Research suggests that evaluations of an object can be simultaneously influenced by (a) the mere co-occurrence of the object with a pleasant or unpleasant stimulus (e.g., mere co-occurrence of object A and negative event B) and (b) the object’s particular relation to the co-occurring stimulus (e.g., object A starts vs. stops negative event B). Using a multinomial modeling approach to disentangle the two kinds of influences on choice decisions, three experiments investigated whether learners can intentionally control the relative impact of stimulus co-occurrence and stimulus relations. An integrative analysis of the data from the three experiments (N = 1,154) indicate that incentivized instructions to counteract effects of stimulus co-occurrence by focusing on stimulus relations increased the impact of stimulus relations without affecting the impact of stimulus co-occurrence. Implications for evaluative learning, intentional control, and public policy are discussed.

研究表明，对一个对象的评价可能同时受到以下因素的影响：(a) 对象与愉快或不愉快的刺激同时出现（例如，对象 A 和负面事件 B 同时出现）和 (b) 对象的与同时发生的刺激的特定关系（例如，对象 A 开始与停止负面事件 B）。使用多项式建模方法来解开对选择决策的两种影响，三个实验调查了学习者是否可以有意识地控制刺激共现和刺激关系的相对影响。三个实验数据的综合分析（N= 1,154）表明，通过关注刺激关系来抵消刺激共现效应的激励指令增加了刺激关系的影响，而不影响刺激共现的影响。讨论了对评估学习、有意控制和公共政策的影响。