Intra-group differences in skin tone influence evaluative and perceptual face processing.

In an exploration of colorist biases across native Melanesian participants, we employed a multi-method approach across three studies to examine evaluative and perceptual processing of 'lighter' and 'darker' non-Melanesian facial targets controlled for attractiveness, sex, and ethnicity. In Study 1, 305 participants evaluated facial attractiveness using surveys. In Study 2, 153 participants alternately mapped lighter and darker faces with positive and neutral attributes across brief Implicit Association Tests. In Study 3, 61 participants underwent a manual sorting task followed by a 'breaking' continuous flash suppression (b-CFS) paradigm to probe 'non-conscious' perceptual biases. Across evaluative measures, male and female respondents consistently preferred lighter-skinned, highly attractive male faces. During b-CFS, lighter and attractive opposite-sex faces entered awareness ('broke suppression') faster than their darker counterparts. We speculate that skin tone may operate as a perceptually salient cue in the presence of facial configurations signaling high reproductive potential.

Disentangling affect from self-esteem using subliminal conditioning.

Across three experiments, participants underwent conditioning sequences where the self-referential term I AM (Conditioned Stimulus, or CS+) or a scrambled counterpart M IA (CS-) was paired with either neutral (Unconditioned Stimulus, or US-) or positive attributes (US+). CS and US were presented under subliminal and/or visible conditions. A normalized indicator of affective shift and an explicit self-esteem measure were deployed as outcome measures. In Experiment 1 (N = 60), subliminal CS+ followed by visible US+ produced a significant affective shift only. Experiment 2 (N = 59) presented CS and US under subliminal conditions, which did not influence either outcome measure. In Experiment 3 (N = 60), visible CS appeared with visible US, which resulted in a significant effect on explicit self-esteem only. These findings highlight the central roles of CS and/or US visibility towards influencing reported affect and self-esteem. We theorize that configural components of subliminally presented stimuli can become perceptually encoded and influence self-related affect non-consciously.

Valence generalization across nonrecurring structures.

Semantically meaningless letter strings correlated with affective attributes (US) can become evaluatively conditioned stimuli (CS). Jurchiș et al. (2020) recently demonstrated CS-US correlations may influence evaluations toward previously unseen strings when the latter are grammatically congruent with CS. We replicated those authors' findings in a modified extension (Experiment 1; N = 108), where emotional faces (US) were correlated with letter strings (CS) constructed from familiar (English) and unfamiliar (Phoenician) alphabets. CS-US trials were sandwiched by evaluations of strings that never appeared as CS but were constructed using similar grammar rules. Although CS and evaluated strings never overlapped, their individual elements (letters) recurred between phases. Element recurrence was controlled for in a second replication (Experiment 2; N = 140), where participants viewed Phoenician (/English) strings during conditioning and English (/Phoenician) strings during evaluations. We found credible evidence for valence generalization across strings from different alphabets but parallel grammars, suggesting the latter had been perceived as 'functionally equivalent' (Tonneau, 2004b). We provide support for this claim in a third study (Experiment 3; N = 79), where participants underwent a 'free selection' 2AFC discrimination task with sample and comparison strings taken from different alphabets. Increasing frequencies of grammar-congruent discriminations suggested strings were becoming functionally equated along overlapping grammar rules. We speculate how 'rules' which inform how elements are organized relative to each another can be abstracted and generalized across without specifying elemental properties (Spaulding, 1912). (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

Augmenting salivation, but not evaluations, through subliminal conditioning of eating-related words.

Correlating eating-related words (CS) with positively valenced words (US+) may augment eating-associated motivational responses (e.g., preingestive salivation) with minimal CS knowledge. We tested this claim using a subliminal conditioning procedure, where CS and US were presented under subliminal and supraliminal visual conditions. Three groups of Brazilian undergraduates (N = 69) viewed eating-related words (CS) or their scrambled counterparts (non-CS) followed by positive (US+) or neutral (US-) words. A free-selection visibility check confirmed that subliminally presented CS and non-CS had not been detected by any group. Participants exposed to CS/US+ pairings produced significantly more saliva relative to participants exposed to CS/US- and non-CS/US+ pairings. Reliable induction of salivation, coupled with null outcomes across evaluation measures, suggests that affective information related to eating can subliminally augment preingestive salivation with minimal deliberation.

Dissociating preferences from evaluations following subliminal conditioning.

Preferences towards unfamiliar drink brands may be influenced through subliminal conditioning. This can involve associating unfamiliar brands (CS) with positively valenced attributes (US) under constrained visual conditions to prevent the former's conscious detection. According to learning theory, CS associated with positive US should become increasingly preferred as the latter's positive valences generalizes (transfer) across associated CS. Similarly, correlating CS with negative US should reduce CS-associated preferences. There is some evidence that CS-associated preferences can be reliably influenced through subliminal conditioning (Elgendi et al., 2018). Conversely, there is also evidence that subliminal conditioning does not effectively alter evaluations of CS valence (Heycke et al., 2018). Those works suggest CS preferences may be more susceptible to subliminal valence transfer relative to CS evaluations. We explored this hypothesis presently, where four pairs of supraliminal/visible and subliminal trigrams (CS) were respectively associated with four US categories varied along aggregate valence (100% positive, 80% positive, 20% positive, 0% positive). CS evaluations and preferences were recorded before and after conditioning. Bayesian analyses revealed US valence manipulations were likely to shift preferences, but not evaluations, of subliminal CS. Across supraliminal CS, Bayesian and frequentist analyses indicated US valence was significant and likely to shift preferences and evaluations. The present study demonstrates preferences may be influenced through subliminal conditioning even as evaluations are not.

Corrigendum: Effects of Nodal Distance on Conditioned Stimulus Valences Across Time.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00742.].

Effects of Nodal Distance on Conditioned Stimulus Valences Across Time.

A meaningless symbol that repeatedly co-occurs with emotionally salient faces (US) can transform into a valenced symbol (CS). US-to-CS valence transformations have been observed for CS that have been directly (US→CS0) and indirectly (US→CS0→CS1→CS2) linked with face US. The structure of a US→CS0→CS1→CS2 series may be conceptualized in terms of "nodal distance," where CS0, CS1, and CS2 are 0, 1, and 2 nodes from the US respectively. Increasing nodal distance between an evaluated CS and its linked US can reduce magnitude of observed CS valence transformations. We explored currently whether nodal distance can influence CS valence extinction, which describes reductions in CS valence following repeated exposures to CS without any accompanying US. In our study, faces with happy/neutral/sad expressions (US) were directly linked with nonsense words (US→CS0). The directly linked CS0 was concurrently linked with other words (CS0→CS1, CS1→CS2). Subjects evaluated all stimuli before and after conditioning, then continued to provide CS evaluations twice a week for 6 weeks. Bayesian factors provided credible evidence for the transformation and extinction of CS valences that were 0 and 1 nodes from US (all BF10's > 100). The variability across post-conditioning CS evaluations provides indirect evidence for context-sensitive/propositional and structural/associative operations during CS evaluations.

Neurophysiological Effects Associated With Subliminal Conditioning of Appetite Motivations.

When attempting to encourage eating, explicitly providing statements like "eating is pleasant" may produce little effect. This may be due to subjective, negatively-valenced narratives evoked by perception of the verb "eating" (e.g., eating →fat →lonely), overriding any explicitly provided eating-pleasant valence information. In our study, we presented eating-related verbs under subliminal visual conditions to mitigate the onset of eating-associated deliberation. Verbs were linked with neutral or positively valenced terms across independent blocks. Modulations of event-related magnetoencephalographic (MEG) components and parietal activations in the alpha range (8-12 Hz) illustrated a significant effect of valence during pre-lexical time windows. We found significantly greater saliva production and declarations of increasing hunger after eating-related verbs were linked with positive terms. Orally reported preferences did not vary between conditions.

Effects of orientation and differential reinforcement II: transitivity and transfer across five-member sets.

A recent report by Amd et al. (2017) demonstrated that orienting towards successively presented stimulus-stimulus pairs yielded significantly more transitive relations then when those same pairs were differentially reinforced following training for three, 3-member stimulus sets. We build on that work in four important ways. First, transitivity yields produced by Pavlovian and instrumental procedures were compared following training for three 5-member sets (A1-B1-C1-D1-E1, A2-B2-C2-D2-E2, A3-B3-C3-D3-E3), where the 'A' stimuli were emotional faces and all remaining stimuli were nonsense words. Second, our instrumental task here required two orienting/observing responses per trial. Third, we compared differences in multi-nodal transfer following Pavlovian and instrumental relational learning procedures. Finally, we tested whether functioning as 'end terms' in a relational series can mitigate transfer following instrumental conditioning. Transitivity, as measured by sorting tests, was significantly more pronounced following Pavlovian training. Transfer, assessed before and after relational training with two visual analog scales corresponding to valence and arousal dimensions, appeared marginally more robust observed for participants exposed to the Pavlovian condition. Transfer magnitude was positively related with demonstrations of transitivity, regardless of type of conditioning.

Effects of orientation and differential reinforcement on transitive stimulus control.

The emergence of transitive relations between stimuli that had never appeared together is a key process underlying concept formation. An unresolved theoretical issue with respect to transitive relations has been to determine whether differential reinforcement of stimulus-stimulus (S-S) relations though matching-to-sample, or contiguous S-S correlations/pairings, is more critical for producing transitivity. The current study inquired whether simple environmental S-S pairings, versus differential reinforcement of S-S relations, versus environmental S-S pairings with an orientation requirement, produced the greatest instances of transitivity. 12 groups of participants were parsed into one of four procedures (matching-to-sample, stimulus-paring, stimulus-pairing-w/response, stimulus-pairing-w/orientation) along one of three training structures (linear, many-to-one, one-to-many). All participants underwent a fixed number of training trials for establishing three, three-member stimulus sets (A1B1C1, A2B2C2, A3B3C3), followed by a single sorting test for AC transitivity. Our results demonstrate orienting towards environmental S-S pairings yield the greatest degree of transitivity. The effectivity of pairing procedures for establishing transitive relations, particularly when compared to matching-to-sample, can inform the development of educational interventions for individuals for whom the latter procedure (involving differential reinforcement) is ineffective.

Transforming valences through transitive inference: How are faces emotionally dissonant?

Information that is emotionally incongruous with self-concepts can produce feelings of unease. This implies that embedding incongruous information in newly formed relational structures would have little effect on their previous emotive properties. Alternatively, Relational Frame Theory highlights the importance of contextualized stimulus-stimulus relations, where the structure of a relational series is key in determining the function of its elements. To see whether series membership can mitigate 'dissonance' when a salient element is employed, the present investigation trained and tested a seven-term relational series (X>A>B>C>D>E>Y) using blurred faces as stimuli. Specifically, Stimuli X, A, B, D, E and Y were blurred unfamiliar faces and Stimulus C constituted of the participant's own blurred face, assumed to be more salient than the former. To assess how the valences of the related stimuli were transformed by relational series membership, self-report ratings and electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings were collected before and after training the X>A>B>C>D>E>Y series. These pre vs. post contrasts revealed that, for unfamiliar faces, stimulus valence transformed as a function of relational structure. Conversely, the lack of difference in pre vs. post contrasts of Stimulus C, which maintained a high valence, suggest that relational series membership may not suffice to mitigate emotionally dissonant information.

A derived transformation of emotional functions using self-reports, implicit association tests, and frontal alpha asymmetries.

Research on the derived transformation of stimulus functions (ToF) typically employs single dependent measures for assessing the stimulus functions after derived relations have been established. For the first time, we examined ToF using three dependent measures both prior to and after relational training and testing. Specifically, we employed self-reports, implicit association tests, and frontal alpha asymmetry as pre versus post measures for assessing ToF. First, we trained two abstract shapes as contextual cues for happier-than and unhappier-than relations, respectively. Next, four conditional discriminations (A+/B-, B+/C-, C+/D-, and D+/E-) were trained in the presence of the happier-than cue only, where A, B, C, D, and E were blurred faces. This was followed by tests for contextually controlled transitive inference (TI) in the presence of both the happier-than and unhappier-than cues. For the participants who demonstrated TI, performance across all three measures following relational training and testing indicated that the "happiness" functions of the A/B stimuli were greater than those of the D/E stimuli. This constitutes the first known demonstration of emotional ToF along explicit, implicit, and neurophysiological measures concurrently.

A derived transfer of eliciting emotional functions using differences among electroencephalograms as a dependent measure.

Emotional responses have specific electroencephalographic (EEG) signatures that arise within a few hundred milliseconds post-stimulus onset. In this experiment, EEG measures were employed to assess for transfer of emotional functions across three 3-member equivalence classes in an extension of Dougher, Auguston, Markham, Greenway, & Wulfert's (1994) seminal work on the transfer of arousal functions. Specifically, 12 human participants were trained in the following match-to-sample performances A1 = B1, A2 = B2, A3 = B3 and B1 = C1, B2 = C2, B3 = C3. After successfully testing for the emergence of symmetry relations (B1 = A1, B2 = A2, B3 = A3 and C1 = B1, C2 = B2, C3 = B3), visual images depicting emotionally positive and emotionally negative content were presented with A1 and A3, respectively, using a mixed stimulus pairing-compounding procedure. A2 was paired with emotionally neutral images. Next, EEG data were recorded as participants were exposed to a forced-choice recognition task with stimuli A1, B1, C1, A2, B2, C2, A3, B3, C3 and three novel stimuli A4, B4 and C4. Results yielded differential EEG effects for stimuli paired directly with emotional versus neutral images. Critically, differential EEG effects were also recorded across the C stimuli that were equivalently related to the A stimulus set. The EEG data coincide with previous reports of emotion-specific EEG effects, indicating that the initial emotional impact of a stimulus may emerge based on direct stimulus pairing and derived stimulus relations.