Jonathan Dedonder

Overcoming Correlational Pitfalls: Experimental Evidence Suggests That Evaluative Conditioning Occurs for Explicit But Not Implicit Encoding of CS-US Pairings

Do people need to explicitly encode conditioned stimuli–unconditioned stimuli (CS–US) pairings for evaluative conditioning (EC) effects to emerge? Despite the large number of studies that addressed this issue, no simple answer has emerged yet. In part, this is due to the relative lack of experimental evidence for the role of awareness of the CS–US contingency at encoding in EC. In the present experiment, participants’ encoding of the CS–US pairings was experimentally manipulated by relying on foveal and parafoveal presentations of the CSs. More specifically, spatial locations (i.e., foveal vs. parafoveal) of the CSs and US valence (i.e., positive vs. negative) were manipulated within participants, and CS–US pairings were counterbalanced across participants. Results reveal explicit encoding of the CSs and EC effects for the foveal CS presentations only. We discuss the implications of these experimental findings for the associative and propositional approach to EC.

The mere exposure effect without recognition can depend on the way you look

In line with Whittlesea and Price (2001), we investigated whether the memory effect measured with an implicit memory paradigm (mere exposure effect) and an explicit recognition task depended on perceptual processing strategies, regardless of whether the task required intentional retrieval. We found that manipulation intended to prompt functional implicit-explicit dissociation no longer had a differential effect when we induced similar perceptual strategies in both tasks. Indeed, the results showed that prompting a nonanalytic strategy ensured performance above chance on both tasks. Conversely, inducing an analytic strategy drastically decreased both explicit and implicit performance. Furthermore, we noted that the nonanalytic strategy involved less extensive gaze scanning than the analytic strategy and that memory effects under this processing strategy were largely independent of gaze movement.

A French translation of the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index, an instrument to assess self-reported musical skills, abilities and behaviours

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to translate into French the Goldsmiths Musical Sophistication Index (Gold-MSI) (Müllensiefen, D., Gingras, B., Musil, J., & Stewart, L. (2014). The musicality of non-musicians: An index for assessing musical sophistication in the general population. PLOS One, 9(2), e89642) – an inventory to assess self-reported musical skills, abilities and behaviours -, to examine the internal consistency and to confirm the factor structure of this new French translation. The Gold-MSI has been translated into French in different steps and completed online by 795 persons, out of which data from 750 persons have been analysed. Measures of internal consistency reveal that the French version of the Gold-MSI has high levels of internal consistency (α = .80–.95; ω = .86–.96; Guttman λ6 = .80–.97). Additionally, confirmatory factor analysis shows a good structure index (RMSEA = .063; SRMR = .066; CFI = .884) and confirms the underlying factor structure. These findings support the use of the French version of the Gold-MSI as a reliable instrument to measure the level of different musical facets. The French translation, which is freely available in supplementary material, can contribute to research about musical skills and behaviours in French-speaking regions.

The Mere Exposure Effect and Recognition Depend on the Way You Look! *S. W. and J. D. contributed equally to this study.

In line with Whittlesea and Price (2001), we investigated whether the memory effect measured with an implicit memory paradigm (mere exposure effect) and an explicit recognition task depended on perceptual processing strategies, regardless of whether the task required intentional retrieval. We found that manipulation intended to prompt functional implicit-explicit dissociation no longer had a differential effect when we induced similar perceptual strategies in both tasks. Indeed, the results showed that prompting a nonanalytic strategy ensured performance above chance on both tasks. Conversely, inducing an analytic strategy drastically decreased both explicit and implicit performance. Furthermore, we noted that the nonanalytic strategy involved less extensive gaze scanning than the analytic strategy and that memory effects under this processing strategy were largely independent of gaze movement.