Evaluative conditioning increases with temporal contiguity. The influence of stimulus order and stimulus interval on evaluative conditioning
Gast A, Langer S, Sengewald MA (2016)
Publication Type: Journal article
Publication year: 2016
Journal
Book Volume: 170
Pages Range: 177-185
DOI: 10.1016/j.actpsy.2016.07.002
Abstract
Evaluative conditioning (EC) is a change in valence that is due to pairing a conditioned stimulus (CS) with another, typically valent, unconditioned stimulus (US). This paper investigates how basic presentation parameters moderate EC effects. In two studies we tested the effectiveness of different temporal relations of the CS and the US, that is, the order in which the stimuli were presented and the temporal distance between them. Both studies showed that the size of EC effects was independent of the presentation order of CS and US within a stimulus pair. Contrary to classical conditioning effects, EC effects are thus not most pronounced after CS-first presentations. Furthermore, as shown in Experiment 2, EC effects increased in magnitude as the temporal interval between CS and US presentations decreased. Experiment 1 showed largest EC effects in the condition with simultaneous presentations – which can be seen as the condition with the temporally closest presentation. In this Experiment stimuli were presented in two different modalities, which might have facilitated simultaneous processing. In Experiment 2, in which all stimuli were presented visually, this advantage of simultaneous presentation was not found. We discuss practical and theoretical implications of our findings.
Involved external institutions
Germany (DE)How to cite
APA:
Gast, A., Langer, S., & Sengewald, M.A. (2016). Evaluative conditioning increases with temporal contiguity. The influence of stimulus order and stimulus interval on evaluative conditioning. Acta Psychologica, 170, 177-185. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2016.07.002
MLA:
Gast, Anne, Sebastian Langer, and Marie Ann Sengewald. "Evaluative conditioning increases with temporal contiguity. The influence of stimulus order and stimulus interval on evaluative conditioning." Acta Psychologica 170 (2016): 177-185.
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