The Moderating Impact of Distal Regularities on the Effect of Stimulus Pairings

Abstract

Abstract. Throughout much of the past century psychologists have focused their attention on a seemingly simple question: How do people come to like or dislike stimuli in the environment? Evaluative Conditioning (EC) – a change in liking due to the pairing of stimuli – has been offered as one avenue through which novel preferences may be formed and existing ones altered. In the current article, we offer a new look at EC from the perspective of Contextual Behavioral Science (CBS) and, more specifically, Relational Frame Theory (RFT). We briefly review the EC literature, introduce Contextual Behavioral Science (CBS), Relational Frame Theory (RFT), and then describe a behavioral phenomenon known as arbitrarily applicable relational responding (AARR). Afterwards, we examine the relationship between EC and AARR. This novel perspective offers ways to organize existing as well as predict new EC effects, contributes to debates on “genuine” EC, human versus nonhuman EC, and further facilitates the development and refinement of cognitive theories of EC.