Unaware Attitude Formation in the Surveillance Task? Revisiting the Findings of Moran et al. (2021)

Moran et al. (2021) report a multi-lab registered replication of Olson and Fazio’s (2001) surveillance task. The surveillance task is an incidental learning procedure over the course of which participants observe pairings of conditioned stimuli (CSs) and unconditioned stimuli (USs) while engaging in...

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Main Authors: Benedek Kurdi, Ian Hussey, Christoph Stahl, Sean Hughes, Christian Unkelbach, Melissa J. Ferguson, Olivier Corneille
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Ubiquity Press 2022-06-01
Series:International Review of Social Psychology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.rips-irsp.com/articles/546
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author Benedek Kurdi
Ian Hussey
Christoph Stahl
Sean Hughes
Christian Unkelbach
Melissa J. Ferguson
Olivier Corneille
author_facet Benedek Kurdi
Ian Hussey
Christoph Stahl
Sean Hughes
Christian Unkelbach
Melissa J. Ferguson
Olivier Corneille
author_sort Benedek Kurdi
collection DOAJ
description Moran et al. (2021) report a multi-lab registered replication of Olson and Fazio’s (2001) surveillance task. The surveillance task is an incidental learning procedure over the course of which participants observe pairings of conditioned stimuli (CSs) and unconditioned stimuli (USs) while engaging in a distracting secondary task. Unaware evaluative conditioning (EC) effects are inferred if participants who fail to report the CS–US contingencies on a post-hoc measure show preference for the CSpos over the CSneg. Moran et al. claimed to establish such effects relying on the criteria used by Olson and Fazio to exclude contingency aware participants from analyses. Here we reexamine Moran et al.’s data using more fine-grained analytic strategies. We show that the contingency awareness measures used by Olson and Fazio and, by extension, Moran et al. lack adequate reliability and validity. Moreover, even assuming valid awareness measures, Bayesian analyses did not provide unambiguous evidence for unaware EC effects under any exclusion criterion and provided decisive evidence against such effects in most models. Finally, a separate analysis that distinguished between fully aware, partially aware, and fully unaware participants shows that evidence for unaware EC is due to the inclusion of partially aware participants in the purportedly unaware subsample. These reanalyses suggest that unaware EC as indexed by the surveillance task has yet to be convincingly demonstrated. We discuss the conceptual, theoretical, and applied implications of these findings with regard to the potential for unaware attitude formation.
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spelling doaj.art-bd781304cf3449d182db8f4c0c6b04412022-12-22T01:21:48ZengUbiquity PressInternational Review of Social Psychology2397-85702022-06-0135110.5334/irsp.546139Unaware Attitude Formation in the Surveillance Task? Revisiting the Findings of Moran et al. (2021)Benedek Kurdi0Ian Hussey1Christoph Stahl2Sean Hughes3Christian Unkelbach4Melissa J. Ferguson5Olivier Corneille6Yale UniversityRuhr University BochumUniversity of CologneGhent UniversityUniversity of CologneYale UniversityUCLouvainMoran et al. (2021) report a multi-lab registered replication of Olson and Fazio’s (2001) surveillance task. The surveillance task is an incidental learning procedure over the course of which participants observe pairings of conditioned stimuli (CSs) and unconditioned stimuli (USs) while engaging in a distracting secondary task. Unaware evaluative conditioning (EC) effects are inferred if participants who fail to report the CS–US contingencies on a post-hoc measure show preference for the CSpos over the CSneg. Moran et al. claimed to establish such effects relying on the criteria used by Olson and Fazio to exclude contingency aware participants from analyses. Here we reexamine Moran et al.’s data using more fine-grained analytic strategies. We show that the contingency awareness measures used by Olson and Fazio and, by extension, Moran et al. lack adequate reliability and validity. Moreover, even assuming valid awareness measures, Bayesian analyses did not provide unambiguous evidence for unaware EC effects under any exclusion criterion and provided decisive evidence against such effects in most models. Finally, a separate analysis that distinguished between fully aware, partially aware, and fully unaware participants shows that evidence for unaware EC is due to the inclusion of partially aware participants in the purportedly unaware subsample. These reanalyses suggest that unaware EC as indexed by the surveillance task has yet to be convincingly demonstrated. We discuss the conceptual, theoretical, and applied implications of these findings with regard to the potential for unaware attitude formation.https://www.rips-irsp.com/articles/546attitudesawarenessevaluative conditioningincidental learningsurveillance task
spellingShingle Benedek Kurdi
Ian Hussey
Christoph Stahl
Sean Hughes
Christian Unkelbach
Melissa J. Ferguson
Olivier Corneille
Unaware Attitude Formation in the Surveillance Task? Revisiting the Findings of Moran et al. (2021)
International Review of Social Psychology
attitudes
awareness
evaluative conditioning
incidental learning
surveillance task
title Unaware Attitude Formation in the Surveillance Task? Revisiting the Findings of Moran et al. (2021)
title_full Unaware Attitude Formation in the Surveillance Task? Revisiting the Findings of Moran et al. (2021)
title_fullStr Unaware Attitude Formation in the Surveillance Task? Revisiting the Findings of Moran et al. (2021)
title_full_unstemmed Unaware Attitude Formation in the Surveillance Task? Revisiting the Findings of Moran et al. (2021)
title_short Unaware Attitude Formation in the Surveillance Task? Revisiting the Findings of Moran et al. (2021)
title_sort unaware attitude formation in the surveillance task revisiting the findings of moran et al 2021
topic attitudes
awareness
evaluative conditioning
incidental learning
surveillance task
url https://www.rips-irsp.com/articles/546
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