Associative learning of likes and dislikes: Some current controversies and possible ways forward

Abstract

Evaluative conditioning (EC) is one of the terms that is used to refer to associatively induced changes in liking. Many controversies have arisen in the literature on EC. Do associatively induced changes in liking actually exist? Does EC depend on awareness of the fact that stimuli are associated? Is EC resistant to extinction? Does attention help or hinder EC? As an introduction to this special issue, we will discuss the extent to which the papers that are published in this issue help to resolve some of the controversies that surround EC. We also speculate about possible boundary conditions of EC and attempt to reconcile conflicting results on the functional properties of EC.

Notes

Note that when we talk about “associative learning”, “conditioning”, or “associatively induced changes in behaviour”, we do not want to imply that observed changes in behaviour are due to the formation of associative links between representations. We only want to indicate that the changes in behaviour are due to fact that stimuli have been paired (i.e., presented together) in a certain manner. That is, we use “associative learning” to refer to an effect (i.e., a change in behaviour that is due to pairing stimuli) rather than to a theory (i.e., the formation of associations between representations).

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jan De Houwer, Department of Psychology, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan 2, B‐9000 Ghent, Belgium; e‐mail: [email protected]

We thank Paul Eelen and the Fund for Scientific Research (Flanders, Belgium) for making possible the special interest meeting on which this special issue was based. We also thank Eva Walther for her critical comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

We want to emphasise that when a conditioning procedure results in changes in behaviour, one needs to be sure that these changes are due to the pairing of the stimuli before one can refer to these changes as a conditioning effect. That is, one always needs to control for nonassociative effects. This definition of conditioning as an effect is, however, neutral with regard to the nature of the processes that are responsible for the fact that the pairing of stimuli results in a change in behaviour.