Examining conceptual generalisation after acquisition, extinction, and reinstatement in evaluative conditioning

Area of Science:

• Psychology
• Cognitive Science
• Behavioral Science

Background:

• Evaluative conditioning (EC) demonstrates how neutral stimuli acquire emotional valence through association with unconditioned stimuli (US).
• Conditioned emotional responses can generalize to stimuli within the same category.
• Extinction and reinstatement are key processes affecting learned emotional associations, but their generalization is less understood.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the generalization of extinction and reinstatement processes in evaluative conditioning to category members.
• To determine if using multiple exemplars during conditioning enhances generalization of extinction and reinstatement.
• To examine the generalization of both explicit and implicit evaluations, as well as US expectancy.

Main Methods:

• Evaluative conditioning paradigms were employed across three experiments.
• Participants underwent acquisition, extinction, and reinstatement phases with category exemplars.
• Generalization stimuli (GS) were used to assess transfer of learning.
• Explicit and implicit measures (affective priming task) were utilized in Experiment 3.
• Unconditioned stimulus (US) expectancy was also monitored.

Main Results:

• Evaluations generalized during acquisition in all experiments.
• Generalization of evaluations during extinction was observed when multiple exemplars were used (Experiment 2).
• Neither extinction nor reinstatement of explicit/implicit evaluations generalized consistently across experiments.
• Acquisition and extinction of US expectancy generalized across all experiments.
• Reinstatement of US expectancy generalized only when multiple exemplars were used (Experiment 3).

Conclusions:

• Partial evidence suggests evaluative generalization occurs during extinction but not reinstatement.
• The extinction and reinstatement of US expectancy demonstrate generalization in evaluative conditioning.
• Using multiple exemplars during conditioning can enhance the generalization of extinction effects for evaluations.