Putting Operating Principles (What) Before Conditions (How and When) to Improve Theorizing: S - S versus S - R learning in Evaluative Conditioning

Abstract

Abstract:I argue that theorizing in evaluative conditioning has paid insufficient attention to distinguishing what is learned (operating principles) from how and when the learning takes place (operating conditions). In terms of its operating principles, EC effects can be established both via stimulus -stimulus (S -S) and via stimulus -evaluative response (S -R) associations. Operating conditions of EC that have received a lot of attention are the famous features of automaticity (awareness, intentionality, controllability, resource efficiency). A lot of research in our field has focused on investigating operating conditions, without specifying operating principles, which limits the interpretability of previous work, especially if conflicting findings arise. I call for putting the principles before the conditions, and to approach EC theorizing in a more piecemeal manner, from the ground up. I believe for now we should treat the operating principles and operating conditions as orthogonal, and do not assume that only certain processes can lead to certain representations. Evidently, this calls for a lot of future research, and theorizing that is more focused and precise. By specifying and testing clearly both operating principles and conditions, our theories will be (initially) smaller in scope, but likely more verifiable.

Associative Attitude Learning: A Closer Look at Evidence and How It Relates to Attitude Models

“…Sweldens et al (2010) have independently specified a set of conditions conducive to S-R learning. They regularly refer to IAM as an underlying mechanism but allow for other mechanisms in S-R learning (Sweldens, 2018). This is consistent with the lack of evidence for the role of implicit misattribution in S-R paradigms used by these authors.…”

“…If not subscribing to the latter assumption, however, one has to turn to a separate set of evidence for testing associative learning, which can be done by addressing operating principles. Operating principles may actually be deemed more relevant to the associative learning as a process question, as they directly tackle the “how” instead of the “when” question (Gawronski & Bodenhausen, 2014; Sweldens, 2018).…”

How associative is evaluative conditioning? An empirical investigation at the attitude acquisition and attitude change stages

“…In the next section, I discuss how "associative" learning is defined in the dual-process framework and how it can be tested in the context of EC studies. We will see that inferring the activity of an associative learning process in EC implies to examine the boundary conditions of EC (i.e., its operating conditions) and the nature of the evaluative representation learned in an EC procedure (i.e., its operating principles; Gawronski & Bodenhausen, 2009Sweldens, 2018).…”

“…In comparison to operating conditions, attention to the operating principles of EC has been rather neglected (Sweldens, 2018), although operating principles also allow testing the associative nature of the learning processes involved in EC. In this section, I discuss evidence about what CS-US linkage is stored in memory.…”

“…More generally, the S-S versus S-R distinction should not be equated to the associative versus propositional learning distinction Gast & Rothermund, 2011;Sweldens, 2018). For instance, some associative accounts naturally assume that associative learning creates S-S linkages.…”