The role of evaluatively conditioned stimuli in iconic memory

In the present study, an attempt was made to replicate results found about the influence of valence on prioritisation and decay in iconic memory. Hereby, the evaluative conditioning effect was used to induce valence for formerly neutral stimuli. The effect is gained by pairing neutral stimuli with either positive, negative, or neutral images in a conditioning phase. Afterwards, the conditioned stimuli acted as targets in an iconic memory test. In the iconic memory test, targets were presented together with seven other stimuli on a circular placement on the screen for a short time. A cue delayed by either 17, 68, 221, 493, or 1003 ms pointed at the target to be reported. Participants rated the targets before and after the conditioning phase. In addition, the affective and neutral images used in the pairing procedure were rated at the end of the experiment. While no significant change in rating could be observed for the conditioned targets, a significant effect of conditioned valence was still present in the response times and the accuracy of the iconic memory test. Participants reacted the quickest in response to a cue for positively conditioned targets compared to neutral or negatively conditioned targets. Accuracy was highest for positively conditioned targets and was lowest for negatively conditioned targets. Unlike in prior studies, slower decay of information in iconic memory for negative targets was not revealed. Further research should be conducted to identify reasons for this inconsistency.