Kasran Sarah, Hughes Sean, De Houwer Jan
Department of Experimental Clinical and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Gent, Belgium.
R Soc Open Sci. 2022 Mar 30;9(3):220059. doi: 10.1098/rsos.220059. eCollection 2022 Mar.
Our behaviour toward stimuli can be influenced by observing how another person (a model) interacts with those stimuli. We investigated whether mere instructions about a model's interactions with stimuli (i.e. instructions about observations) are sufficient to alter evaluative and fear responses and whether these changes are similar in magnitude to those resulting from actually observing the interactions. In Experiments 1 ( = 268) and 2 ( = 260), participants either observed or read about a model reacting positively or negatively to stimuli. Evaluations of those stimuli were then assessed via ratings and a personalized implicit association test. In Experiments 3 ( = 60) and 4 ( = 190), we assessed participants' fear toward stimuli after observing or reading about a model displaying distress in the presence of those stimuli. While the results consistently indicated that instructions about observations induced behavioural changes, they were mixed with regard to whether instructions were as powerful in changing behaviour as observations. We discuss whether learning via observations and via instructions may be mediated by similar or different processes, how they might differ in their suitability for conveying certain types of information, and how their relative effectiveness may depend on the information to be transmitted.
我们对刺激的行为可能会受到观察他人（一个榜样）如何与这些刺激进行互动的影响。我们研究了仅仅关于榜样与刺激互动的指示（即关于观察的指示）是否足以改变评价性和恐惧反应，以及这些变化在程度上是否与实际观察互动所产生的变化相似。在实验1（n = 268）和实验2（n = 260）中，参与者要么观察榜样对刺激的积极或消极反应，要么阅读相关描述。然后通过评分和个性化内隐联想测验来评估对这些刺激的评价。在实验3（n = 60）和实验4（n = 190）中，我们在观察或阅读榜样在这些刺激面前表现出痛苦之后，评估参与者对刺激的恐惧。虽然结果一致表明关于观察的指示会引起行为变化，但在指示在改变行为方面是否与观察一样有效这一点上，结果并不一致。我们讨论了通过观察和通过指示进行学习是否可能由相似或不同的过程介导，它们在传达某些类型信息的适用性方面可能有何不同，以及它们的相对有效性如何可能取决于要传递的信息。
