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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jan 31, 2026

Quantifying Social Motivation in Mice Using Operant Conditioning

Quantifying Social Motivation in Mice Using Operant Conditioning

Published on: August 8, 2015

Operant evaluative conditioning.

Andreas B Eder¹, Anand Krishna¹, Pieter Van Dessel²

¹Department of Psychology, University of Würzburg.

Journal of Experimental Psychology. Animal Learning and Cognition

|January 4, 2019

Summary

Operant conditioning can shape preferences. Associating actions with positive outcomes increases liking for related stimuli, even without direct experience of the outcome.

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Area of Science:

Cognitive Psychology
Behavioral Science

Background:

Evaluative conditioning explores how experiences with one stimulus influence attitudes toward another.
Operant conditioning involves learning through consequences of actions.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate evaluative transfer from operant actions to novel stimuli.
To determine if operant contingencies can construct preferences.

Main Methods:

Two experiments were conducted.
Participants performed actions associated with pleasant or unpleasant outcomes.
Novel stimuli were subsequently assigned to these actions in a stimulus-response task.

Main Results:

A fictitious social group was preferred when linked to actions previously associated with pleasant outcomes.
This evaluative transfer occurred even when actions did not produce outcomes during stimulus-action pairing.

Conclusions:

Operant contingencies can establish preferences by linking actions to valenced events.
Findings have implications for understanding preference formation and motivated perception.