Automatic affective priming of recently acquired stimulus valence: Priming at SOA 300 but not at SOA 1000

In a recent series of studies, it was demonstrated that originally neutral stimuli that were predictive of an electrocutaneous stimulus in a differential aversive conditioning procedure not only acquired "signal-value" but also acquired a negative affective valence. These affective changes were not only evident from the evaluative ratings scales, but also from the data of an affective priming procedure. This response-latency based priming procedure has recently been employed as an indirect and unobtrusive index of stimulus valence (attitudes) (e.g., Fazio, Jackson, Dunton, & Williams, 1995). In the present experiment, the use of the affective priming procedure as an indirect measure of stimulus valence was further explored. Results showed that aversively conditioned stimuli revealed their newly acquired valence in this priming procedure. As predicted, this effect was obtained at the short SOA (300 ms) but not at the long SOA (1000 ms). The significant SOA x Priming interaction suggests that the affective priming procedure is less or not affected by demand effects and (self-presentational) response strategies. This makes the affective priming effect an excellent and unobtrusive measure of affective valence and an interesting alternative to subjective rating scales in situations where demand effects might otherwise influence responding. The results are also related to recent research on conditioning models of the acquisition of anxiety disorders, and to research on the co-occurrence of expectancy learning and affective learning within these models.