Ease of retrieval in evaluative conditioning

Evaluative conditioning (EC), the change in the liking of a conditioned stimulus due to its pairing with a positive or negative stimulus, is a key effect in attitude formation. Current theories on EC emphasize the role of memory in EC, assuming that explicit memory on the stimulus pairings strengthens the EC effect. In this paper, we extend the scope of memory’s role in EC by focusing on whether the metacognitive experience of ease during memory retrieval influences EC effects beyond the effects of the retrieved memory content. In two preregistered experiments (total N = 392), we tested for ease-of-retrieval effects in EC by letting participants recall few vs. many unconditioned stimuli before giving an evaluative judgment. Although the manipulation was successful in manipulating ease-of-retrieval, we found no evidence for an influence of ease-of-retrieval effects resulting from the experimental manipulation on EC. However, the subjectively perceived ease of retrieval was indeed associated with stronger EC effects. Overall, these findings show no evidence that ease resulting from an instruction to recollect more/less US information contributes to EC effects but leave open whether ease-of-retrieval from other sources contributes to EC effects.