RUDIMENTARY DETERMINANTS OF ATTITUDES .2. ARM FLEXION AND EXTENSION HAVE DIFFERENTIAL-EFFECTS ON ATTITUDES

In the pain-flexor reflex, arm extension is temporally coupled with th e onset of the unconditioned aversive stimulus, whereas flexion is ass ociated with its offset; when retrieving desirable stimuli, arm flexio n is more closely coupled temporally to the acquisition or consumption of the desired stimuli than arm extension. It was posited that these contingencies foster an association between arm flexion, in contrast t o extension, and approach motivational orientations. Six experiments w ere conducted to examine this hypothesis. Ideographs presented during arm flexion were subsequently ranked more positively than ideographs p resented during arm extension, but only when the Ss' task was to evalu ate the ideographs when they were presented initially. Arm flexion and extension were also each found to have discernible attitudinal effect s. These results suggest a possible role for nondeclarative memory in attitude formation.