Emotional Ability and Associative Learning: How Experiencing and Reasoning about Emotions Impacts Evaluative Conditioning

We extend evaluative conditioning research by examining how differences in emotional ability impact implicit and explicit attitude formation from conditioning. Across five studies, the ability to experience emotional information enhanced the valence of implicit attitudes toward a conditioned stimulus (CS). Conversely, the ability to reason about emotional information reduced the impact of implicit CS attitudes on subsequent explicit evaluations. Furthermore, we examine how brand familiarity and the timing of conditioned and unconditioned stimulus pairings impacts attitude formation. Implications for associative learning and persuasion are provided.