On the respective contributions of awareness of unconditioned stimulus valence and unconditioned stimulus identity in attitude formation through evaluative conditioning.

Full Abstract

Evaluative conditioning (EC) is a central mechanism for both classic and current theories of attitude formation. In contrast to Pavlovian conditioning, it is often conceptualized as a form of evaluative learning that occurs without awareness of the conditioned stimulus-unconditioned stimulus (CS-US) contingencies. In the present research, the authors directly address this point by assessing the respective roles of US valence awareness and US identity awareness in attitude formation through EC. Across 4 experiments, EC was assessed with evaluative ratings as well as evaluative priming measures, and the impact of valence and identity awareness on EC was evaluated. EC effects on priming and rating measures occurred only for CSs for which participants could report the associated US valence, and US identity awareness did not further contribute to EC. This finding was obtained both for semantically meaningless (i.e., nonword letter sequences) and meaningful (i.e., consumer products) CSs. These results provide further support for the critical role of contingency awareness in EC, albeit valence awareness, not identity awareness. (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved).

Author information

Author/s: Stahl, Christoph (C); Unkelbach, Christian (C); Corneille, Olivier (O);

Affiliation: Institute for Psychology, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany. stahl(-atsign-)psychologie.uni-freiburg.de

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Journal: Journal of personality and social psychology (J Pers Soc Psychol), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Sep; vol 97 (issue 3) : pp 404-20

Dates: Created 2009/08/18; Completed 2009/09/25;

PMID: 19685998, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 9/25/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

External Links for this article
(including full text providers, if available):

Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.

This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.