A Memory-and-Retrieval Model of Evaluative Learning

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What people like and what they dislike predicts their behavior. Most of such preferences are learned over the course of our lives. Previous research has shown that simply observing a neutral stimulus (for example an unknown person) together with a positive or negative stimulus (for example a liked or disliked person) changes how much we like or dislike the neutral stimulus. This phenomenon is called evaluative conditioning (EC). This project investigates the learning and memory processes that underlie EC and related forms of acquiring preferences.Several questions can be asked about EC: Does it occur when people do not remember the pairings? How long lasting are the new preferences? Does it occur outside the psychological lab? In the Emmy Noether-Group these and other questions are approached from a memory perspective. This perspective, and specifically the “Declarative Memory Model of Evaluative Learning” (DMM), which I developed as part of this project, distinguishes between a learning phase during which the pairings are experienced, a measurement phase, during which the new preferences are assessed or expressed, and a retention interval between learning and measurement. The model offers a dynamic and empirically founded understanding of the processes that result in preferences, it specifies a number of new testable hypotheses, and it allows a better understanding of when EC effects can be expected in real-life situations that are less controlled than in the lab.In the first phases of this project, several predictions of the DMM were tested and largely confirmed: EC effects show if pairings are remembered. They are influenced in a similar way by factors that influence memory – during learning, during measurement, and in between. To test the limits of the model, we also tested hypotheses by other theoretical approaches that propose conditions for attitude learning without memory, for example conditioning with fear or disgust arousing stimuli or the pairing of smell and taste. Under none of these conditions, however, we found evidence for EC without memory. Another focus of the project so far was the understudied question of whether EC effects also show in real-life settings. We did find evidence for a prediction of the DMM when testing people’s attitudes about everyday objects and their previous experiences with them. Our attempts to find EC effects in a lecture hall, however, largely failed. In the extension project, we plan to follow up on mainly two question. The first is whether there are conditions under which EC effects show after pairings are forgotten. We test two hypotheses on this, one derived from the DMM and one from an unexpected previous finding. Second, we want to follow-up on the question of whether and under which conditions EC effects show in real life. We propose two new paradigms that allow us to single out potentially relevant factors in real-life situations while maintaining experimental control.