What is Evaluative Conditioning Anyway?

In evaluative conditioning procedures, affectively neutral stimuli (CSs) are paired withpositive or negative stimuli (USs) in close spatiotemporal proximity. Then, to test anevaluative conditioning effect, responses to the CSs on evaluative measures are analyzed as afunction of the valence of the CS-US pairing. Evaluative conditioning research spans overseven decades of research and is typically meant to inform how people acquire their likes anddislikes. As the theoretical breadth of evaluative conditioning research expanded, however,the experimental procedures became highly heterogeneous, broadening the scope of whatmight be considered an evaluative conditioning effect. This expansion creates uncertaintiesregarding what experimental procedures (including dependent and independent variables,their analysis, and analytic outcomes) may be considered relevant to this body of research.The present contribution discusses this confusing state of affairs, and proposes a functionaldefinition of the evaluative conditioning effect as a relative difference in responses to CS(s)on an evaluative measure that is caused by, and consistent with the valence of, the US(s) theyhave been physically paired with. This definition narrows down the scope of the empiricalinvestigation of the evaluative conditioning effect. In doing so, it helps distinguish evaluativeconditioning research from other fields of inquiry.