Abstract
The aim of the four present experiments was to explore how different schedules of reinforcement influence schedule-induced behavior, their impact on evaluative ratings given to conditioned stimuli associated with each schedule through evaluative conditioning, and the transfer of these evaluations through derived stimulus networks. Experiment 1 compared two contrasting response reinforcement rules (variable ratio [VR], variable interval [VI]). Experiment 2 varied the response to reinforcement rule between two schedules but equated the outcome to response rate (differential reinforcement of high rate [DRH] vs. VR). Experiment 3 compared molar and molecular aspects of contingencies of reinforcement (tandem VIVR vs. tandem VRVI). Finally, Experiment 4 employed schedules that induced low rates of responding to determine whether, under these circumstances, responses were more sensitive to the molecular aspects of a schedule (differential reinforcement of low rate [DRL] vs. VI). The findings suggest that the transfer of evaluative functions is determined mainly by differences in response rate between the schedules and the molar aspects of the schedules. However, when neither schedule was based on a strong response reinforcement rule, the transfer of evaluative judgments came under the control of the molecular aspects of the schedule.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abramson, L. Y., Metalsky, G. I., & Alloy, L. B. (1989). Hopelessness depression: A theory-based subtype of depression. Psychological Review, 96, 358–372.
Allan, L. G. (1980). A note on measurement of contingency between two binary variables in judgment tasks. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 15, 147–149.
Alloy, L. B., & Abramson, L. Y. (1979). Judgment of contingency in depressed and nondepressed students: Sadder but wiser? Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 108, 441–485. doi:10.1037/0096-3445.108.4.441
Alloy, L. B., & Tabachnik, M. (1984). Assessment of covariation by humans and animals: The joint influence of prior expectations and current situational information. Psychological Review, 91, 112–149.
Baeyens, F., Eelen, P., Crombez, G., & Van den Bergh, O. (1992). Human evaluative conditioning: Acquisition trials, presentation schedule, evaluative style and contingency awareness. Behavior Research & Therapy, 30, 133–142. doi:10.1016/0005-7967(92)90136-5
Barnes-Holmes, D., Keane, J., Barnes-Holmes, Y., & Smeets, P. M. (2000). A derived transfer of emotive functions as a means of establishing differential preferences for soft drinks. Psychological Record, 50, 493–511.
Baum, W. M. (1973). The correlational-based law of effect. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 20, 137–153. doi:10.1901/ jeab.1973.20-137
Baum, W. M. (1993). Performances on ratio and interval schedules of reinforcement: Data and theory. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 59, 245–264. doi:10.1901/jeab.1993.59-245
Beck, A. T. (1967). Depression: Clinical, experimental, and theoretical aspects. New York: Hoeber.
Beck, A. T. (1976). Cognitive therapy and the emotional disorders. New York: International Universities Press.
Beck, A. T. (1978). The depression inventory. Philadelphia: Center for Cognitive Therapy.
Beck, A. T., Rush, A. J., Shaw, B. F., & Emery, G. (1979). Cognitive therapy of depression. New York: Guilford.
Beck, A. T., Ward, C. H., Mendelson, M., Mock, J., & Erbaugh, J. (1961). An inventory for measuring depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 4, 561–571.
Bush, K. M., Sidman, M., & de Rose, T. (1989). Contextual control of emergent equivalence relations. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 51, 29–46. doi:10.1901/jeab.1989.51-29
Clark, D. A., Beck, A. T., & Alford, B. A. (1999). Scientific foundations of cognitive theory and therapy of depression. New York: Wiley.
Costello, C. G. (1972). Depression: Loss of reinforcers or loss of reinforcer effectiveness. Behavior Therapy, 3, 240–247.
Dack, C., McHugh, L., & Reed, P. (2009). Generalization of causal efficacy judgments after evaluative learning. Learning & Behavior, 37, 336–348. doi:10.3758/LB.37.4.336
De Houwer, J., Thomas, S., & Baeyens, F. (2001). Associative learning of likes and dislikes: A review of 25 years of research on human evaluative conditioning. Psychological Bulletin, 127, 853–869.
Dohr, K. B., Rush, A. J., & Bernstein, I. H. (1989). Cognitive biases and depression. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 98, 263–267.
Dymond, S., & Rehfeldt, R. A. (2000). Understanding complex behavior: The transformation of stimulus functions. Behavior Analyst, 23, 239–254.
Ferster, C. B. (1973). A functional analysis of depression. American Psychologist, 28, 857–870.
Ferster, C. B., & Skinner, B. F. (1957). Schedules of reinforcement. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Foxall, M. R. (1997). The emotional texture of consumer environments: A systematic approach to atmospherics. Journal of Economic Psychology, 5, 505–523.
Foxall, M. R., & Greenley, G. E. (1999). Consumers’ emotional responses to service environments. Journal of Business Research, 46, 149–158.
Foxall, M. R., & Yani-de-Soriano, M. M. (2005). Situational influences on consumers’ attitudes and behavior. Journal of Business Research, 58, 518–525.
Fulcher, E. P., Mathews, A., Mackintosh, B., & Law, S. (2001). Evaluative learning and the allocation of attention to emotional stimuli. Cognitive Therapy & Research, 25, 261–280. doi:10.1023/ A:1010732328104
Hebl, M. R., & Mannix, L. M. (2003). The weight of obesity in evaluating others: A mere proximity effect. Personality & Social Psychology Bulletin, 29, 28–38.
Hermans, D. (1998). Evaluative conditioning [Special issue]. Gedragstherapie, 31, 3–6.
Jagacinski, C. M., & Nicholls, J. G. (1984). Conceptions of ability and related affects in task involvement and ego involvement. Journal of Educational Psychology, 76, 909–919. doi:10.1037/0022-0663.76.5.909
Jenkins, H. M. (1970). Sequential organization in schedules of reinforcement. In W. N. Schoenfeld (Ed.), The theory of reinforcement schedules (pp. 63–109). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Levey, A. B., & Martin, I. (1975). Classical conditioning of human “evaluative” responses. Behaviour Research & Therapy, 13, 221–226. doi:10.1016/0005-7967(75)90026-1
Lewinsohn, P. M. (1974). A behavioral approach to depression. In R. J. Friedman & M. M. Katz (Eds.), Psychology of depression: Contemporary theory and research (pp. 157–178). Washington, DC: Winston.
Loeb, A., Feshbach, S., Beck, A. T., & Wolf, A. (1964). Some effects of reward upon the social perception and motivation of psychiatric patients varying in depression. Journal of Abnormal & Social Psychology, 68, 609–616.
MacLeod, A. K., & Byrne, A. (1996). Anxiety, depression and the anticipation of future positive and future negative experiences. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 105, 286–289.
McDowell, J. J., & Wixted, J. T. (1986). Variable-ratio schedules as variable-interval schedules with linear feedback loops. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 46, 315–329. doi:10.1901/jeab.1986.46-315
Morgan, J., & Banerjee, R. (2006). Social anxiety and self-evaluation of social performance in a nonclinical sample of children. Journal of Clinical Child & Adolescent Psychology, 35, 292–301.
Morse, W. H. (1966). Intermittent reinforcement. In W. K. Honig (Ed.), Operant behavior: Areas of research and application (pp. 52–108). Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Mowrer, O. H. (1960). Learning theory and the symbolic processes. New York: Wiley.
Olatunji, B. O. (2006). Evaluative learning and emotional responding to fearful and disgusting stimuli in spider phobia. Anxiety Disorders, 20, 858–876. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2006.01.005
Olatunji, B. O., Lohr, J. M., Smits, J. A. J., Sawchuck. C. N., & Patten, K. (2009). Evaluative conditioning of fear and disgust in blood-injection-injury phobia: Specificity and impact of individual differences in disgust sensitivity. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 23, 153–159. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2008.06.002
Peele, D. B., Casey, J., & Silberberg, A. (1984). Primacy of interresponse time reinforcement in accounting for rates under variableratio and variable-interval schedules. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 10, 149–167. doi:10.1037/0097-7403.10.2.149
Reed, P. (1992). Effect of local context of responding on human judgment of causality. Memory & Cognition, 20, 573–579.
Reed, P. (1993). Influence of the schedule of outcome presentation on causality judgements. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 46A, 327–345.
Reed, P. (1994). Influence of the cost of responding on human causality judgments. Memory & Cognition, 22, 243–248.
Reed, P. (1999). Effect of perceived cost on judgments regarding the efficacy of investment. Journal of Economic Psychology, 20, 657–676. doi:10.1016/S0167-4870(99)00029-X
Reed, P. (2001a). Human response rates and causality judgments on schedules of reinforcement. Learning & Motivation, 32, 332–348. doi:10.1006/lmot.2001.1085
Reed, P. (2001b). Schedules of reinforcement as determinants of human causality judgments and response rates. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 27, 187–195.
Reed, P. (2003). Human causality judgments and response rates on DRL and DRH schedules of reinforcement. Learning & Behavior, 31, 205–211.
Reed, P. (2007). Response rate and sensitivity to the molar feedback function relating response and reinforcement rate on VI+ schedules of reinforcement. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior Processes, 33, 428–439. doi:10.1037/0097-7403.33.4.428
Reed, P., & Antonova, M. (2007). Interference with judgments of control and attentional shift as a result of prior exposure to controllable and uncontrollable feedback. Learning & Motivation, 38, 229–241. doi:10.1016/j.lmot.2006.08.005
Reed, P., Frasquillo, F., Colkin, C., Liemann, V., & Colbert, S. (2001). Interference with judgements of control and learning as a result of prior exposure to controllable and uncontrollable feedback during concept-learning tasks. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 54B, 167–183. doi:10.1080/02724990042000155
Roth, D., & Rehm, L. P. (1980). Relationships among self-monitoring processes, memory and depression. Cognitive Therapy & Research, 4, 149–157. doi:10.1007/BF01173646
Rozin, P., Markwith, M., & McCauley, C. (1994). Sensitivity to indirect contacts with other persons: AIDS aversion as a composite of aversion to strangers, infection, moral taint, and misfortune. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 103, 495–504. doi:10.1037/0021-843X.103.3.495
Schienle, A., Stark, R., & Vaitl, D. (2001). Evaluative conditioning: A possible explanation for the acquisition of disgust responses? Learning & Motivation, 32, 65–83. doi:10.1006/lmot.2000.1067
Seligman, M. E. P. (1975). Helplessness: On depression, development, and death. San Francisco: Freeman.
Sidman, M. (1971). Reading and auditory-visual equivalences. Journal of Speech & Hearing Research, 14, 5–13.
Sidman, M. (1990). Equivalence relations: Where do they come from? In D. E. Blackman & H. Lejeune (Eds.), Behavior analysis in theory and practice: Contributions and controversies (pp. 93–114). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Sidman, M. (1994). Equivalence relations and behavior: A research story. Boston: Authors Cooperative.
Sidman, M., Kirk, B., & Wilson-Morris, M. (1985). Six-member stimulus classes generated by conditional-discrimination procedures. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 43, 21–42. doi:10.1901/jeab.1985.43-21
Simon, G. E. (2003). Social and economic burden of mood disorders. Biological Psychiatry, 54, 208–215.
Smeets, P. M., & Barnes-Holmes, D. (2003). Children’s emergent preferences for soft drinks: Stimulus-equivalence and transfer. Journal of Economic Psychology, 24, 603–618. doi:10.1016/S0167-4870(03)00004-7
Stuart, E. W., Shimp, T. A., & Engle, R. W. (1987). Classical conditioning of consumer attitudes: Four experiments in an advertising context. Journal of Consumer Research, 14, 334–351.
Walther, E. (2002). Guilty by mere association: Evaluative conditioning and the spreading attitude effect. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 82, 919–934.
Walther, E., Nagengast, B., & Trasselli, C. (2005). Evaluative conditioning in social psychology: Facts and speculations. Cognition & Emotion, 19, 175–196. doi:10.1080/02699930441000274
Wasserman, E. A. (1990). Detecting response-outcome relations: Toward an understanding of the causal texture of the environment. In G. H. Bower (Ed.), The psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 26, pp. 27–82). London: Academic Press.
Wasserman, E. A., Elek, S. M., Chatlosh, D. L., & Baker, A. G. (1993). Rating causal relations: Role of probability in judgments of response-outcome contingency. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, 19, 174–188.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
The research described here was supported in part by a research grant from the United Kingdom Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Leverhulme Trust.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Dack, C., Reed, P. & McHugh, L. Multiple determinants of transfer of evaluative function after conditioning with free-operant schedules of reinforcement. Learning & Behavior 38, 348–366 (2010). https://doi.org/10.3758/LB.38.4.348
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/LB.38.4.348