”

Evaluative conditioning of responses to unfamiliar chords by exposure to valenced images

“…The absence of EC in this particular design is informative for future studies that aim to explore music as CS in EC paradigms. Also, as Baeyens et al (2005) and Field et al (2008) point out, the EC literature contains a lot of controversies, making it even more important to find the boundaries of EC. We will first discuss the mechanisms for which we did find strong effects, namely mere exposure and intrinsic features , before discussing the current results in respect to several well-known artifacts or experimental design choices that potentially affect EC, namely the inclusion of a control condition, and contingency awareness.…”