Articulation dynamics and evaluative conditioning: investigating the boundary conditions, mental representation, and origin of the in-out effect

ABSTRACT

People prefer linguistic stimuli with an inward (e.g. BODIKA) over those with an outward articulation dynamic (e.g. KODIBA), a phenomenon known as the articulatory in-out effect. Despite its robustness across languages and contexts, the phenomenon is still poorly understood. To learn more about the effect’s boundary conditions, mental representation, and origin, we crossed the in-out effect with evaluative conditioning research. In five experiments (N = 713, three experiments pre-registered), we systematically paired words containing inward versus outward dynamics with pictures of negative versus positive valence. Although this evaluative conditioning procedure reversed the preference for inward over outward words, this was the case only for words with the same consonant sequences as the conditioned words. For words with inward/outward dynamics but different consonant sequences than the conditioned ones, a regular in-out effect emerged. Also, no preference reversal at all emerged for the conditioned consonant sequences when the contingency between single consonants at specific positions and positive/negative valence was zero. Implications of these findings for the in-out effect and evaluative conditioning are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• In-out effect
• evaluative conditioning
• implicit learning
• attitudes
• language

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

All data, materials, and analysis scripts can be accessed via https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/8QC5D. Experiments 2, 3 and 5 were pre-registered (https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/6SFBR, https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/5CMZY, https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/MD8S9).

Notes

1 The effect sizes of the in-out effect were d_z = 0.27, 95% CI = [0.14, 0.40], for inward+outward- and d_z = 0.22, 95% CI = [0.07, 0.36], for inward-outward+.

2 We thank Karoline Bading for these suggestions.

3 The effect size of the in-out effect was d_z = 0.25, CI_95%=  [0.13, 0.36]. Effect sizes for each factorial cell are provided in the OSF.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a scholarship from the GESS Mannheim to Moritz Ingendahl and the open science grant of the University of Mannheim to Moritz Ingendahl, Ira Theresa Maschmann, and Tobias Vogel.