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- Title
Evaluative Conditioning and the Development of Attitudes in Early Childhood.
- Authors
Halbeisen, Georg; Walther, Eva; Schneider, Michael
- Abstract
Many attitudes are acquired in early childhood. However, due to a lack of experimental research, little is known about the processes of how they are acquired. Two experiments were therefore conducted with 153 German kindergarten children aged 3-6 years that provide first evidence for childhood attitude formation in terms of evaluative conditioning. Specifically, it was found that children preferred novel stimuli previously paired with liked stimuli over novel stimuli previously paired with disliked stimuli. This effect occurred independently of age, generalized toward similar novel stimuli, and did not depend on children's recollection of how stimuli were paired. The findings are discussed in terms of the processes underlying childhood attitude formation, and implications for related research areas are highlighted.
- Subjects
GERMANY; CHILDHOOD attitudes; VALUE judgments (Philosophy); PSYCHOLOGY of kindergarten children; SOCIAL conditioning; CHILD development research; LIKES &; dislikes; CHILDREN; STIMULUS &; response (Psychology); ATTITUDE (Psychology); CHILD development; CONDITIONED response; DECISION making
- Publication
Child Development, 2017, Vol 88, Issue 5, p1536
- ISSN
0009-3920
- Publication type
journal article
- DOI
10.1111/cdev.12657