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Does evaluative learning rely on the perception of contingency?: manipulating contingency and US density during
Florian Kattner1, Wolfgang Ellermeier
1Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany. kattner@psychologie.tu-darmstadt.de
Experimental Psychology
|May 20, 2011
Summary
Subjective beliefs about cause-and-effect relationships, or contingency judgments, influence how we learn to evaluate stimuli. This study shows that perceived contingency, not just objective contingency, shapes evaluative conditioning (EC).
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Learning and Memory
Background:
- Evaluative conditioning (EC) is a form of associative learning where neutral stimuli acquire affective value through pairing with unconditioned stimuli (US).
- The role of objective contingency (the statistical relationship between a conditioned stimulus (CS) and US) versus subjective contingency judgments in EC is debated.
- Understanding these factors is crucial for explaining how knowledge influences emotional learning.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how objective contingency and subjective contingency judgments interact to influence cross-modal evaluative conditioning.
- To examine the effects of experimental manipulations of contingency and US density on both contingency judgments and EC.
- To determine if subjective contingency judgments mediate the effects of objective contingency on EC.
Main Methods:
- Participants underwent a contingency learning task where neutral sounds (CS) predicted affective pictures (US) with varying statistical contingencies.
- Objective contingency and US density were experimentally manipulated.
- Contingency judgments (subjective beliefs) and evaluative responses (affective ratings) to the sounds were measured post-task.
Main Results:
- Experimental manipulations of contingency and US density significantly affected participants' contingency judgments.
- Higher objective contingency and lower US density led to perceptions of stronger contingencies.
- A reliable EC effect was observed, with its magnitude influenced by the interaction between statistical contingency and US density.
- The magnitude of EC was positively correlated with subjective contingency judgments.
Conclusions:
- Propositional knowledge, as reflected in contingency judgments, plays a significant role in moderating evaluative learning.
- Subjective beliefs about the CS-US relationship can influence the strength and nature of evaluative conditioning.
- These findings support theories where cognitive representations mediate affective learning processes in EC.
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