Does evaluative learning depend on the statistical relationship between stimuli? On the sensitivity of evaluative cue conditioning to ecological contingencies

<p>Evaluative conditioning (EC) is concerned with the transfer of valence from an unconditioned stimulus (US) to a conditioned stimulus (CS). Only recently the notion of EC was extended from individual CSs to categories of CSs that share certain cues. That research shows that a contingency implemented between a cue dimension and US valence has a direct effect on the evaluation of stimuli carrying values of this cue dimension. This phenomenon was coined &ldquo;evaluative cue conditioning&rdquo; (ECC). The present research tests whether ECC is sensitive to the contingency between a cue dimension and US valence. The present work thereby investigates the impact of ecological contingencies that define contingency by reference to all other CS-US pairings in the learning environment. Two experiments demonstrate that ECC effects are sensitive to the strength of the ecological contingency, suggesting that ECC is a relative phenomenon that depends on the valence of the CS-US pairings in the reference set. Moreover, these findings call for more research on the contingency sensitivity of standard EC effects using this revised definition of contingency.</p>