Eamon Fulcher's Publications

Evaluative learning concerns how we can come to like or dislike something through an association.

If something quite innocuous (such as an unfamiliar person, object, or picture, and so on) is presented alongside something that we strongly dislike (such as a very unpleasant odour) then our feelings to that once innocuous item can change—we can come to dislike that too.

The same can apply when an item is paired with something we strongly like—we can come to like that item more.

An example that most people are likely to have experienced is a person's name. I am sure you can think of names that you strongly dislike. Some of these may be the names of people from your past who you disliked a lot. It is quite remarkable how strongly we can feel towards certain names, as anyone who has ever had to name a child will tell you.

If evaluative learning is indeed a common way through which our likes and dislikes are formed then there are many interesting implications. Firstly, children can be better encouraged to do things that will benefit them, such as eating vegetables, brushing their teeth, learnig to read, and so on. Secondly, evaluative learning may be one way through which fears and anxiety are acquired. If a child is handling or perceiving an object and some other external threat stimulus appears then they may develop a fear of, apprehension towards, or a general disliking of the object. Furthermore, if some everyday object or situation becomes associated with other feared objects or situations then these feelings may spread to the new object or situation.

An interesting question is the extent to which feelings towards the previously neutral item have changed (if at all). Two possibilities are that:

(1) If item N is paired with disliked item D, then feelings towards N change because when you think of or see N you think of D. Hence, you don't like N because it reminds you of D.

(2) If item N is paired with disliked item D, then feelings towards N actually change regardless of whether it reminds you of D.

The first possibility is the signal learning hypothesis. N is merely a signal for D (in the sense that if you see N then you expect D to be just around the corner).

The second possibility implies an intrinsic learning of affect for N. This is the more exciting possibility and in my view, the more realistic of the two. For example, people can like particular shoes, chairs, kitchen units, paintings, flowers, sounds, ties, handbags, cars, colour schemes, not because they are necessarily reminded of something else when looking at or handling the item, but rather because the item has intrinsic value.

The first possibility assumes that people can usually (or nearly always) say why they like or dislike something (and how they came to acquire their likes and dislikes). But I doubt whether this is true. Ask someone to list 5 things they like and 5 things they dislike and then to say why for each item. I predict that few answers will be tied to the 'beacuse it reminds me of...' notion and many answers will be of the form 'I don't know why, I just like [or dislike] it' or won't be forthcoming at all (because they have no recollection of how their feelings developed).

Finally, it has to be said that if people were that aware of how their likes and dislikes developed then they would also be aware of many other of their cognitive processes, and we wouldn't need to study cognition at all.

The real possibility is that people can acquire a liking or a disliking of something through evaluative learning (ie, through an association) but then go on to have no recollection of how they acquired such a feeling (that is, they are unable to recall the nature of the original association). There is a lot of experimental evidence that suggests this to be the case.

Click here for a powerpoint presentation on an experiment in evaluative learning.

Eamon Fulcher's Publications

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