A Review of Procedure Knowledge and Mental Process Theories

A review of procedure knowledge and mental process theories Applying Pavlovian conditioning to a phenomenon in daily life always boils down to the following question: Does the phenomenon qualify as an instance of Pavlovian conditioning? As is evidenced by different chapters in this book, many phenomena have been considered as instances of Pavlovian conditioning. In the present chapter, I examine whether changes in liking can also be understood from this perspective. Before I review the evidence on this topic, I first consider in more detail the meaning of the term " Pavlovian conditioning " because this determines what phenomena can be seen as instances of Pavlovian conditioning and thus how Pavlovian conditioning can be applied. What is Pavlovian conditioning? In some textbooks, Pavlovian conditioning is defined in a very narrow manner as the unconscious formation of associations that results from the pairing of a conditioned stimulus (CS) and an unconditioned stimulus (US) and that leads to changes in physiological 2006). Such a definition is narrow in that it limits conditioning to changes in one particular class of responses that are due to one particular type of mental process. Other researchers impose other restrictions on the definition of Pavlovian conditioning, for instance, when arguing that " true " Pavlovian conditioning always involves biologically relevant USs (e.g., Miller & Matute, 1996). In this section, I will argue that it makes more sense to define Pavlovian conditioning in broadest possible manner, that is, as a change in behavior that is due to the pairing of stimuli. Imposing restrictions on the nature of the changes, the nature of the responses, the nature of the stimuli, or the nature of the underlying mental processes is Evaluative Conditioning 3 unnecessary and can lead to deleterious effects (see De Houwer, 2007, 2009, for an in depth discussion). Let us consider the necessity of restrictions regarding the nature of the responses. There is no a priori reason why only changes in one type of responses (e.g., physiological responses) should be considered as possible instances of Pavlovian conditioning. It is true that Pavlov's (1927) seminal studies focused on changes in a physiological response (salivation) but since then many studies on Pavlovian conditioning have looked at changes in other types of behavior. For example, in studies on autoshaping, food is presented to pigeons each time a key lights up. As a result of this contingency, the pigeons start pecking the …