The present work examines whether the variability of attitude objects at attitude acquisition increases the generalization of likes and dislikes. In particular, variability might enhance the discriminative learning of cues, resulting in attitudes towards abstract entities rather than concrete instances. Using evaluative conditioning as an experimental paradigm to study attitude acquisition, we manipulated the variability of conditioned stimuli (CSs) that were paired with unconditioned stimuli (USs) of negative or positive valence. CSs resembled Chinese characters that could be grouped into categories by one common component. In the invariable condition, one item per category served as CSs. In the variable condition, multiple items per category were used as CSs. We measured participants' evaluations of the CSs and novel Chinese characters (generalization stimuli), and included a recognition memory task and evaluative measures of CS components. As compared to the invariable condition, the learning condition that introduced variability among CSs facilitated generalization towards novel stimuli, diminished recognition memory performance, and produced evaluative ratings of CS components that were more extreme for common components. The findings suggest the formation of attitudes towards abstract cues rather than concrete instances in the variable relative to the invariable condition, and propose that high variability facilitates the generalization of likes and dislikes. We discuss mechanistic explanations as well as practical implications with regard to the formation of prejudice and intergroup biases.

目前的工作检验了态度对象在态度习得时的可变性是否增加了好恶的泛化。特别是，可变性可能会增强对线索的辨别学习，从而导致对抽象实体而不是具体实例的态度。使用评价条件反射作为研究态度习得的实验范式，我们操纵了与负价或正价非条件刺激 (USs) 配对的条件刺激 (CSs) 的可变性。CS 类似于汉字，可以通过一个共同的组成部分进行分类。在不变的条件下，每个类别一个项目作为 CS。在变量中条件下，每个类别的多个项目被用作 CS。我们测量了参与者对 CS 和新汉字（泛化刺激）的评价，并包括识别记忆任务和 CS 组件的评估措施。与不变条件相比，在 CS 之间引入可变性的学习条件促进了对新刺激的泛化，降低了识别记忆性能，并产生了对常见组件更为极端的 CS 组件的评估评级。研究结果表明，相对于不变条件，对抽象线索而非具体实例的态度形成，并提出高度可变性促进了喜欢和不喜欢的概括。