Tal Moran

• PostDoc Position at Ghent University

Pairing a neutral object with a valenced stimulus often results in the former acquiring the valence of the latter (i.e., the Evaluative Conditioning [EC] effect). However, the pairing of an object with an affective stimulus is not always indicative of valence similarity. Three preregistered experiments (total N = 1,052) explored EC effects when peo...

The co-occurrence of a neutral stimulus with affective stimuli typically causes the neutral stimulus’s evaluation to shift toward the affective stimuli’s valence. Does that assimilative effect occur even when one knows the co-occurrence is due to an opposition relation between the stimuli (e.g., Batman stops crime)? Previous evidence tentatively su...

The co-occurrence of a neutral stimulus with affective stimuli typically causes the neutral stimulus's evaluation to shift towards the affective stimuli's valence. Does that assimilative effect occur even when one knows the co-occurrence is due to an opposition relation between the stimuli (e.g., Batman stops crime)? Previous evidence tentatively s...

Evaluative Conditioning (EC) research investigates changes in the evaluation of a stimulus after co-occurrence with an affective stimulus. To explain the motivation behind this research, this review begins with an overview of the history of EC research, followed by a summary of the state of the art with respect to three key questions. First, how sh...

Evaluative Conditioning (EC) research investigates changes in the evaluation of a stimulus after co-occurrence with an affective stimulus. To explain the motivation behind this research, this essay begins with an overview of the history of EC research, followed by a summary of the state of the art with respect to three key questions. How should EC...

Evaluative Conditioning (EC) effect is a change in evaluative responding to a neutral stimulus (CS) due to its pairing with a valenced stimulus (US). Traditionally, EC effects are viewed as fundamentally different from persuasion effects. Inspired by a propositional perspective to EC, four studies (N = 1,284) tested if, like persuasion effects, EC...

Evaluative Conditioning (EC) effect is a change in evaluative responding to a neutral stimulus (CS) due to its pairing with a valenced stimulus (US). Traditionally, EC effects are viewed as fundamentally different from per-suasion effects. Inspired by a propositional perspective to EC, four studies (N = 1,284) tested if, like persuasion effects, EC...

Attitudes are mental representations that help to explain why stimuli evoke positive or negative responses. Until recently, attitudes were often thought of as associations in memory. This idea inspired extensive research on evaluative conditioning (EC) and implicit evaluation. However, attitudes can also be seen as propositional representations, wh...

Research on automatic stereotyping is dominated by the idea that automatic stereotyping reflects the activation of (group-trait) associations. In two preregistered experiments (total N=391) we tested predictions derived from an alternative perspective that suggests that automatic stereotyping is the result of the activation of propositional represe...

Research on automatic stereotyping is dominated by the idea that automatic stereotyping reflects the activation of (group-trait) associations. In two preregistered experiments (total N=391) we tested predictions derived from an alternative perspective that suggests that automatic stereotyping is the result of the activation of propositional represe...

Evaluative conditioning is one of the most widely studied procedures for establishing and changing attitudes. The surveillance task is a highly cited evaluative-conditioning paradigm and one that is claimed to generate attitudes without awareness. The potential for evaluative-conditioning effects to occur without awareness continues to fuel concept...

In press: Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin Evaluative Conditioning (EC) and persuasion are important pathways for shaping evaluations. However, little is known about how these pathways interact. Two preregistered experiments (total N=1,510) examined effects of EC procedures (i.e., stimulus pairings) and EC instructions (i.e., instructions...

Evaluative Conditioning (EC) and persuasion are important pathways for shaping evaluations. However, little is known about how these pathways interact. Two preregistered experiments (total N=1,510) examined effects of EC procedures (i.e., stimulus pairings) and EC instructions (i.e., instructions about stimulus pairings) on auto-matic and self-repo...

Evaluative conditioning (EC) effects refer to changes in the liking of a neutral (conditioned) stimulus (CS) due to pairing with an affective (unconditioned) stimulus (US). Some research found that EC effects are resistant to presentations of the CS without the US, whereas other studies found evidence for extinction effects. A recent study found ex...

For more than twenty-five years implicit measures have shaped research, theorizing, and intervention in psychological science. During this period, the development and deployment of implicit measures have been predicated on a number of theoretical, methodological, and applied assumptions. Yet these assumptions are frequently violated and rarely met....

Evaluative conditioning (EC) is one of the most widely-studied procedures for establishing and changing attitudes. The surveillance-task (Olson & Fazio, 2001) is a highly cited EC paradigm, and one that is claimed to generate attitudes without awareness. The potential for EC effects to occur without awareness continues to fuel conceptual, theoretic...

Evaluative conditioning (EC) effect refers to changes in liking of a neutral (conditioned) stimulus (CS) due to pairing with affective (unconditioned) stimulus (US). Some research found that EC effects are resistant to presentations of the CS without the US, whereas other studies found evidence for extinction effects. A recent study found extinctio...

The idea that attitudes are associations in memory has been highly influential. We highlight an alternative perspective according to which stimulus evaluation is mediated by propositional representations. Unlike simple associations, which are merely links between nodes via which activation can spread, propositional representations are units of info...

After co-occurrence of a neutral conditioned stimulus (CS) with an affective unconditioned stimulus (US), the evaluation of the CS acquires the US valence. This effect disappears when information about the CS-US relation indicates that they are opposite in valence. In that case, people often show a contrastive effect, evaluating the CS with valence...

People like positive objects (e.g., fun activities) and dislike negative objects (e.g., boring activities). However, objects usually do not appear in isolation; They are often objects of an action (e.g., the boring activities were canceled). Using a wide array of stimuli and procedures, 11 experiments (N = 5,573) found that evaluation of objects is...

People like their own groups, producing ingroup favoritism, a hallmark finding of social identity theory. However, as predicted by system justification or cultural learning perspectives, outgroup favoritism among non-dominant groups is occasionally observed, particularly implicitly. The present research found that non-dominant group members display...

Simple first is our name for a set of hypotheses that we have found useful in our research on evaluative learning. The hypotheses are: (1) It is easier to encode and retrieve information that two concepts are linked than information about how they are linked; (2) It is easier to store and retrieve information than to make an inference based on that...

People like their own groups, producing ingroup favoritism, a hallmark finding of social identity theory. However, as predicted by system justification or cultural learning perspectives, outgroup favoritism among non-dominant groups is occasionally observed, particularly implicitly. The present research found that non-dominant group members display...

After co-occurrence of a neutral stimulus with an affective stimulus, the evaluation of the neutral stimulus typically acquires the valence of the affective stimulus. However, relational qualifiers can reverse this effect (e.g., people prefer creatures that co-occur with negative events because they end negative events over creatures that repeatedl...

Association first is our name for three working hypotheses about evaluative learning that we have found useful for generating novel research questions, uncovering novel findings, and explaining existing findings. We base these hypotheses on the distinction between associative information (the information that two concepts are related) and relationa...

Co-occurrence of an object and affective stimuli does not always mean that the object and the stimuli are the same valence (e.g., false accusations that Richard is a crook). Contemporary theory posits that information about the (in)validity of co-occurrence has stronger influence on deliberate than automatic evaluation. However, available evidence...

People like positive objects (e.g., fun activities) and dislike negative objects (e.g., boring activities). However, objects usually do not appear in isolation; They are often objects of an action (the boring activities were removed from a class). Using a wide array of stimuli and procedures, 11 experiments (N = 5,574) found that evaluation of obje...

Evaluative conditioning research has investigated the effect of mere stimuli co-occurrence on evaluation and found an assimilative effect - a novel stimulus acquires the valence of the co-occurring stimulus. However, most learning episodes include stimulus co-occurrence with additional relational information. For instance, viewers learn that Batman...

We tested whether goals during the processing of evaluative information determine the relative sensitivity of automatic evaluation to the valance of co-occurring stimuli versus the relation between the target and the affective stimuli. For example, “Kindness is uncharacteristic of Phil” has Phil co-occurring with kindness, but the relation suggests...

Two experiments tested the effect of co-occurrence of a target object with affective stimuli on automatic evaluation of the target when the relation between the target and the affective stimuli suggests that they have opposite valence. Participants learned about targets that ended an unpleasant noise or a pleasant music. The valence of such targets...