title: Approach-Avoidance Training Effects Are Moderated by Awareness of Stimulus-Action Contingencies.
abstract: Prior research suggests that repeatedly approaching or avoiding a stimulus changes the liking of that stimulus. In two experiments, we investigated the relationship between, on one hand, effects of approach-avoidance (AA) training on implicit and explicit evaluations of novel faces and, on the other hand, contingency awareness as indexed by participants' memory for the relation between stimulus and action. We observed stronger effects for faces that were classified as contingency aware and found no evidence that AA training caused changes in stimulus evaluations in the absence of contingency awareness. These findings challenge the standard view that AA training effects are (exclusively) the product of implicit learning processes, such as the automatic formation of associations in memory.
authors.affiliation: Ghent University, Belgium Pieter.vanDessel@UGent.be.
authors.forename: Pieter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Van Dessel
authors.affiliation: Ghent University, Belgium.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: De Houwer
authors.affiliation: University of Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gast
mesh_terms: D001245:Association Learning; D001362:Avoidance Learning; D001364:Awareness; D002755:Choice Behavior; D004644:Emotions; D005149:Facial Expression; D000066499:Facial Recognition; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D060865:Repetition Priming
keywords: approach; avoidance; contingency awareness; implicit attitudes; training