Evaluative conditioning (EC) is the change of a conditioned stimulus's evaluation due to its pairing with an unconditioned stimulus (US). While learning typically shows negativity biases, we found no such biases in a reanalysis of meta-analytic EC data. We provide and test a cognitive-ecological answer for this lack of negativity bias. We assume that negativity effects follow from ecological differences in evaluative information's distributions (i.e., differential frequency). Accordingly, no negativity bias emerges because positive and negative information is equally frequent in most EC experiments. However, if negative (or positive) information is rare, we predict a negativity (positivity) bias. We tested this prediction in five preregistered experiments (three laboratory-based, N = 394, two online, N = 391). As predicted, if negative USs were rare, a negativity bias followed. However, if positive USs were rare, we also observed positivity biases in participants' conditioned stimulus evaluations. These data support a cognitive-ecological explanation of valence asymmetries and partially explain why EC experiments show no negativity bias: Typical EC designs do not reflect the ecological information structure that contributes to a negativity bias in the first place. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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为什么评价条件反射中没有消极偏差？一个认知生态学的答案。


评价条件反射 （EC） 是由于与无条件刺激 （US） 配对而引起的条件刺激评估的变化。虽然学习通常显示消极偏倚，但我们在对荟萃分析 EC 数据的再分析中没有发现此类偏倚。我们为这种缺乏消极偏见提供并测试了一个认知生态学答案。我们假设消极效应来自评价信息分布的生态差异（即差分频率）。因此，不会出现消极偏差，因为在大多数 EC 实验中，正面和负面信息同样频繁。但是，如果负面（或正面）信息很少见，我们会预测负面（positiveivity）偏差。我们在 5 个预先注册的实验 （3 个基于实验室的，N = 394,2 个在线，N = 391） 中测试了这一预测。正如预测的那样，如果负面 US 很少见，那么负面偏差就会随之而来。然而，如果阳性 US 很少见，我们还在参与者的条件刺激评估中观察到阳性偏倚。这些数据支持对价不对称的认知生态学解释，并部分解释了为什么 EC 实验显示没有负偏差：典型的 EC 设计没有反映导致负性偏差的生态信息结构。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 （c） 2024 APA，保留所有权利）。