scholarly journals Incidental Attitude Formation via the Surveillance Task: A Preregistered Replication of the Olson and Fazio (2001) Study

2020 ◽  
pp. 095679762096852
Author(s):  
Tal Moran ◽  
Sean Hughes ◽  
Ian Hussey ◽  
Miguel A. Vadillo ◽  
Michael A. Olson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Evaluative Conditioning ◽  
Attitude Formation ◽  
Effect Sizes ◽  
Small Samples ◽  
Conditioning Paradigm ◽  
Task Effect ◽  
Adult Participants ◽  
Conditioning Effect ◽  
Changing Attitudes ◽  
Highly Cited

Evaluative conditioning is one of the most widely studied procedures for establishing and changing attitudes. The surveillance task is a highly cited evaluative-conditioning paradigm and one that is claimed to generate attitudes without awareness. The potential for evaluative-conditioning effects to occur without awareness continues to fuel conceptual, theoretical, and applied developments. Yet few published studies have used this task, and most are characterized by small samples and small effect sizes. We conducted a high-powered ( N = 1,478 adult participants), preregistered close replication of the original surveillance-task study (Olson & Fazio, 2001). We obtained evidence for a small evaluative-conditioning effect when “aware” participants were excluded using the original criterion—therefore replicating the original effect. However, no such effect emerged when three other awareness criteria were used. We suggest that there is a need for caution when using evidence from the surveillance-task effect to make theoretical and practical claims about “unaware” evaluative-conditioning effects.

scholarly journals Incidental Attitude Formation via the Surveillance Task: A Registered Replication Report of Olson and Fazio (2001)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tal Moran ◽  
Sean Hughes ◽  
Ian Hussey ◽  
Miguel A. Vadillo ◽  
Michael A. Olson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Evaluative Conditioning ◽  
Attitude Formation ◽  
Effect Sizes ◽  
Small Samples ◽  
Task Effect ◽  
Adult Participants ◽  
Changing Attitudes ◽  
Highly Cited

Evaluative conditioning (EC) is one of the most widely-studied procedures for establishing and changing attitudes. The surveillance-task (Olson & Fazio, 2001) is a highly cited EC paradigm, and one that is claimed to generate attitudes without awareness. The potential for EC effects to occur without awareness continues to fuel conceptual, theoretical, and applied developments. Yet few published studies have used this task, and most are characterized by small samples and small effect sizes. We conducted a high-powered (N = 1478 adult participants), preregistered close replication of the original surveillance-task study. We obtained evidence for a small EC effect when ‘aware’ participants were excluded using the original criterion – therefore replicating the original effect. However, no such effect emerged when three other awareness criteria were used. We suggest that there is a need for caution when using evidence from the surveillance task effect to make theoretical and practical claims about ‘unaware’ EC effects.

Valence Asymmetry in Attitude Formation

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 650-655 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natalie J. Shook ◽  
Russ Clay
Keyword(s):  
Political Ideology ◽  
Evaluative Conditioning ◽  
Attitude Formation ◽  
Social Worlds ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Conditioning Paradigm ◽  
Negative Images ◽  
The World ◽  
Positive Stimuli ◽  
Negative Stimuli

A considerable amount of research indicates that political conservatives and liberals perceive their social worlds very differently, with conservatives perceiving the world more negatively than liberals. Two studies examined how these varying perceptions may develop by exploring the relation between political ideology and attitude formation. In both studies, participants completed an evaluative conditioning paradigm in which novel stimuli were paired with either positive or negative images. Political conservatives were more susceptible to conditioning with negative stimuli than conditioning with positive stimuli as compared to political liberals. Specifically, conservatives were less susceptible to conditioning with positive stimuli than liberals. Conditioning with negative stimuli did not differ by political ideology. These findings suggest fundamental differences in the formation of positive versus negative attitudes between conservatives and liberals.

scholarly journals Unaware attitude formation in the surveillance task? Revisiting the findings of Moran et al. (2020)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benedek Kurdi ◽  
Ian Hussey ◽  
Christoph Stahl ◽  
Sean Hughes ◽  
Christian Unkelbach ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Incidental Learning ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Convincing Evidence ◽  
Attitude Formation ◽  
Small Samples ◽  
Separate Analysis ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Task Effect ◽  
Weak Evidence ◽  
Learning Procedure

Moran et al. (2020) recently conducted a multi-lab registered replication of Olson and Fazio’s (2001) surveillance task study—an incidental learning procedure designed to establish evaluative conditioning (EC) effects in the absence of awareness. The potential for unaware attitude formation continues to fuel conceptual, theoretical, and applied developments. Yet, few published studies have used this task, and most are characterized by small samples and effect sizes. Perhaps most worryingly, the multi-lab replication effort yielded weak evidence for a surveillance task effect and thus for unaware EC. Here we re-examine Moran et al.’s (2020) data using more fine-grained analytic strategies. When subjected to Bayesian analyses, we did not find convincing evidence for unaware EC effects under any of Moran et al.’s exclusion criteria and obtained evidence against such effects in three of four models. A separate analysis that distinguished between fully aware, partially aware, and fully unaware participants found a non-significant EC effect in the fully unaware group. Finally, a meta-analysis using a stricter compound awareness criterion that prioritized sensitivity to awareness also yielded a non-significant and near-zero EC effect. Taken together, these reanalyses of the Moran et al. (2020) data suggest that unaware EC as indexed by the surveillance task has yet to be convincingly demonstrated.

scholarly journals Pre-post effect sizes should be avoided in meta-analyses

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 364-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Cuijpers ◽  
E. Weitz ◽  
I. A. Cristea ◽  
J. Twisk
Keyword(s):  
Comparison Group ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Effect Sizes ◽  
Behaviour Therapy ◽  
Natural Processes ◽  
Cognitive Behaviour ◽  
Post Test ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Meta Analyses ◽  
Highly Cited

AimsThe standardised mean difference (SMD) is one of the most used effect sizes to indicate the effects of treatments. It indicates the difference between a treatment and comparison group after treatment has ended, in terms of standard deviations. Some meta-analyses, including several highly cited and influential ones, use the pre-post SMD, indicating the difference between baseline and post-test within one (treatment group).MethodsIn this paper, we argue that these pre-post SMDs should be avoided in meta-analyses and we describe the arguments why pre-post SMDs can result in biased outcomes.ResultsOne important reason why pre-post SMDs should be avoided is that the scores on baseline and post-test are not independent of each other. The value for the correlation should be used in the calculation of the SMD, while this value is typically not known. We used data from an ‘individual patient data’ meta-analysis of trials comparing cognitive behaviour therapy and anti-depressive medication, to show that this problem can lead to considerable errors in the estimation of the SMDs. Another even more important reason why pre-post SMDs should be avoided in meta-analyses is that they are influenced by natural processes and characteristics of the patients and settings, and these cannot be discerned from the effects of the intervention. Between-group SMDs are much better because they control for such variables and these variables only affect the between group SMD when they are related to the effects of the intervention.ConclusionsWe conclude that pre-post SMDs should be avoided in meta-analyses as using them probably results in biased outcomes.

scholarly journals Evaluative Conditioning with Facial Stimuli in Dementia Patients

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Andreas Blessing ◽  
Jacqueline Zöllig ◽  
Roland Weierstall ◽  
Gerhard Dammann ◽  
Mike Martin
Keyword(s):  
Random Order ◽  
Evaluative Conditioning ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Healthy Controls ◽  
Conditioning Paradigm ◽  
Facial Stimuli ◽  
Dementia Patients ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Rating Changes ◽  
Unfamiliar Faces

We present results of a study investigating evaluative learning in dementia patients with a classic evaluative conditioning paradigm. Picture pairs of three unfamiliar faces with liked, disliked, or neutral faces, that were rated prior to the presentation, were presented 10 times each to a group of dementia patients (N = 15) and healthy controls (N = 14) in random order. Valence ratings of all faces were assessed before and after presentation. In contrast to controls, dementia patients changed their valence ratings of unfamiliar faces according to their pairing with either a liked or disliked face, although they were not able to explicitly assign the picture pairs after the presentation. Our finding suggests preserved evaluative conditioning in dementia patients. However, the result has to be considered preliminary, as it is unclear which factors prevented the predicted rating changes in the expected direction in the control group.

scholarly journals Evaluative Conditioning without awareness: Replicable effects do not equate replicable inferences

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Hussey ◽  
Sean Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Null Hypothesis ◽  
Bayes Factor ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Evaluative Conditioning ◽  
Exclusion Criterion ◽  
Primary Analysis ◽  
Present Evidence ◽  
Task Effect ◽  
Statistical Effect ◽  
Zero Effect

Moran et al.’s (2020) primary analysis successfully replicated the surveillance task effect obtained by Olson and Fazio (2001). This effect is often treated as evidence for attitude formation in the absence of awareness. However, such an inference requires that ‘aware’ participants are successfully excluded from consideration. We present evidence that the awareness exclusion criterion used by Olson and Fazio (2001) – the only one to produce a significant effect in the replication – is a poor measure of awareness: it is overly lax, noisy, and demonstrates heterogeneity between sites. A new meta-analysis of the RRR data using a stricter compound awareness exclusion criterion that prioritized sensitivity (N = 665) demonstrated a non-significant and near-zero effect size (Hedges’ g = 0.00, p = .983). A Bayes Factor analysis demonstrated strong evidence for the null hypothesis (BF10 = 0.04). When subjected to a more severe test, Moran et al.’s (2020) data does not support the ‘unaware Evaluative Conditioning’ hypothesis. Results serve to highlight the importance of distinguishing between a replicable statistical effect and a replicable inference regarding a verbal hypothesis. All data and code available at osf.io/ugrjh.

Effect Sizes Reported in Highly Cited Emotion Research Compared With Larger Studies and Meta-Analyses Addressing the Same Questions

2021 ◽  
pp. 216770262110493
Author(s):  
Ioana A. Cristea ◽  
Raluca Georgescu ◽  
John P. A. Ioannidis
Keyword(s):  
Confidence Interval ◽  
Observational Studies ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Experimental Designs ◽  
Effect Sizes ◽  
Meta Analyses ◽  
Highly Cited

We assessed whether the most highly cited studies in emotion research reported larger effect sizes compared with meta-analyses and the largest studies on the same question. We screened all reports with at least 1,000 citations and identified matching meta-analyses for 40 highly cited observational studies and 25 highly cited experimental studies. Highly cited observational studies had effects greater on average by 1.42-fold (95% confidence interval [CI] = [1.09, 1.87]) compared with meta-analyses and 1.99-fold (95% CI = [1.33, 2.99]) compared with largest studies on the same questions. Highly cited experimental studies had increases of 1.29-fold (95% CI = [1.01, 1.63]) compared with meta-analyses and 2.02-fold (95% CI = [1.60, 2.57]) compared with the largest studies. There was substantial between-topics heterogeneity, more prominently for observational studies. Highly cited studies often did not have the largest weight in meta-analyses (12 of 65 topics, 18%) but were frequently the earliest ones published on the topic (31 of 65 topics, 48%). Highly cited studies may offer, on average, exaggerated estimates of effects in both observational and experimental designs.

The Role of Evaluative Conditioning in Attitude Formation

2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 192-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva Walther ◽  
Rebecca Weil ◽  
Jessica Düsing
Keyword(s):  
Evaluative Conditioning ◽  
Attitude Formation
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