title: Extinction of likes and dislikes: effects of feature-specific attention allocation.
abstract: The evaluative conditioning (EC) effect refers to the change in the liking of a neutral stimulus (conditioned stimulus, CS) due to its pairing with another stimulus (unconditioned stimulus, US). We examined whether the extinction rate of the EC effect is moderated by feature-specific attention allocation. In two experiments, CSs were abstract Gabor patches varying along two orthogonal, perceptual dimensions (i.e. spatial frequency and orientation). During the acquisition phase, one of these dimensions was predictive of the valence of the USs. During the extinction phase, CSs were presented alone and participants were asked to categorise the CSs either according to their valence, the perceptual dimension that was task-relevant during the acquisition phase, or a perceptual dimension that was task-irrelevant during the acquisition phase. As predicted, explicit valence measures revealed a linear increase in the extinction rate of the EC effect as participants were encouraged to assign attention to non-evaluative stimulus information during the extinction phase. In Experiment 1, Affect Misattribution Paradigm (AMP) data mimicked this pattern of results, although the effect just missed conventional levels of significance. In Experiment 2, the AMP data revealed an increase of the EC effect if attention was focused on evaluative stimulus information. Potential mechanisms to explain these findings are discussed.
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , Ghent University , Ghent , Belgium.
authors.forename: Jolien
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vanaelst
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , Ghent University , Ghent , Belgium.
authors.forename: Adriaan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Spruyt
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , Ghent University , Ghent , Belgium.
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Everaert
authors.affiliation: a Department of Psychology , Ghent University , Ghent , Belgium.
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: De Houwer
mesh_terms: D000070379:Attentional Bias; D003214:Conditioning, Classical; D004644:Emotions; D005108:Extinction, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Evaluative conditioning; extinction; feature-specific attention allocation; selective attention