Richmond Jenny L, Zhao Jenna, Weidemann Gabrielle
School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales 2052, Australia.
School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales 2052, Australia.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2017 Sep;161:19-31. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2017.03.015. Epub 2017 Apr 27.
Preferences have a profound impact on our behavior; however, relatively little is known about how preference formation works early in life. Evaluative conditioning occurs when the valence of an initially neutral object changes when it is paired with a positively or negatively valenced stimulus. It is possible that evaluative conditioning may account for early preference learning; however, the extent to which this kind of learning operates during infancy has not been empirically tested. The aim of the current studies was to assess whether infants' preferences for neutral objects is influenced by pairing them with affective stimuli (Experiment 1: happy vs. angry faces, N=20; Experiment 2: mother vs. stranger faces, N=22). Infants' preferences were tested using both looking time and behavioral choice measures. The results showed that infants tended to choose the object that had been paired with the positive stimulus (Experiment 1: 13/20; Experiment 2: 14/22). Gaze behavior at test did not differentiate between the two objects; however, gaze behavior during conditioning predicted infants' behavioral preference. Only infants who looked longer at the affective stimulus than at the object during learning chose the object that had been paired with positive valence more often than chance. These results suggest that infants' preferences may be influenced by learned associations between objects and affective stimuli, a process akin to evaluative conditioning in adults.
偏好对我们的行为有着深远的影响；然而，对于偏好形成在生命早期是如何起作用的，我们知之甚少。当一个最初中性的物体与一个具有正价或负价的刺激配对时，其效价发生变化，这时就会发生评价性条件作用。评价性条件作用有可能解释早期的偏好学习；然而，这种学习在婴儿期的作用程度尚未得到实证检验。当前研究的目的是评估婴儿对中性物体的偏好是否会受到将它们与情感刺激配对的影响（实验1：笑脸与怒脸，N = 20；实验2：母亲脸与陌生人脸，N = 22）。使用注视时间和行为选择测量方法对婴儿的偏好进行了测试。结果表明，婴儿倾向于选择与积极刺激配对的物体（实验1：13/20；实验2：14/22）。测试时的注视行为并没有区分这两个物体；然而，条件作用期间的注视行为预测了婴儿的行为偏好。只有那些在学习过程中对情感刺激的注视时间比对物体的注视时间更长的婴儿，才更频繁地选择与正价配对的物体，而不是随机选择。这些结果表明，婴儿的偏好可能会受到物体与情感刺激之间习得关联的影响，这一过程类似于成人的评价性条件作用。
