Association First: A Skeleton for an Evaluative Learning Model

Association first is our name for three working hypotheses about evaluative learning that we have found useful for generating novel research questions, uncovering novel findings, and explaining existing findings. We base these hypotheses on the distinction between associative information (the information that two concepts are related) and relational information (the information about the specific relation between the two concepts). The hypotheses are: (1) It is easier to process (encode and retrieve) associative information than relational information; (2) It is easier to process associative information and relational information than to make inference based on relational information; (3) When people encounter an object, they consider the activation of mental links between the mental representation of the object and valence valid evidence that the activated valence characterizes the object. We demonstrate how these hypotheses generate useful assumptions about Evaluative Conditioning, and open paths for further research on evaluative learning and evaluation.