Research suggests that evaluations of an object can be simultaneously influenced by (a) the mere co-occurrence of the object with a pleasant or unpleasant stimulus (e.g., mere co-occurrence of object A and negative event B) and (b) the object’s particular relation to the co-occurring stimulus (e.g., object A starts vs. stops negative event B). Using a multinomial modeling approach to disentangle the two kinds of influences on choice decisions, three experiments investigated whether learners can intentionally control the relative impact of stimulus co-occurrence and stimulus relations. An integrative analysis of the data from the three experiments ( N = 1,154) indicate that incentivized instructions to counteract effects of stimulus co-occurrence by focusing on stimulus relations increased the impact of stimulus relations without affecting the impact of stimulus co-occurrence. Implications for evaluative learning, intentional control, and public policy are discussed.
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Attitudinal Effects of Stimulus Co-occurrence and Stimulus Relations: Sleep Supports Propositional Learning Via Memory Consolidation
Adaptive behavior requires that organisms learn not only which stimuli tend to co-occur (e.g., whether stimulus A co-occurs with unpleasant stimulus B) but also how co-occurring stimuli are related (e.g., whether A starts or stops B). In a preregistered study ( N = 200 adults), we investigated whether sleep would promote adaptive evaluative choices requiring joint memories for stimulus co-occurrences and stimulus relations. Participants learned about hypothetical pharmaceutical products that either cause or prevent positive or negative health conditions, followed by measures of evaluative choices and explicit memory. After a 12-hr retention interval including either nocturnal sleep or daytime wake, participants completed the same measures a second time. Results showed that sleep strengthened the impact of causal product–condition relations on choices (revealed by multinomial modeling analyses) and enhanced memories for specific stimulus co-occurrences (revealed by memory preservation analyses). The findings suggest that sleep promotes adaptive evaluative choices via offline memory consolidation.
more » « less- Award ID(s):
- 1649900
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10362313
- Publisher / Repository:
- SAGE Publications
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Social Psychological and Personality Science
- Volume:
- 14
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 1948-5506
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- p. 51-59
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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