The present systematic review investigates developmental differences in evaluative conditioning (EC), focusing on how associative and propositional learning mechanisms vary across age groups. While EC has been widely studied in adults, its developmental trajectory and theoretical underpinnings in children remain underexplored. Following PRISMA guidelines, we systematically searched three major electronic databases (EBSCOhost, Web of Science, and Scopus) for empirical studies published between 2011 and 2022. Eligible studies employed EC paradigms and treated age as a key independent variable. Data on study design, sample demographics, conditioning procedures, and outcome measures were extracted and summarized. Out of 5939 initial records, three studies met all inclusion criteria. The reviewed studies varied substantially in procedural design, stimuli used, and outcome measures. Two studies reported age-related differences in EC strength, with adults showing stronger effects than children in standard conditions. One study found valence-specific differences in learning rates across age groups, with younger participants more responsive to gains and older participants to losses. However, across all studies, methodological heterogeneity precluded firm meta-analytic conclusions. The evidence suggests that EC mechanisms may shift with age, aligning with dual-process models that distinguish between associative and propositional learning. Nevertheless, the scarcity of direct comparative studies and procedure variability highlights the need for more standardized paradigms to assess developmental differences in EC reliably.
Balas et al. (Fri,) studied this question.