A.B. Levey

Classical conditioning of human ‘evaluative’ responses

Abstract Human behaviour includes an important component which may conveniently be called evaluative. Using postcard reproductions as stimulus materials, 10 volunteer subjects selected the two pictures most liked and the two most disliked. These were then used as UCSs with appropriate controls from the neutral category. The conditioning hypothesis—that a neutral stimulus followed by a positively or negatively valued stimulus will acquire the evaluative weight of the second stimulus—was supported at a highly statistically significant level. The effect of negative evaluation was demonstrably stronger than that for positive evaluation, a result consistent with our knowledge of aversive conditioning. The possibility is discussed that evaluation of the UCS by the subject, shown to be a sufficient condition for learning, may also be the only necessary condition. This would imply a model of conditioning based on affective evaluation rather than on response production.

The influence of psychoticism and extraversion on classical eyelid conditioning using a paraorbital shock UCS

Abstract An experiment is described in which the effects of Psychoticism and Extraversion on classical eyelid conditioning were examined using a balanced design involving two levels of paraorbital shock intensity and two levels of response threshold. Questionnaire measures of Anxiety and Impulsivity were also analysed together with subjective ratings of the UCS. Results were broadly consistent with Eysencks personality theory in that subjects scoring high on Psychoticism demonstrated lower levels of conditioning.

Evaluative Conditioning A Case for Hedonic Transfer

Our lives are governed by our preferences; likes and dislikes that we partly learn. This chapter is about one particular way in which preferences may be acquired or modified and, ultimately, about how modification of preference may be involved in therapy. The activities of daily living, when they are not merely habitual or closely constrained by the environment, obviously involve decisions and choices based on our personal preferences. More importantly, career decisions, selection of marital partners, use of spare time, and a host of other long-term choices are governed by likes and dislikes of which we may not be aware, which may be arbitrary in the sense that they have no necessary foundation, or irrational in that they contradict our best interests.

Blocking observed in human eyelid conditioning.

Four eyelid conditioning experiments designed to be comparable to rabbit nictitating membrane (NMR) studies examined the blocking phenomenon in humans. All experiments utilized a within-subjects design, with Stage 1 of discrimination, Stage 2 of compound training, and a final test stage comparing responding to the blocked and non-blocked CSs. In two of the experiments (1 and 4) the comparison was made within subjects over all extinction trials. In Experiment 3 the test phase consisted of further reinforced training of the blocked and non-blocked CSs. These three experiments produced evidence of blocking when all extinction trials were entered into the analysis. Experiment 2, which involved a between-subjects comparison, failed to demonstrate the blocking effect. Wide variability both between and within subjects obscured the experimental effects. Post-experimental questionnaires designed to assess awareness of stimulus relations failed to identify a subjective blocking effect and showed no relationship to conditioned eyelid responding

Conditioning, evaluations and cognitions: an axis of integration

Abstract It is proposed that the contributions of cognitive theory and conditioning theory to behaviour therapy can be integrated in a single biologically based framework. This framework recognizes the role of phylogenetically primitive mechanisms of evaluation of the external environment, represented in conditioning theory; it also recognizes the contribution of cognitive summaries of recurring long-term events in the environment, represented by cognitive theory. Learning to anticipate significant events in the immediate and long-term future is a major component of adaptive behaviour. These concepts are discussed and their interactions explored in terms of the implications of learning theory for treatment. The requirements of a theoretical basis for behaviour therapy are outlined and it is concluded that cognitive theory and conditioning theory are not finally in conflict. Applications to the modification of attitudes and behaviour are discussed and the experimental literature briefly reviewed. It is suggested that the clinician will be better prepared to meet client needs by being aware of both cognitive and conditioned components of behaviour than by confining attention to either modality of learning at the expense of the other.

Knowledge, Action, and Control

Underlying the cognitive and the behavioral approaches to clinical practice is a theoretical issue that is being addressed by academic theorists, but whose implications for behavior therapy are fundamentally important. The issue has appeared and reappeared a number of times but has never been satisfactorily resolved. It is the issue of the extent to which conscious awareness is involved in the control of behavior, or conversely, the extent to which effective behavior is dependant on conscious awareness.

Evaluative conditioning: Overview and further options

Abstract The demonstration of evaluative conditioning by Baeyens, Eelen, and Van den Bergh confirms our previous findings and extends the evidential basis for conditioning without awareness. The case made against their findings by Shanks and Dickinson is not supported by the methodological claims they advance. We suggest alternative control procedures and argue that evaluative conditioning plays an adaptive role in the formation of preferences.

The influence of psychoticism on classical conditioning

The experiment to be reported is part of a research program into the role of factor-defined dimensions of personality in conditioning. In recent years, the personality framework has been extended to include an independent dimension of Psychoticism (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1976). The present study was designed to examine the relationship between eyelid conditioning and the personality dimensions of Extraversion (E) and Psychoticism (P). Previous eyelid-conditioning studies in this laboratory have mostly been concerned with testing Eysenck’s prediction of a relationship between the dimension of E and conditioning (Eysenck and Levey, 1972; Jones et al., 1981). This states that introverts condition better because of their habitually higher level of cortical arousal, and the predicted relationship holds when conditions of testing are such as to generate inhibition of a sufficient but not supra-optimal degree. For inhibition to accumulate differentially in highand low-E subjects, stimulus parameters in eyelid conditioning include the following: weak unconditioned stimulus (UCS), partial reinforcement, and short interstimulus interval (ISI), i.e. conditions productive of minimal arousal. Under these conditions introverts condition well, while extraverts produce few. if any, conditioned responses (CRs) under conditions of high arousal, E condition as well as I, and sometimes even better, depending on the specific parameter values used. The latter findings have been explained by the concept of transmarginal inhibition, introverts under such conditions reacting as though responding to a subjectively higher level of stimulation (Eysenck and Levey, 1972). Such results emphasize that statements about effects of personality must be made in terms of the stimulus conditions employed to test them (see reviews by Eysenck, 1965 and Levey and Martin, 1981). The present experiment goes beyond previous research in that it considers the role of P as well as E, and also attempts to elucidate the contribution of Impulsivity. The place of Impulsivity within the dimensional framework has been extensively examined in recent years, alongside the development of the P scale and the revision of the E scale. In the most recent questionnaire. the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (EPQ), Impulsivity items have been largely removed from E. A new 63-item questionnaire of Impulsiveness (1,) has been developed which consists of three subscales: IMP (Narrow), Venturesomeness (VENT) and Empathy (EMP). VENT correlates most strongly with E, and IMP with P; both scales correlate positively with P as well as with E (Eysenck and Eysenck, 1978). High-P high-E people are therefore predisposed to be impulsive and venturesome. Empathy shows appreciable correlations only with Neuroticism (N), high N scorers being more empathic. These developments make it difficult to formulate specific predictions concerning the relationship between P and conditioning. Previous work has suggested that IMP accounts for the differential eyelid-conditioning performance of introverts and extraverts, while Sociabilitythe second subfactor in the dimension of E previously in use+ontributes nothing or very little

Efficiency of the Conditioned Eyelid Response

A method for estimating directly the efficiency of the conditioned eyelid response is capable of reflecting marked chaniges in response efficiency during acquisition of the conditioned response. conditioned response.

Reflex sensitivity and the conditioned eyelid response

It has often been claimed that the sensitivity of a reflex and the ease with which it can be conditioned are related. This experiment aimed to analyze some of the factors which may be involved in eyelid ‘reflex sensitivity’. Of several measures only frequency of CS blinks showed a significant relationship with CR frequency and also predicted the level of conditioning. It is suggested that the response characteristics of the CS blink reflex resemble those of an orienting response.