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Effects of Perceptual Fluency on Affective Judgments
Abstract
According to a two-step account of the mere-exposure effect, repeated exposure leads to the subjective feeling of perceptual fluency, which in turn influences liking. If so, perceptual fluency manipulated by means other than repetition should influence liking. In three experiments, effects of perceptual fluency on affective judgments were examined. In Experiment 1, higher perceptual fluency was achieved by presenting a matching rather than nonmatching prime before showing a target picture. Participants judged targets as prettier if preceded by a matching rather than nonmatching prime. In Experi- ment 2, perceptual fluency was manipulated by figure-ground contrast. Stimuli were judged as more pretty, and less ugly, the higher the con- trast. In Experiment 3, perceptual fluency was manipulated by presen- tation duration. Stimuli shown for a longer duration were liked more, and disliked less. We conclude (a) that perceptual fluency increases liking and (b) that the experience of fluency is affectively positive, and hence attributed to positive but not to negative features, as reflected in a differential impact on positive and negative judgments. 0
... An object the information of which is easily and fluently processed evokes positive reactions (see [19], for a review). The mere exposure effect [20] is one of the examples of the positive reaction stemming from processing fluency [21]: repeated exposure to a stimulus increases perceptual fluency and as a result, liking for the stimuli increases. These findings indicate that clone faces might also be processed more fluently because when observing clone faces, we repeatedly process only one type of face. ...
... We defined two hypotheses regarding the impression of clone faces: the first assumes that they may be seen as improbable and potential threats and hence would be negatively evaluated [16][17][18]. The other hypothesis asserts that clone faces would be positively evaluated because they are fluently processed [21]. We tested these hypotheses by comparing the perceived eeriness of six individuals with clone faces to that of a single person and six individuals with different faces with each other. ...
... Fig 2 shows These results indicated that the clone images were perceived as eerie, improbable, and negative compared to the other images. Based on these results, we rejected the possibility that the clone images would be evaluated positively because of high processing fluency [21]. We identified a new phenomenon through which clone faces induce negative impressions. ...
Technological advances in robotics have already produced robots that are indistinguishable from human beings. This technology is overcoming the uncanny valley, which refers to the unpleasant feelings that arise from humanoid robots that are similar in appearance to real humans to some extent. If humanoid robots with the same appearance are mass-produced and become commonplace, we may encounter circumstances in which people or human-like products have faces with the exact same appearance in the future. This leads to the following question: what impressions do clones elicit? To respond to this question, we examined what impressions images of people with the same face (clone images) induce. In the six studies we conducted, we consistently reported that clone images elicited higher eeriness than individuals with different faces; we named this new phenomenon the clone devaluation effect . We found that the clone devaluation effect reflected the perceived improbability of facial duplication. Moreover, this phenomenon was related to distinguishableness of each face, the duplication of identity, the background scene in observing clone faces, and avoidance reactions based on disgust sensitivity. These findings suggest that the clone devaluation effect is a product of multiple processes related to memory, emotion, and face recognition systems.
... Bornstein suggested that repeated experience with an object facilitates its perceptual processing, resulting in a feeling of more "fluent" processing that is associated with positive affect. The "perceptual fluency" hypothesis found early empirical support (Reber et al., 1998;Winkielman & Cacioppo, 2001) and built the basis for the idea that the relative ease of processing is the main determinant of how positively a sensed experience is evaluated (Reber et al., 2004). ...
... A series of experiments that manipulated processing fluency, e.g., by means of priming (Albrecht & Carbon, 2014;Reber et al., 1998), contrast (Reber et al., 1998), or stimulus presentation duration (Forster et al., 2015), has found general support for the notion that increased processing fluency leads to more positive aesthetic evaluations. In addition, processing fluency accounts can be related to several of the experimental manipulations discussed above. ...
... A series of experiments that manipulated processing fluency, e.g., by means of priming (Albrecht & Carbon, 2014;Reber et al., 1998), contrast (Reber et al., 1998), or stimulus presentation duration (Forster et al., 2015), has found general support for the notion that increased processing fluency leads to more positive aesthetic evaluations. In addition, processing fluency accounts can be related to several of the experimental manipulations discussed above. ...
People invest precious time and resources on experiences such as watching movies or listening to music. Yet, we still have a poor understanding of how such sensed experiences gain aesthetic value. We propose a model of aesthetic value that integrates existing theories with literature on conventional primary and secondary rewards such as food and money. We assume that the states of observers' sensory and cognitive systems adapt to process stimuli effectively in both the present and the future. These system states collectively comprise a probabilistic generative model of stimuli in the environment. Two interlinked components generate value: immediate sensory reward and the change in expected future reward. An immediate sensory reward is taken as the fluency with which a stimulus is processed, quantified by the likelihood of that stimulus given an observer's state. The change in expected future reward is taken as the change in fluency with which likely future stimuli will be processed. It is quantified by the change in the divergence between the observer's system state and the distribution of stimuli that the observer expects to see over the long term. Simulations show that a simple version of the model can account for empirical data on the effects of exposure, complexity, and symmetry on aesthetic value judgments. Taken together, our model melds processing fluency theories (immediate reward) and learning theories (change in expected future reward). Its application offers insight as to how the interplay of immediate processing fluency and learning gives rise to aesthetic value judgments. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
... For example, exposure to visual stimuli (e.g., product attributes) has been shown to make focal attributes of the target object more salient (Mandel & Johnson, 2002). Multiple exposures to a goal-critical stimulus increase perceived familiarity (Whittlesea et al., 1990) and preference for a visual target stimulus (Reber et al., 1998;Stolzenbach et al., 2013). Thus, webrooming, which involves repeated exposures to goal-critical attributes, may result in similar consequences, increasing the importance of certain goal-critical attributes. ...
... According to expectation confirmation theory (Diehl & Poynor, 2010;Oliver, 1980;Olshavsky & Miller, 1972;Sundar & Noseworthy, 2016), consumers' perceived product performance tends to vary by their expected product performance. Thus, if consumers' expectations for the performance of a particular attribute are heightened, the gap between the expected and the actual quality becomes larger (Cardello & Sawyer, 1992;Deliza & MacFie, 1996;Lintellé, 2014), increasing the likelihood of disconfirmation, and resulting in negative evaluations of the target product (Deliza & MacFie, 1996;Oliver, 1980;Stolzenbach et al., 2013) or the target store (Peterson et al., 2020), similar to contrast effects found in the prior studies (Anderson & Sullivan, 1993;Reber et al., 1998;Whittlesea et al., 1990). Thus, in a webrooming shopping process, consumers may experience disconfirmation about physical products offline (Stage 2) due to their increased expectation while viewing them online (Stage 1). ...
Webrooming is a two‐stage shopping process that begins with examining product options online followed by making a purchase at an offline store. In four experiments, we investigate webrooming effects on product evaluation and purchase intentions. The results suggest that webrooming (vs. non‐webrooming) has negative impacts on (1) perceived product performance vis‐à‐vis expectations and (2) purchase intentions for the products offline. Our moderated‐mediation analyses show that webrooming leads to lower perceived product performance, which in turn results in lower purchase intentions, and participants’ Need for Touch (NFT) moderates the negative mediation effect, which is stronger with instrumental NFT than autotelic NFT. However, this moderated‐mediation effect is attenuated when products are searched across multiple categories. These findings contribute to the marketing literature by providing a more nuanced understanding of how two‐stage, webrooming behavior affects consumers’ cognitions and purchase decisions. They also provide several managerial implications that when controlling for time intervals between the stages, (1) webrooming may adversely affect retailers’ business outcomes when webrooming within a single (e.g., blankets), related (e.g., baby products), and unrelated product categories; (2) thus, creating an integrated online‐to‐offline cross‐channel customer experiences is critical to minimize the negative webrooming effects on final sales.
... Hence, harmonious stimuli tend to be processed more fluently, and this increase in processing fluency is thought to be part of what makes harmony in audition positively-valenced (cf. Reber, 2012;Reber et al., 1998Reber et al., , 2004. 4 ...
... Harmonious (combinations of) stimuli are also likely to be processed more rapidly (e.g., Kimura et al., 2012). Of course, that being said, there are many different pairing principles that one can think of that might be expected to lead to enhanced "processing fluency" (Reber, 2012;Reber et al., 2004;Reber et al., 1998) without all of them necessarily being relevant to a discussion of consonance or harmony. For instance, consider here only how both semantic and/or crossmodal congruency give rise to increased processing fluency, without the component stimuli necessarily harmonizing (see Chen & Spence, 2017). ...
The notion of harmony was first developed in the context of metaphysics before being applied to the domain of music. However, in recent centuries, the term has often been used to describe especially pleasing combinations of colors by those working in the visual arts too. Similarly, the harmonization of flavors is nowadays often invoked as one of the guiding principles underpinning the deliberate pairing of food and drink. However, beyond the various uses of the term to describe and construct pleasurable unisensory perceptual experiences, it has also been suggested that music and painting may be combined harmoniously (e.g., see the literature on “color music”). Furthermore, those working in the area of “sonic seasoning” sometimes describe certain sonic compositions as harmonizing crossmodally with specific flavor sensations. In this review, we take a critical look at the putative meaning(s) of the term “harmony” when used in a crossmodal, or multisensory, context. Furthermore, we address the question of whether the term's use outside of a strictly unimodal auditory context should be considered literally or merely metaphorically (i.e., as a shorthand to describe those combinations of sensory stimuli that, for whatever reason, appear to go well together, and hence which can be processed especially fluently).
... Fluency of action manifests as successful progress through an activity, and, alongside fluency of thought, forms the foundation of flow's fluency dimension. These relationships are particularly evident when considering the flow experiences that comprise the fluency dimension (e.g., feelings of control, automaticity, and confidence in one's knowledge of the task), as these experiences are largely derived from familiarity and skill (Reber et al., 1998) and are manifested in the form of continual progress. If a person is not making fluent progress-and especially if they are doing the opposite by making mistakes-they will feel less in control, less enjoyment, and less ease with respect to the task. ...
... The suggested importance of fluent thought in leisure activities also illuminates the potential relationships between flow and constructs like processing fluency (Reber et al., 1998). Our finding that progress contributes to the fluency dimension of flow also advances current understandings of the relationship between performance and flow, as prior findings have suggested that performance is a consequence of flow (Engeser & Rheinberg, 2008). ...
This research advances the conceptualization and measurement of flow. The results of six studies ( N = 2809) reveal that flow has two dimensions: “fluency,” which is comprised of experiences related to fluent thought and action; and “absorption,” which is based on sustained full attention. The results also demonstrate that the two dimensions have nuanced relationships with other variables. Specifically, while the fluency dimension is related to antecedents of flow (familiarity, skill, progress), the absorption dimension is not. Conversely, the absorption dimension was found to be strongly related to consequences of flow (behavioral intentions, presence), while the fluency dimension was not. Furthermore, we demonstrate that fluency-related experiences can give rise to the absorption-related experiences, which advances our understanding of how flow emerges. Finally, we develop a refined measure of flow called the two-dimensional-flow scale, and demonstrate its enhanced ability to capture variance in flow and other related variables in leisure contexts.
... However, much less is known about valence recognition for stimuli that are not consciously identifiable due to a visual mask, and the underlying mechanisms are not well understood. However, given that familiarity is typically associated with safety and positive affect (Reber et al., 1998;Westerman et al., 2015;Whittlesea, 1993;Winkielman et al., 2003), and that this link is bidirectional (Claypool et al., 2008;Corneille et al., 2005) one might expect the positive images would be rated as more familiar than the negative images-the opposite of what was found by . In addition, the images that were used in their study were obtained from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS; Lang et al., 2005). ...
... Importantly, these findings were independent of arousal, providing novel evidence that valence alone can be utilized to make judgments about the familiarity of an image even if the image cannot be identified. Although this finding is contrary to a previously reported experiment using similar methods , our results are consistent with a multitude of studies that have shown a strong link between familiarity and positive affect (Monin, 2003;Reber et al., 1998;Westerman et al., 2015;Whittlesea, 1993;Winkielman et al., 2003). In fact, the present result could be viewed as the flip side of the mere exposure effect (Zajonc, 1968). ...
Research using the Recognition Without Identification paradigm (Cleary & Greene, 2000, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 26[4], 1063-1069; Peynircioǧlu, 1990, Journal of Memory and Language, 29, 493-500) has found that participants can discriminate between old and new stimuli even when the stimuli are obscured to a degree that they are unidentifiable. This methodology has been adapted in the past by using heavily obscured threatening and nonthreatening images and asking participants to try to identify each image followed by a familiarity rating of the image. Past results showed that threatening images that were not able to be identified were rated as more familiar than nonthreatening images that were not able to be identified (Cleary et al., 2013, Memory & Cognition, 41, 989-999). The current study used a similar methodology to explore the possibility that a sense of familiarity can serve to guide our attention toward potential threats in the environment. However, contrary to earlier results, we found that positive images were rated as more familiar than negative images. This pattern was found with both identified and unidentified images and was replicated across five experiments. The current findings are consistent with the view that feelings of positivity and familiarity are closely linked (e.g., de Vries et al., 2010, Psychological Science, 21[3], 321-328; Garcia-Marques et al., 2004, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30, 585-593; Monin, 2003, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85[6], 1035-1048).
... In the context of this thesis, the certainty and affirmation features of maximisers are directly a feeling of ease, which in turn can lead to greater certainty about a product evaluation or purchase than the feeling of difficulty, highlighting one effect of processing fluency on individuals' perceived certainty (Reber and Schwarz, 1999;Alter and Oppenheimer, 2008;Tormala, Clarkson and Henderson, 2011). Meanwhile, an ease in processing fluency can lead to more favourable attitude and behaviour (Lee and Aaker, 2004), including trustworthiness (Reber and Schwarz, 1999), likeability (Reber, Winkielman and Schwarz, 1998), aesthetic liking (Graf and Landwehr, 2015) and ...
... conditions (e.g. duration of exposure to a stimulus) and a target, and has advantages over focussing exclusively on message content since an experience of perceptual fluency can increase the likeability of a target, in this case a message, which should enhance and improve product evaluations (Reber, Winkielman and Schwarz, 1998). This is because when consumers are under high cognitive load, messages presented to them are more deviant and therefore reduce product evaluation (Fox, Rinaldo and Amant, 2015). ...
This thesis explores the use and effects of maximisers when included within Health and Nutrition (H&N) claims on food product packaging, with direct relevance for industry practice. Four separate studies were carried out in support of this thesis, one field study and three online experimental studies. The effects of the maximiser language device were investigated through an online field experiment, conducted through the Facebook Ads Manager platform, with the results demonstrating that the use of maximisers has a positive effect on product likeability among Facebook users. The first online experimental study then demonstrated the informality features of maximisers, and highlighted the importance of consumer perceived congruence bet ween the language used in advertising a product and the retail environment in which the product is encountered. Results from this study showed that the used of maximisers in H&N claims has a positive direct effect on product likeability. The second online experimental study extended on the concept of perceived congruence from the first online study, investigating the congruence between the use of language and customer comments and reviews, and its effect on perceptions of and purchase intentions towards a product. The study demonstrated the sincerity and affirmation features of maximisers, and showed the interaction of these features with online reviews, with the presence of maximisers having a moderating influence of product perceptions when bad reviews are present. The third and final online experimental study tested the effect of maximisers in a realistic setting, investigating the effects of cognitive load on evaluations of and purchase intentions towards a product. The findings showed maximisers work effectively when consumers are cognitively available, with a reversed effect apparent when consumers are subjected to a high cognitive load. The findings from the experimental studies have potential for impact in industry practice in the marketing and advertising of food products, and for the design of food packaging, as well as for policy-makers aiming to protect consumers and consumer interests related to food advertising.
... (Palmer, Schloss, & Sammartino, 2013). The fluency theory suggests that the mechanism of mental ease explains how aesthetic pleasure is obtained from art (Reber, Schwarz & Winkielman, 2004;Reber et al., 1998;Winkielman et al., 2006). Several psychological studies have found that people's experience and knowledge of art results in significant differences in aesthetic appreciation (Barron & Welsh, 1952;Munsinger & Kessen, 1964;Winston & Cupchik, 1992). ...
Art is as beautiful as sunshine and as important as nourishment to our body. Though art is a stimulating aspect, art appreciation is regarded as a highly subjective phenomenon. Art education and art appreciation is known to enrich the lives of children. Various factors including one’s experience, knowledge, and exposure to arts as well as processing fluency are known to influence one’s aesthetic appreciation. The objective of the present study is to examine children’s expressions of art appreciation. The quantitative study examines how children respond to artworks from different artistic genres. The participants in this study are sixty grade IX children in the age group of 13-15 years, from rural and urban backgrounds from the state of Telangana. The study employed equal number of boys and girls. Images of nine famous artworks depicting landscapes are used as stimuli. The images of artworks belonged to three artistic genres: representational, semi-representational, and abstract artworks. The artworks are selected from Western, Middle Eastern and Oriental paintings. Images of paintings are shown randomly to children to elicit their responses. The results of analysis of children’s descriptions of paintings indicate that children appreciated representational artworks more than semi-representational artworks and their appreciation of abstract artworks is minimum. Children’s appreciation of artworks according to the type of paintings indicate differences in appreciation among western, middle eastern and oriental paintings. The statistical analysis of overall appreciation of three genres of artworks depending on the type of paintings reveal that there exists a statistically significant difference in the appreciation of three types of artworks depending on the genre of artworks. The findings of this study can be used to enlighten the development of art education curricula.
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... The perceptual fluency model posits that the pre-exposure to a (conscious or subliminal) stimulus could increase the ease with which it is processed, which in turn would increase the positive affect directed to the stimuli [15], possibly by reducing stimulus uncertainty [16]. In line with those findings, Reber and colleagues examined the effect of perceptual fluency on different affective judgements and showed that the exposure to visual stimuli after priming resulted in an increase in positive affect, without engaging attention or deliberate cognitive processing [17,18]. ...
Background:
Hedonic (or aesthetic) preferences to repeated sensory stimulation can remain stable over time (Island of Stability Effect, ISE) or vary with prior exposures (Mere Exposure Effect, MEE).
Objective:
Here we compared the liking ratings of seniors with cognitive impairments (mostly mild-to-moderate dementia, DPs) and neurotypical senior controls (CNs) to audio and visual stimuli and examined whether those ratings conformed to the ISE or the MEE predictions.
Method:
Participants (n = 212) rated sets of stimuli repeated three times at weekly intervals: images of Picasso's paintings, PANTONE color cards, and avant-garde music clips.
Results:
The aggregated liking ratings of DPs and CNs were stable over time, in line with the ISE model. However, latent growth modeling indicated that those stable responses might have masked differences at the individual level, since seniors in both cohorts exhibited clusters of different responses over the time evaluated, supporting the predictions of the MEE. Notably, there was a dampening of hedonic experiences in DPs comparatively to CNs.
Conclusion:
The presence of hedonic responses (and individual variations) in DPs is relevant not only to their wellbeing and therapy interventions involving audio and visual stimulation, but also to the design of spaces that offset the downturn in hedonic experiences affecting seniors with cognitive impairments.
... Winkielman and Cacioppo (2001) measured the response of facial muscles that index affective response and found that fluent processing is associated with positive affect. Additionally, regardless of whether participants are asked to report "liking" or "disliking", greater fluency is associated with more liking and less disliking (Reber et al., 1998;Winkielman et al., 2003). ...
Negative attitudes toward non-native speakers of English are well-documented and have adverse impacts on English learners in a variety of settings. Recent research has proposed that (i) disfluent processing of accented speech (i.e., the metacognitive feeling of effort that accompanies perceiving and integrating information) and (ii) stereotypes and categories associated with specific accents both play a role in these negative attitudes. Previous research has also shown that comprehension of accented speech becomes more accurate over time as listeners perceptually adapt to unfamiliar speech patterns. This dissertation tests the hypothesis that adaptation through listening experience leads to less effortful processing and thereby more positive attitudes, and more broadly investigates the relationship among processing fluency, the subjective perception of fluency, and attitudes toward a speaker with a non-native accent. In two experiments, participants listened to and transcribed sentences recorded by a speaker in either a non-native or native guise. The non-native accent was selected, based on pre-tests, to be difficult to categorize (e.g., as a native speaker of Spanish), in order to minimize attitude stereotypes associated with judgments of ethnicity or nationality and better isolate the influence of processing fluency. In Experiment 1, all participants listened to the sentences in clear audio. In Experiment 2, participants listened to sentences either in clear audio or mixed with speech-shaped noise, which provided an additional manipulation of processing fluency. Objective fluency was assessed using transcription accuracy in both experiments, in addition to pupil dilation during listening and transcription time in Experiment 1. Subjective fluency and attitudes toward the speaker on the dimensions of warmth, competence, and social closeness were measured at intervals using scale-response questions. The results show that pupil dilation and transcription time decrease with experience with a non-native accent, indicating improved objective processing fluency, though transcription accuracy results unexpectedly did not show evidence for adaptation to the accent. The results also provide no evidence that listeners’ subjective perception of fluency or attitudes toward the speaker change as objective fluency improves. Analysis of the relationship between these variables indicates that listeners’ perception of effort in comprehending non-native accented speech is more closely related to their attitudes and social evaluations of the speaker, rather than to objective processing effort. This dissertation adds two main contributions to research on the comprehension of and attitudes toward non-native speakers. First, it provides evidence that comprehension of non-native accented speech becomes easier over time using a physiological measure (pupil dilation) in addition to behavioral measures. Second, by comparing objective fluency, subjective fluency, and attitudes in the same task, it shows that the perception of effort does not necessarily reflect objective effort in comprehending accented speech, but instead appears to be associated with listeners’ social judgments. For listeners who experience difficulty understanding non-native accented speech, comprehension is likely to get easier in a short period of time as their cognitive systems adapt to unfamiliar speech patterns. The more a listener recognizes this increased ease, the more that ease may lead to improved attitudes toward the speaker.
... Data-limited means that increasing effort does not help to improve performance as for example in perceptual fluency tasks (Westbrook & Braver, 2015). Since low perceptual fluency is experienced as aversive and therefore is to be avoided (Dreisbach & Fischer, 2011;Reber et al., 1998;Song & Schwarz, 2008), the effort costs in this task is suited to measure the subjective aversion costs separately from the effort avoidance costs. Resource-limited means that increasing effort does improve your performance, like for example in math tasks. ...
Human beings tend to avoid effort, if a less effortful option is equally rewarding. However, and in sharp contrast to this claim, we repeatedly found that (a subset of) participants deliberately choose the more difficult of two tasks in a voluntary task switching (VTS) paradigm even though avoidance of the difficult task was allowed (Jurczyk et al., Motivation Science 5:295–313, 2019). In this study, we investigate to what extent the deliberate switch to the difficult task is determined by the actual objective or the subjective effort costs for the difficult task. In two experiments, participants (N = 100, each) first went through several blocks of voluntary task choices between an easy and a difficult task. After that, they worked through an effort discounting paradigm, EDT, (Westbrook et al., PLoS One 8(7):e68210, 2013) that required participants to make a series of iterative choices between re-doing a difficult task block for a fixed amount or an easy task block for a variable (lower) amount of money until the individual indifference point was reached. In Experiment 1, the EDT comprised the same tasks from the VTS, in Experiment 2, EDT used another set of easy vs. difficult tasks. Results showed that the voluntary switch to the difficult task was mostly predicted by the objective performance costs and only marginally be the subjective effort cost. The switch to the difficult task may thus be less irrational than originally thought and at its avoidance at least partially driven by economic considerations.
... For example, in other studies, these feelings have been elicited by a variety of contextual factors that are objectively irrelevant to the decision. Processing ease has been altered by manipulating the figure-ground contrast (Reber et al., 1998), by varying the difficulty of the font in which information is presented (Novemsky et al., 2007;Pocheptsova et al., 2010;Shen et al., 2010), by making it easier to process information by presenting a matching contour of an object before it is actually seen, and also by varying the frequency of exposure of the target (Reber & Schwarz, 1999;Zajonc, 1968). In general, the easier a target is to process as a result of these manipulations, the more positive its evaluation (for reviews, see Krishna & Schwarz, 2014;Schwarz, 2004;Winkielman et al., 2003). ...
A review of how feelings and cognitions affect consumer behavior
... Subsequently, aesthetic experience is altered by knowledge, because in this case the cognitive processing is of utmost importance for the aesthetic appreciation of mathematical equations. We speculate that equations that are experienced as aesthetically pleasing might be processed more fluently (Reber et al., 1998). Here, of course, fluency would be driven by meaning and the associated understanding of concepts and their relationships, rather than their sensual qualities exclusively. ...
There is a notion that mathematical equations can be considered aesthetic objects. However, whereas some aesthetic experiences are triggered primarily by the sensory properties of objects, for mathematical equations aesthetic judgments extend beyond their sensory qualities and are also informed by semantics and knowledge. Therefore, to the extent that expertise in mathematics represents the accumulation of domain knowledge, it should influence aesthetic judgments of equations. In a between-groups study design involving university students who majored in mathematics (i.e., experts) or not (i.e., laypeople), we found support for the hypothesis that mathematics majors exhibit more agreement in their aesthetic judgments of equations—reflecting a greater degree of shared variance driven by formal training in the domain. Furthermore, their judgments were driven more strongly by familiarity and meaning than was the case for laypeople. These results suggest that expertise via advanced training in mathematics alters (and sharpens) aesthetic judgments of mathematical equations.
... This reception mechanism is called the fluency effect (Reber et al., 1998). It explains both the phenomenon of flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990) used in reception and entertainment research (Sherry, 2004) and the positive effects of familiar arguments and messages such as those examined in (political) persuasion research (Koch & Zerback, 2011). ...
Heimat represents our home, but the medieval German term stands for more than this: it is the place where we grew up, people to whom we feel connected, landscapes, language or dialect, traditions and customs, and feelings of security, safety, contentment, and coziness. Due to growing global threats and challenges, people all over the world have developed a strong need for these positive feelings in recent years, and politics and the media are increasingly catering to this need. There has been little empirical research on these phenomena. Therefore, by reviving the concept of Heimat this article provides a fruitful theoretical foundation as well as various research perspectives as inspiring starting points for communication research on Heimat in the media.
... Non-selfrelated primes elicited a negative response bias in comparison to nonprimed trials and in comparison to the other-related primes in the original study. This might be explained by low-processing fluency regarding the random string of letters, which is known to produce affective and evaluative effects (e.g., Reber et al., 1998), especially when contrasted with the presumably high-processing fluency in reading one's own name. Alternatively, respondents might just have applied an overall negative response bias, which showed in the non-self-related condition and was overcome in the self-condition. ...
Krause et al. (2012) demonstrated that evaluative responses elicited by self-related primes in an affective priming task have incremental validity over explicit self-esteem in predicting self-serving biases in performance estimations and expectations in an anagram task. We conducted a conceptual replication of their experiment in which we added a behavioral and an affective outcome and presented names instead of faces as self-related primes. A heterogeneous sample (N = 96) was recruited for an online data collection. Name primes produced significantly positive and reliable priming effects, which correlated with explicit self-esteem. However, neither these priming effects nor explicit self-esteem predicted the cognitive, affective, or behavioral outcomes. Despite the lack of predictive validity of the implicit measure for affective and behavioral outcomes, the positive and reliable priming effects produced by name primes warrant the further investigation of the validity of the affective priming paradigm as a measure of implicit self-esteem.
... As the processing of a stimulus becomes easier with repeated exposure, the liking of this stimulus increases (e.g. Reber et al., 1998). The body of literature on the role of stimulus exposure for learning affective meaning is slim. ...
Charles E. Osgood's theory of affective meaning defines affect as interplay of three meaning dimensions – evaluation, potency, and activity – that represent the central constituents of our affective ecology. Based on a rigorous Brunswikian sampling procedure, we selected a representative set of stimuli that mirror this ecology. A germane informative analysis explicates and corroborates the sampling approach. We then report two experiments testing whether these dimensions of affective meaning can be learnt by means of stimulus pairing and stimulus exposure. Our findings yield evidence for (1) stimulus pairing effects on evaluation and activity, and (2) stimulus exposure effects on potency and activity. Overall, the findings reveal that stimulus pairing and stimulus exposure differentially influence the learning of dimensions of affective meaning. We discuss implications of this research for current emotion theories as well as its contribution to research in the cognition–emotion interface. Finally, we argue that the implementation of representative design by virtue of Brunswikian sampling promotes theory development and opens new research avenues for an original and creative science of cognition and emotion.
... Ease of processing, in turn, is a key input into judgments of aesthetic preference (Reber et al., 2004). It underlies the influence of object (e.g., symmetry, contrast, clarity, prototypicality) and perceiver variables (e.g., exposure history, expertise) that have long been the focus of empirical aesthetics and predicts systematic effects of variables that are outside the scope of traditional theories of aesthetics, including visual (e.g., Reber et al., 1998) and conceptual (e.g., Winkielman et al., 2003) primes. A processing fluency account of aesthetic pleasure thus provides a parsimonious mechanism that connects variables that would otherwise have been considered in isolation, with each requiring separate explanations. ...
In everyday language, abstract concepts are described in terms of concrete physical experiences (e.g., good things are “up”; the past is “behind” us). Stimuli congruent with such conceptual metaphors are processed faster than stimuli that are not. Since ease of processing enhances aesthetic pleasure, stimuli should be perceived as more pleasing when their presentation matches (rather than mismatches) the metaphorical mapping. In six experiments, speakers of English (Experiment 1-3a) and Farsi (Experiment 3b and 4) viewed valence- and time-related photos in arrangements congruent and incongruent with their metaphorical mapping. Consistent with the valence-verticality metaphor in both languages, English and Farsi speakers preferred visual arrangements that placed the happy photo above the sad photo. In contrast, participants’ preferences for time-related photos were moderated by the direction of writing. English speakers, who write from left to right, preferred arrangements that placed past-themed photos to the left of modern-themed photos; this was not observed for Farsi speakers, who write from right to left as
well as left to right. In sum, identical stimuli enjoy an aesthetic advantage when their spatial arrangement matches the spatial ordering implied by applicable conceptual metaphors.
... Ursache dafür ist eine erhöhte "processing fluency": Die wiederholte Rezeption eines Reizes bewirkt, dass man diesen beim erneuten Kontakt leichter verarbeiten kann (vgl. Bornstein 1989;Reber et al. 1998;Seamon et al. 1995), was ihn wiederum vertrauter und damit glaubwürdiger erscheinen lässt. So schätzen Probanden auch Statements, die aufgrund einer größeren Schrift oder einer farblichen Hervorhebung besser lesbar sind, glaubwürdiger ein als schwieriger zu verarbeitende Aussagen (vgl. ...
... The search for psychophysical ways to measure these perceptions is an early and theoretically elegant approach to psychological research. It has a long history of theory and method development (Thurstone, 1927;Osgood, 1952;Torgerson, 1958;Baird & Noma, 1978;Kaplan, 1992;Reber et al., 1998;Berglund, 2012). ...
The biennial conference aims to catalyze ideas and innovation between academia, practice, NGOs and government agencies who work to address analysis, planning, valuation, design and management of visual resources. The aim of the 2021 Virtual Conference is to share ideas and discuss the issues associated with the assessment and protection of visual resources in an era of major landscape change - regionally, national and globally.The pre-conference proceedings contains nine technical papers plus abstracts for the three plenary speakers, six workshops, three panels, and 16 visual case studies.

... A recent publication however showed that stimuli were liked more when they had become associated with the compatible non-conflict trials on a Stroop task (Study 4; Damen et al., 2018). Such a result would be in line with the literature on processing and perceptual fluency (Reber et al., 1998(Reber et al., , 2004, suggesting that when stimuli are more easily perceived and more easily processed, they are typically also liked more. The exact nature and limits of a potential Stroop positivity effect remain to be carefully explored (Damen et al., 2018, p. 19; also see Schouppe et al., 2015;Ivanchei et al., 2021); however, whether it could be applied to positively change evaluations is an interesting avenue for future research. ...
Cognitive conflict is considered to represent a psychologically negative signal. Indeed, a recent publication showed that cognitive conflict emerging from the Stroop task influences evaluations for neutral shapes that had become associated with conflict and non-conflict, respectively. Building on these findings, the present research investigates the degree to which Stroop conflict influences evaluations of actual products. In an experimental study, participants performed a Stroop task in which they responded to conflict trials (e.g., the word red presented in a blue font) as well as non-conflict trials (e.g., the word red presented in a red font). Participants were also presented with two pictures featuring bottled water brands: One brand was consistently presented after non-conflict trials; the other brand was consistently presented after conflict trials. When participants evaluated the products, the results showed they rated the product associated with Stroop conflict less favorably than the product associated with non-conflict; however, this effect only emerged when participants were thirsty. When participants were not thirsty, no differences emerged. The present findings add to the literature on cognitive conflict and negativity, suggesting that Stroop conflict can influence product evaluations when those products are goal relevant.
... In addition to relatedness cues, other factors have been shown to influence judgments. For example, perceptual cues have been shown to affect a variety of judgment tasks, including affective judgments (e.g., judging a target item's beauty, Reber et al., 1998), veridicality judgments (e.g., truthfulness of statements; Reber & Schwarz, 1999), and JOLs (Rhodes & Castel, 2008). Typically, studies investigating the effects of perceptual cues on judgment making do so by varying the ease with which participants can encode stimuli (see Schwarz, 2004, for a review). ...
Judgments of learning (JOL) are often used to assess memory monitoring at encoding. Participants study a cue-target word pair (e.g., mouse-cheese) and are asked to rate the probability of correctly recalling the target in the presence of the cue at test (e.g., mouse -?). Prior research has shown that JOL accuracy is sensitive to perceptual cues. These cues can produce metamemory illusions in which JOLs overestimate memory, such as the font-size effect (Rhodes & Castel, 2008), which occurs when participants inflate JOLs for pairs presented in large versus small fonts without a concomitant increase to recall. The present study further tests the font-size effect and examines whether other perceptual manipulations can affect the correspondence between JOLs and recall. Experiments 1A and 1B were designed to replicate the font-size effect and test whether the effect extended to highlighted pairs that were related or unrelated in the same study list. Experiment 2A and 2B examined font size and highlighting effects on JOLs using only unrelated pairs. Finally, Experiment 3 tested whether Sans Forgetica—a perceptually disfluent font designed to improve memory—would result in inflated JOLs and/or recall. Large fonts similarly increased both JOLs and recall relative to small fonts, highlights had no effect on JOLs or recall, and Sans Forgetica font yielded a memory cost (though no effect on JOLs). Collectively, perceptually fluent and disfluent study pairs do not appear to inflate JOLs relative to subsequent recall.
... According to the influence of information fluency on perceived authenticity, the better the information fluency, the more likely consumers are to believe the authenticity of the information, the lower the perceived risk, and the greater the brand trust. On the contrary, consumers will doubt the authenticity of information and have a low level of brand trust, which will hinder the occurrence of purchasing behaviors (Reber et al., 1998;Lau and Lee, 1999). Therefore, enterprises whose environmental protection claims are questioned can consider improving the matching degree between advertising claims and the brand image in the marketing communication to enhance brand trust. ...
Green consumption is an important component of environmental protection behavior. The behaviors of individual consumers are having unprecedented impacts on the sustainable development of a green society. Previous research has discussed how anthropomorphic beneficiaries of environmental behavior (e.g., nature/earth) impact green consumption behavior and compared the influence of anthropomorphic presence and absence on consumers. However, few have examined the impact of different types of anthropomorphic carriers with environmental benefits (e.g., green product/brand) on consumers. This research explores the matching effects on the willingness of consumers to buy green products between the anthropomorphic image of the brand (cute vs. cool) and advertising appeals (self-interest vs. altruism); in addition, the underlying mechanisms of matching effects are revealed. The results show that, under the self-interested advertising appeal, the cool anthropomorphic image can lead to higher purchase intention of green products due to the mediating role played by the brand capacity trust. However, when exposed to altruistic advertising appeal, the cute anthropomorphic image can enhance brand goodwill trust of consumers and make consumers more willing to buy green products. Finally, this paper discusses the contributions and limitations.
... Surveys indicate fossil fuel investment professionals: are more apathetic than the general population to climate change; tend to underestimate impacts from climate policies and technology; possess poor knowledge of market relevant climate change information; and maintain a disbelief in government's ability to meet climate targets (Critchlow 2015;Naqvi et al. 2017). This is further compounded by the perceived slow pace of change, (Critchlow 2015;Weber 2010;Reber, Winkielman and Schwarz 1998). ...
This paper examines ExxonMobil, a widely-followed, mature, large oil and gas producer using discounted cash flow valuation modeling under two scenarios: “Business as usual”; and an adequate climate policy response that would limit warming to 1.5C. The analysis across the last two decades shows the market continues to price in a “business as usual” future. ExxonMobil’s overvaluation, relative to an adequate policy response scenario, has increased (pre-pandemic) from 50% to 70% of equity value at risk. Investors are taking significant energy transition risk without meaningful compensation. To avoid continued capital misallocation, negative externalities should be incorporated into underwriting.
... Participants are assumed to be unaware that logical status is the source of this fluent processing and misattribute it to the positive affective quality of the argument. This leads to the logic-liking effect, which is seen as analogous to other results involving links between cognitive and perceptual fluency and judgments of positive affect (e.g., Reber et al., 1998). For the logic-brightness effect, this argument is extended by suggesting that there is a correlation between subjective affective states and judgments of perceptual qualities; stimuli seen as emotionally positive are more likely to be perceived as "bright." ...
Much recent research and theorizing in the field of reasoning has been concerned with intuitive sensitivity to logical validity, such as the logic-brightness effect, in which logically valid arguments are judged to have a "brighter" typeface than invalid arguments. We propose and test a novel signal competition account of this phenomenon. Our account makes two assumptions: (a) as per the demands of the logic-brightness task, people attempt to find a perceptual signal to guide brightness judgments, but (b) when the perceptual signal is hard to discern, they instead attend to cues such as argument validity. Experiment 1 tested this account by manipulating the difficulty of the perceptual contrast. When contrast discrimination was relatively difficult, we replicated the logic-brightness effect. When the discrimination was easy, the effect was eliminated. Experiment 2 manipulated the ambiguity of the perceptual task, comparing discrimination performance when the perceptual contrast was labeled in terms of rating "brightness" or "darkness". When the less ambiguous darkness labeling was used, there was no evidence of a logic-brightness effect. In both experiments, individual sensitivity to the perceptual discrimination was negatively correlated with sensitivity to argument validity. Hierarchical latent mixture modeling revealed distinct individual strategies: responses based on perceptual cues, responses based on validity or guessing. Consistent with the signal competition account, the proportion of those responding to validity increased with perceptual discrimination difficulty or task ambiguity. The results challenge explanations of the logic-brightness effect based on parallel dual-process models of reasoning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
... Finally, the relatively short duration that our participants remained in the learning environment may have biased our results, as this means that our experimental conditions were only experienced briefly. It is possible that this may have attenuated effects as we expect that longer exposure to the experimental conditions will make their psychological impacts more salient to the individual, in line with psychological research findings that longer presentation of stimuli was associated with more pronounced psychological effects (Reber et al., 1998). Future research may want to incorporate this notion by planning research designs that ensure longer self-paced learning times in the environment. ...
Creativity is an increasingly recognized construct in technology-enhanced learning. However, our understanding of how creativity interacts with the design of online learning environments to affect learning experiences is still limited. For example, do creative students benefit from different learning environment designs than those benefitting their less creative peers? This experimental study (N = 187) explores this question by investigating the visual design of a self-paced online learning environment, specifically the degree of visual structure, in relation to students' creativity. Creativity was measured in different ways, along the lines of vocational/study choice, self-reported personality and behavior, and creative production. Students were randomly assigned to either a visually unstructured (experimental group) or a visually highly structured (control group) learning environment. They reported their preference, impulse for activation, and situational motivation after the learning experience. Results indicate interaction effects consistent with the role of creativity in perception and learning. More specifically, creative students reported more motivation after learning in an unstructured environment, whereas non-creative students reported relatively better learning experiences in the highly structured condition. These results contribute to resolving previous conflicting findings from separated studies, yet some ambiguities remain. Results and implications are discussed, and recommendations for future research are laid out.
... Both have well-studied effects on image beauty. Contrast is often used as a manipulation of visual fluency-and, as a consequence, subjectively perceived fluency (Forster et al., 2013) where it produces reliable effects on preference (Reber et al., 1998). In these studies, researchers also have manipulated perceptual fluency through different degrees of figure-ground contrast and found that participants liked the same image more with higher figure-ground contrast. ...
Digital images taken by mobile phones are the most frequent class of images created today. Due to their omnipresence and the many ways they are encountered, they require a specific focus in research. However, to date, there is no systematic compilation of the various factors that may determine our evaluations of such images, and thus no explanation of how users select and identify relatively "better" or "worse" photos. Here, we propose a theoretical taxonomy of factors influencing the aesthetic appeal of mobile phone photographs. Beyond addressing relatively basic/universal image characteristics, perhaps more related to fast (bottom-up) perceptual processing of an image, we also consider factors involved in the slower (top-down) re-appraisal or deepened aesthetic appreciation of an image. We span this taxonomy across specific types of picture genres commonly taken-portraits of other people, selfies, scenes and food. We also discuss the variety of goals, uses, and contextual aspects of users of mobile phone photography. As a working hypothesis, we propose that two main decisions are often made with mobile phone photographs: (1) Users assess images at a first glance-by swiping through a stack of images-focusing on visual aspects that might be decisive to classify them from "low quality" (too dark, out of focus) to "acceptable" to, in rare cases, "an exceptionally beautiful picture." (2) Users make more deliberate decisions regarding one's "favorite" picture or the desire to preserve or share a picture with others, which are presumably tied to aspects such as content, framing, but also culture or personality, which have largely been overlooked in empirical research on perception of photographs. In sum, the present review provides an overview of current focal areas and gaps in research and offers a working foundation for upcoming research on the perception of mobile phone photographs as well as future developments in the fields of image recording and sharing technology.
... An alternative theory proposed to explain the phenomenology of insight is the processing fluency account (Topolinski and Reber, 2010), which suggests that the trigger of the Aha! experience is a sudden increase in processing fluency of the entire problem and is associated with the appearance of the solution. Previous studies have shown that the increase in processing fluency induces feelings that are similar to the key features of the Aha! experience; namely, positive affect (Reber et al., 1998;Winkielman and Cacioppo, 2001) and certainty [or the so-called truth effect (Hasher et al., 1977;Brashier and Marsh, 2020)]. In the case of insight, the ease of processing is attributed to the correctness of the solution. ...
The insight phenomenon is thought to comprise two components: cognitive and affective (the Aha! experience). The exact nature of the Aha! experience remains unclear; however, several explanations have been put forward. Based on the processing fluency account, the source of the Aha! experience is a sudden increase in processing fluency, associated with emerging of a solution. We hypothesized that in a situation which the Aha! experience accompanies the solution in, the problem would be judged as less difficult, regardless of the objective difficulty. We also planned to confirm previously discovered associations between the Aha! experience and accuracy, confidence, and pleasure. To test the proposed hypothesis, during the preliminary stage of the study, we developed a set of 100 remote associate problems in Russian (RAT-RUS) and asked 125 participants to solve problems and indicate the Aha! moment (after solution generation or solution presentation), confidence, difficulty, and likability of each problem. As expected, the Aha! experience often accompanied correct solutions and correlated with confidence judgments. We also found a positive correlation between the Aha! experience and problem likability. As for the main hypothesis, we confirmed that the Aha! experience after the presentation of the solution was associated with a decrease in subjective difficulty. When participants could not solve a problem but experienced the Aha! moment after the solution was presented to them, the problem was perceived as easier than one without the Aha! experience. We didn’t find the same effect for the Aha! after solution generation. Thus, our study partially supports the processing fluency account and demonstrates the association between the Aha! experience and metacognitive judgments about the accuracy and difficulty of problems.
... Familiar things have an especially positive effect on many people because, unlike unfamiliar things, they have already been "processed" and are therefore more easily or "fluently" interpreted by people's brains. This reception mechanism is called the fluency effect (Reber et al., 1998). It explains both the phenomenon of flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1990) used in reception and entertainment research (Sherry, 2004) and the positive effects of familiar arguments and messages such as those examined in (political) persuasion research (Koch & Zerback, 2011). ...
Heimat represents our home, but the medieval German term stands for more than this: it is the place where we grew up, people to whom we feel connected, landscapes, language or dialect, traditions and customs, and feelings of security, safety, contentment, and coziness. Due to growing global threats and challenges, people all over the world have developed a strong need for these positive feelings in recent years, and politics and the media are increasingly catering to this need. There has been little empirical research on these phenomena. Therefore, by reviving the concept of Heimat this article provides a fruitful theoretical foundation as well as various research perspectives as inspiring starting points for communication research on Heimat in the media.
... Most existing literature (e.g., Alter & Oppenheimer, 2009;Labroo & Kim, 2009;Song & Schwarz, 2008; suggests that the experience of fluency, through reading easy-to-read information (i.e., perceptual fluency), has a positive effect on consumers' evaluations of the marketing stimulus. Specifically, perceptual fluency can increase the perceived believability (e.g., Reber & Schwarz, 1999), accuracy (e.g., Schwartz & Metcalfe, 1992), value (e.g., Alter & Oppenheimer, 2006), liking (e.g., Reber et al., 1998), and even preference (e.g., Cho & Schwarz, 2010) toward an advertised product. However, this seemingly consensual phenomenon in the current literature has been challenged by recent research showing the desirability of disfluency in certain consumption contexts. ...
Contrary to conventional belief and the existing literature, recent research has shown that difficult‐to‐read fonts on marketing communications may evoke perceptual disfluency and enhance consumer evaluation toward unique, complex, or security‐related products. However, no research has examined the psychological mechanism that underlies the positive effects of perceptual disfluency. The current research presents five experiments to address this study gap. Specifically, Studies 1 and 2 provide empirical evidence that perceptual disfluency may lead to perceived novelty and in turn evoke the feeling‐of‐interest, perceived innovativeness, and intention to try a product. Studies 3 and 4 replicate these findings and show that such an indirect effect of perceptual disfluency is mitigated by the presence of salient novelty cues and prior product knowledge, providing further support for the hypothesized disfluency–novelty–interest relationship. Study 5 extended these findings by showing that digital ad banners with disfluent text may enhance click‐throughs in a natural viewing task of a news website. The current findings empirically demonstrate a mechanism that not only underlies the positive effects of perceptual disfluency but also aligns with the fluency–familiarity–liking relationship found in the existing literature.
... In the empirical aesthetics literature, object recognition has mostly been associated with processes of sense-making (Muth & Carbon, 2013). Whereas it has been hypothesized that familiar and easy processable artworks should be preferred over more difficult alternatives (the so-called fluency hypothesis; see, e.g., the work of Reber, Winkielman, and Schwarz [2016]), a growing body of work suggests that in fact ambiguous artworks are preferred as they provide the pleasurable challenge of deciphering patterns and symbols, creating meaning and making sense (Muth, Hesslinger, & Carbon, 2015;Muth & Carbon, 2013;Jakesch & Leder, 2009). Processes of sensemaking and constructing object representations have been connected to oscillatory activity in the gamma band (∼40 Hz) at longer latencies following stimulus onset (Bertrand & Tallon-Baudry, 2000;Rodriguez et al., 1999;Tallon-Baudry & Bertrand, 1999). ...
Aesthetic experiences have an influence on many aspects of life. Interest in the neural basis of aesthetic experiences has grown rapidly in the past decade, and fMRI studies have identified several brain systems supporting aesthetic experiences. Work on the rapid neuronal dynamics of aesthetic experience, however, is relatively scarce. This study adds to this field by investigating the experience of being aesthetically moved by means of ERP and time–frequency analysis. Participants' electroencephalography (EEG) was recorded while they viewed a diverse set of artworks and evaluated the extent to which these artworks moved them. Results show that being aesthetically moved is associated with a sustained increase in gamma activity over centroparietal regions. In addition, alpha power over right frontocentral regions was reduced in high- and low-moving images, compared to artworks given intermediate ratings. We interpret the gamma effect as an indication for sustained savoring processes for aesthetically moving artworks compared to aesthetically less-moving artworks. The alpha effect is interpreted as an indication of increased attention for aesthetically salient images. In contrast to previous works, we observed no significant effects in any of the established ERP components, but we did observe effects at latencies longer than 1 sec. We conclude that EEG time–frequency analysis provides useful information on the neuronal dynamics of aesthetic experience.
... An explanation for these findings on the visual preference for familiar products is that familiar products are dependent on previous experiences integrated within an individual's memory creating conceptual fluency. As such, these findings reaffirm previous research on how conceptual fluency affects visual preference, and thus, aesthetic judgements (Belke et al., 2015;Leder et al., 2004;Reber & Schwarz, 2001;Reber et al., 2004;Reber et al., 1998). Specifically, simpler kettles demonstrated higher processing fluency producing conceptual fluency (i.e., perceived familiarity and prototypicality), than more complex kettles perceived as novel (Hamann, 1990). ...
Understanding product semantics and affective perceptions of product consumers undoubtedly offer significant value for industrial designers and their design practice. Deconstructing affective perceptions is a methodologically challenging task as it is implicit and subjective and is influenced by an individual’s aesthetic experience. Accordingly, how products are perceived differs among individuals or consumers, particularly in the distinct experiences that contribute to constructing an individual’s sense of perception of self or self-concept. Furthermore, research has shown that individuals are implicitly drawn to products that reaffirm and communicate their self-concept. If an individual’s preferences for products can reflect or enhance their self-concept, this suggests that understanding the underlying perceptual processes between the self-concept and product semantics can productively inform industrial design research.
The thesis research develops and adapts methods from the disciplines of psychology, marketing, and industrial design to investigate these underlying perceptual processes of the self-concept and its relationships to product semantics. The thesis research investigates the underlying processes through a study on kettles that discloses the variances in sensory and cognitive evaluation and judgements through the process of aesthetic experience. The thesis further investigates the cognitive influences of the self-concept to reveal the mental models associated with the visual aesthetics of product form and how this influences aesthetic responses through product personality congruence. The thesis argues that the self-concept is a multidimensional construct reflected, in particular, through an individual’s (1) gender identity, (2) personality, (3) aesthetic sensitivity, and (4) interest, taste, and goals, that plays a vital role in the aesthetic experience of products. The thesis’s findings indicate that these individual components of the self-concept are essential in that they interplay in how the symbolic meaning of product semantics is visually perceived. The outcome of this thesis assists in, primarily, revealing the underlying stages of visual aesthetic processing to understand how product semantics is perceived through an individual’s self-concept.
Visualization, whereby brands encourage consumers to mentally picture interacting with products, is a common advertising technique. Existing research, mostly conducted in the U.S. and Western Europe, demonstrates the effectiveness of future-oriented product visualizations. However, in East Asian countries (e.g., China), consumers are past-oriented. We argue that such temporal orientation has a vital impact on the effectiveness of visualization. We conducted two experiments, which reveal a significant influence of temporal-framed visualization on new product evaluation among Chinese consumers. Retrospective (past-oriented) visualization leads to higher new product evaluation than anticipatory (future-oriented) visualization, with processing fluency identified as the underlying mechanism. Further, spokesperson type moderates the effect of temporal-framed visualization. Retrospective visualization is more beneficial when adopting a human spokesperson, whereas anticipatory visualization is more effective when adopting a cartoon spokesperson. We recommend marketers in past-oriented cultures use temporal-framed visualizations, but also, be cognizant of the type of spokesperson employed.
The heuristic of information processing fluency plays an important role in making judgments. Some sources of processing fluency can be relevant or irrelevant to the content of a judgment. In this study, we aim to check whether individuals can distinguish different sources of fluency or fluency has a general effect on judgments. We used an artificial grammar learning paradigm (AGL) and tested the effects of different fluency sources (grammaticality and perceptual noise) on the judgment of grammaticality or of subjective ease of reading. It was found that both grammaticality and perceptual noise affected grammaticality judgements: the grammatical and the less noisy strings were evaluated more often as grammatical. However, only the perceptual noise affected judgments of subjective ease of reading. The results obtained provide evidence that fluency may contribute to the effects of implicit learning. It is possible that the processing fluency heuristic is the additional factor of judgement in the lack of explicit knowledge. Perhaps, perceptual noise provided almost complete explicit information for judgment of ease of reading; hence there was no need for additional heuristics. Another possible explanation is that perceptual fluency sources affect the early stages of information processing in a mandatory manner, unlike the conceptual ones. Overall, results are better explained by the non-specificity fluency hypothesis supporting the impossibility to distinguish between different fluency sources.
HPV has long been constructed as a sex-specific virus. Boys and men largely perceive the virus as not related to themselves and thus develop a female-specific schema on HPV. The present study investigates message strategies for promoting HPV vaccination among heterosexual young men in the United States. Through an online experiment, this study examined the effects of reference point (self, other, vs. self-other) and message framing (gain vs. loss) on processing fluency, optimistic bias, and behavioral intentions. The findings showed a schema-matching pattern in facilitating information processing, and a schema-mismatching pattern in attenuating optimistic bias. Specifically, other-referencing messages that related the outcomes of getting vaccinated for HPV to the message recipients’ sexual partners promoted processing fluency and widened the self-other gap in perceived susceptibility to HPV, regardless of the message frame. By contrast, self-other-referencing messages that highlighted the outcomes regarding themselves and their sex partners enhanced processing fluency and mitigated optimistic bias. Moreover, the attenuation in optimistic bias increased the participants’ information seeking intentions and the likelihood that they would share the messages on social media. The implications for health message design are discussed from a schema-based, message-tailoring perspective.
Investigations of non-Western art forms and non-Western subjects are needed to understand cross-cultural empirical aesthetics. This study examined the aesthetic evaluation of Chinese calligraphy, a distinguished visual art in East Asia, through people’s preferences among five scripts. These scripts are representative of major artistic writing styles of Chinese characters. We conducted an experiment with Chinese (mean age = 22.64, SD = 2.90) and non-Chinese participants (International students from Asia, Africa, and Northern America; mean age = 26.76, SD = 2.35) and investigated through subjective measures and eye-tracking measures. We adopted Pleasure-Interest Model of Aesthetic Liking (PIA Model) and measured fluency processing, affective feelings, motivational evaluation, and overall likeness as subjective measures to capture the aesthetic evaluation. The two groups evaluated the scripts differently and showed distinctive preferences for scripts. Chinese participants perceived the stimuli to be more fluent than non-Chinese participants. Chinese rated cursive script most fluent, pleasant, interesting, and liked it most, whereas non-Chinese liked the official script the most and rated it most interesting. Regarding eye movement, Chinese participants had fewer fixations and shorter total fixation durations, relative to non-Chinese participants. Non-Chinese participants were more sensitive to the features of the scripts compared with Chinese participants. We suggest that culture could affect aesthetic evaluation of Chinese calligraphy. Experience of Chinese characters and aesthetic expectations of different cultures may contribute to the evaluation differences.
Visual presentation is a critical factor in ascertaining the purchase decision and behavior of mobile consumers. However, whether a simple or a complex interface is more effective in promoting purchase intentions remains inconclusive. This study combines task-technology fit (TTF) theory and technology acceptance model (TAM) to propose a comprehensive model suitable for mobile shopping circumstances to investigate the mechanism of implementation intentions of online shopping under visual and technical stimulation. We obtained 504 valid samples through questionnaire surveys and used structural equation modeling (SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) methods to elucidate the complex causal patterns of implementation intentions of online shopping. The SEM results revealed that security precautions and user experience directly affected the implementation intentions of online shopping behavior, while interface visual complexity, visual search efficiency, and mobile payment indirectly affected the implementation intentions of online shopping. In addition, the fsQCA results revealed a causal asymmetric relationship between the driving mechanism of high and non-high implementation intentions of online shopping. All factors must be combined to play a role, and there exist three overall solutions to attain high implementation intentions of online shopping. Among them, we found neutral permutations of one solution, suggesting that the combination of high visual search efficiency and high security precautions is the core configuration that results in high implementation intentions of online shopping. Overall, this study broadens the application perspective of TTF and TAM, and provides certain practical enlightenment for e-commerce enterprise marketing.
There is growing evidence that visual complexity plays a crucial role in consumer purchase behavior. However, existing research on background visual complexity’s effect on individuals’ purchase intention in live streaming is limited. This study explores the relationships between live background visual complexity, emotional states, and purchase intention, by drawing on the stimulus-organism-response theory. A 3 × 2 between-subjects online experiment was developed with participants’ emotional and intention data. The results indicate that the background visual complexity of the livestream room influences consumers’ purchase intention positively via the evoked emotional states (pleasure and arousal). Background visual complexity exhibits an inverted U-shaped effect on consumers’ emotions. Additionally, the results reveal a significant moderating effect of gender on the relationship between background visual complexity and purchase intention. Women exhibit an inverted U-shaped effect on emotion and purchase intention, whereas men show a positive linear relationship when faced with complexity.
This research shows that vertical versus horizontal presentation of choices influence decision‐making differently. Based on the existing research on construal priming, this research hypothesizes and shows that vertical (vs. horizontal) choice presentation primes a stronger concrete (vs. abstract) construal, and that this systematically affects consumption choices. Across a series of four studies, we show that the stronger concrete (vs. abstract) construal priming by vertical (vs. horizontal) choice presentation results in a greater perceived importance of price (vs. quality) and secondary (vs. primary) choice attributes while making consumption choices. Contributions emerge for literatures on construal priming and contextual framing, and for managerial practice.
What is the psychological value of consuming art? Four experiments tested whether and how art can lend meaning to life. This research relies on a rudimentary distinction between low art (presenting familiar objects in a simple, straightforward manner) and high art (presenting the same familiar objects with a dose of complexity). We predicted and found that high (vs. low) art elevates the sense that life has meaning, because it stimulates integrative complexity, a cognitive process in which disparate information is combined into unified, coherent representations. These integrated thoughts pique interest, leading to the sense of life’s meaningfulness. Moreover, the results of two experiments point to the psychological benefits of viewing low (vs. high) art, namely the sense that life is happy. It seems that the relative lack of complex, integrated thoughts stimulated by low art, along with facilitated processing fluency, befits positive feelings about one’s life.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the influence of transparency on consumers' judgment and decision-making.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses an experimental research design in which participants' negative emotions dynamically change driven by group emotional interactions when they are experiencing a group complaint.
Findings
The experimental results show that compared with opaque products, transparent products make consumers rely more on emotions to make judgments and decisions (Experiment 1). It is precise because transparency increases the influence of emotion on consumers' judgment and decision-making that positive emotion makes consumers' evaluation and willingness to pay higher, while negative emotion makes consumers' evaluation and willingness to pay lower (Experiments 2 and 3). Transparency will also affect consumers' subsequent judgment and decision-making methods, so they are more inclined to choose the option with the dominant emotional dimension (Experiment 4).
Originality/value
Previous studies mainly focus on the impact of transparent packaging on consumers and discuss the impact of transparent packaging on consumer product evaluation and consumption quantity. This study proves that product-related transparent elements can also affect consumers' decision-making methods, making them more dependent on emotions to make decisions, enriching the research on the influencing factors of consumer decision-making methods.
Human perception is inherently multisensory, with cross-modal integration playing a critical role in generating a coherent perceptual experience. To understand the causes of pleasurable experiences, we must understand whether and how the relationship between separate sensory modalities influences our experience of pleasure. We investigated the effect of congruency between vision and audition in the form of temporal alignment between the cuts in a video and the beats in an accompanying soundtrack. Despite the subliminal nature of this manipulation, a higher perceptual pleasure was found for temporal congruency compared with incongruency. These results suggest that the temporal aspect of the interaction between the visual and auditory modalities plays a critical role in shaping our perceptual pleasure, even when such interaction is not accessible to conscious awareness.
At the “fuzzy front end” of an innovation process, organizations typically consider dozens, or even hundreds, of raw ideas. Selecting the best ones is a double challenge: evaluating so many ideas is a large undertaking, and the ideas in their raw form permit only noisy evaluations. In this paper, we demonstrate a further challenge to that large-scale evaluation of raw ideas. We show that verbosity raises the evaluation of ideas, that is, ideas expressed in more words are rated higher. This relationship is especially pronounced for ratings of creativity. Theory tells us that the effect of length on creativity is compounded because length cues both components of creativity—novelty and usefulness. We demonstrate how effort in reading (disfluency) and perceptions of complexity work together to explain the relationship between length and creativity. Our findings provide simple but important new directives for improving the use of crowdsourcing in the practice and study of innovation: either standardize the length of the ideas or control for length in their evaluation. Overall, we urge care with using measures of novelty or creativity when the idea descriptions vary in length.
Humans, like other species, have a preference for symmetrical visual stimuli, a preference that is influenced by factors such as age, sex, and artistic training. In particular, artistic training seems to decrease the rejection of asymmetry in abstract stimuli. However, it is not known whether the same trend would be observed in relation to concrete stimuli such as human faces. In this article, we investigated the role of expertise in visual arts, music, and dance, in the perceived beauty and attractiveness of human faces with different asymmetries. With this objective, the beauty and attractiveness of 100 photographs of faces with different degrees of asymmetry were evaluated by 116 participants with different levels of art expertise. Expertise in visual arts and dance was associated with the extent to which facial asymmetry influenced the beauty ratings assigned to the faces. The greater the art expertise in visual arts and dance, the more indifferent to facial asymmetry the participant was to evaluate beauty. The same effect was not found for music and neither for attractiveness ratings. These findings are important to help understand how face aesthetic evaluation is modified by artistic training and the difference between beauty and attractiveness evaluations.
Purpose
This research aims to study whether consumers differ in their attitudes toward equivalent prices that include vs exclude taxes and fees. In addition, this research will study whether computation ease-based processing fluency and perceived price fairness mediate this relationship in parallel, and whether need for cognition and political beliefs and affiliation moderate the effect.
Design/methodology/approach
Two experiments were conducted in which participants evaluated two price formats and then responded to relevant measures.
Findings
This research shows that consumers perceive prices that include (vs exclude) taxes and fees to be easier to process, and a fairer price, and subsequently exhibit a higher willingness to buy. Additionally, this effect is moderated by need for cognition, and political beliefs and affiliation.
Research limitations/implications
Future research could investigate potential additional situational moderators (such as price type – total vs unit, consumption category, relative sizes of base price vs taxes and fees) and dispositional moderators (such as price sensitivity and tightwadism/spendthriftism).
Practical implications
This research provides insights to marketers regarding the downstream impact of pricing decisions – such as including vs excluding taxes and fees from total price. Further, depending on the product category and target customer characteristics (political affiliation), marketers can determine whether to include or exclude taxes and fees.
Social implications
This research highlights the tendency of conservatives to avoid taxes and fees. As such, it adds to the understanding of conservative consumer groups.
Originality/value
This research contributes to existing research on price-framing research by finding an interesting effect related to multi-dimensional pricing and partitioned pricing. Additionally, this research contributes to existing research on computation ease-based processing fluency and price fairness perception. Finally, this contributes to an increasingly important body of research: the effect of political affiliation on consumption. This also provides clear guidance to marketers with regard to deciding service pricing.
People are more likely to believe things that are easier to process. Foreign‐accented speech is relatively difficult to process, and prior research shows that, correspondingly, people believe information less when it is delivered in a foreign accent rather than a native accent. Here we show that a short exposure to foreign accent can reduce this bias, and that the reduction in bias is due to improvement in the processing of the accent. These results demonstrate how cognitive aspects of language processing can influence attitudes. The results also suggest that ensuring exposure to foreign accent can reduce discrimination against nonnative speakers.
In the processes of historical continuity and the mechanisms of transmission of cultural values of modern civilizations, the concepts of culture and cultural and communicative formulae, which have a universal character, play a significant role. The article discusses this mechanism, while the basis of the analyzed phenomenon is the technique of repetition, manifesting the main semantic clusters for culture and civilization. Cultural and communicative formulae, representing the concepts of culture through cultural codes and standards, are passed down from generation to generation. Together with them, values that are relevant to representatives of civilization are transmitted. The idea that the repetition technique is in the focus of attention of a whole complex of modern sciences seems to be significant. The article is based on considerable material related to the functioning of such linguistic and cultural systems as Russian, Chinese and Anglo-Saxon, which gives it special significance. The material of the article will be useful in the framework of training areas related to the study of the culture of these regions and their languages.
This study evaluated the impact of visual transparency vs. opaqueness in storefront window displays in relation to consumer responses and approach behavior. While there is extensive prior literature analyzing various design features in such exterior-facing displays, the ability to see through or around the window displays to observe the store interior has not received much research attention. Theories of cognitive processing fluency suggest that reductions in environmental “unknowns” are associated with feelings of pleasure, comfort, and environmental affinity. Thus, we hypothesized that more transparent window displays would be associated with higher ratings of store attractiveness, more time spent observing the stores, and a greater likelihood of participants approaching the stores after viewing the displays. The use of a virtual-reality approach made it possible to isolate and adjust the storefront display transparency while holding other environmental variables constant. Our findings confirmed that highly transparent window displays were associated with greater attractiveness ratings and longer durations of observation, and that these effects were mediated by a reduction in perceived visual complexity and increases in feelings of pleasure. We did not find a significant difference in approach behavior, but this may be due to the fact that our participants were aware they could not actually enter the stores in the VR presentation. The results provisionally indicate that retailers should attend to the visibility of the ground-level store interior when designing their window displays.
PsyScope is an integrated environment for designing and running psychology experiments on Macintosh computers. The primary
goal of PsyScope is to give both psychology students and trained researchers a tool that allows them to design experiments
without the need for programming. PsyScope relies on the interactive graphic environment provided by Macintosh computers to
accomplish this goal. The standard components of a psychology experiment—groups, blocks, trials, and factors—are all represented
graphically, and experiments are constructed by working with these elements in interactive windows and dialogs. In this article,
we describe the overall organization of the program, provide an example of how a simple experiment can be constructed within
its graphic environment, and discuss some of its technical features (such as its underlying scripting language, timing characteristics,
etc.). PsyScope is available for noncommercial purposes free of charge and unsupported to the general research community.
Information about how to obtain the program and its documentation is provided.
Previous research has found that repeated exposure to briefly presented visual stimuli can increase the positive affect for the stimuli without enhancing their recognition. Subjects could discriminate target and distractor shapes by affective preference in the absence of recognition memory. This study examined this phenomenon as a function of stimulus exposure duration. Over exposure durations of 0, 2, 8, 12, 24, and 48 ms, the functions for affect and recognition judgments exhibited different temporal dynamics. Target selection by affect was possible at very brief exposures and was influenced little by increasing durations; target selection by recognition required longer stimulus exposures and improved with increasing durations. Affective discrimination of stimuli that are not recognized is a reliable phenomenon, but it occurs only within a narrow band of time. This parametric study has specified the relationship between exposure duration and affect and recognition judgments and has located that temporal window.
Presents a standardized set of 260 pictures for use in experiments investigating differences and similarities in the processing of pictures and words. The pictures are black-and-white line drawings executed according to a set of rules that provide consistency of pictorial representation. They have been standardized on 4 variables of central relevance to memory and cognitive processing: name agreement, image agreement, familiarity, and visual complexity. The intercorrelations among the 4 measures were low, suggesting that they are indices of different attributes of the pictures. The concepts were selected to provide exemplars from several widely studied semantic categories. Sources of naming variance, and mean familiarity and complexity of the exemplars, differed significantly across the set of categories investigated. The potential significance of each of the normative variables to a number of semantic and episodic memory tasks is discussed. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).
Experiments were designed to produce illusions of immediate memory and of perception, in order to demonstrate that subjective experience of familiarity and perceptual quality may rely on an unconscious attribution process. Subjects saw a short and rapidly presented list of words, then pronounced and judged a target word. We influenced the fluency of pronouncing the target through independent manipulation of repetition and visual clarity. Judgments of repetition were influenced by clarity (Experiments 1 and 2), but not when subjects knew that clarity was manipulated (Experiment 3). Conversely, judgments of clarity were influenced by repetition (Experiment 4). We interpret these symmetric illusions to mean that fluent performance is unconsciously attributed to whatever source is apparent and that feelings of familiarity and perceptual quality result when fluency is attributed respectively to past experience or current circumstances.
A review and meta-analysis of methodological and subject variables influencing the exposure-affect relationship was performed on studies of the mere exposure effect published in the 20 years following Zajonc's (1968) seminal monograph. Stimulus type, stimulus complexity, presentation sequence, exposure duration, stimulus recognition, age of subject, delay between exposure and ratings, and maximum number of stimulus presentations all influence the magnitude of the exposure effect. Implications of these findings are discussed in the context of previous reviews of the literature on exposure effects and with respect to prevailing theoretical models of the exposure-affect relationship. Modifications of the 2-factor model of exposure effects that increase the heuristic value of the model are described. A possible evolutionary basis of the exposure effect is discussed.
The duration of a brief visual display, the rate of response, and the nature of the material displayed were varied. The visual image, conceived as a sensory representation of the retinal image following stimulation, persists for 1 to 2 seconds, and the amount that can be identified depends on the rate at which digits, letters, or colors are recognized. Above the critical level, the duration of the visual image is constant over a range of display durations and lighting conditions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
A review and meta-analysis of methodological and subject variables influencing the exposure–affect relationship was performed on studies of the mere exposure effect published in the 20 years following R. B. Zajonc's (see record
1968-12019-001) seminal monograph. Stimulus type, stimulus complexity, presentation sequence, exposure duration, stimulus recognition, age of subject, delay between exposure and ratings, and maximum number of stimulus presentations all influence the magnitude of the exposure effect. Implications of these findings are discussed in the context of previous reviews of the literature on exposure effects and with respect to prevailing theoretical models of the exposure–affect relationship. Modifications of the 2-factor model of exposure effects that increase the heuristic value of the model are described. A possible evolutionary basis of the exposure effect is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
The repeated exposure of unmasked irregular geometric shapes for very brief durations (1 or 2 ms) has been shown to generate preferences as well as judgments of familiarity for the previously exposed shapes. At the same time these stimuli are not recognized as having been presented. Such exposure also leads to judgments of brightness and darkness independent of stimulus intensity, and it is dependent on the use of unmasked stimuli. This effect is nonspecific, in contrast to stimulus-specific effects with masked stimuli, and it is not restricted to affective judgments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Feelings of familiarity are not direct products of memory. Although prior experience of a stimulus can produce a feeling of familiarity, that feeling can also be aroused in the absence of prior experience if perceptual processing of the stimulus is fluent (e.g., B. W. Whittlesea et al, 1990). This suggests that feelings of familiarity arise through an unconscious inference about the source of processing fluency. The present experiments extend that conclusion. First, they show that a wide variety of feelings about the past are controlled by a fluency heuristic, including feelings about the meaning, pleasantness, duration, and recency of past events. Second, they demonstrate that the attribution process does not rely only on perceptual fluency, but can be influenced even more by the fluency of conceptual processing. Third, they show that although the fluency heuristic itself is simple, people's use of it is highly sophisticated and makes them robustly sensitive to the actual historical status of current events. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
HYPOTHESIZES THAT MERE REPEATED EXPOSURE OF THE INDIVIDUAL TO A STIMULUS OBJECT ENHANCES HIS ATTITUDE TOWARD IT. BY "MERE" EXPOSURE IS MEANT A CONDITION MAKING THE STIMULUS ACCESSIBLE TO PERCEPTION. SUPPORT FOR THE HYPOTHESIS CONSISTS OF 4 TYPES OF EVIDENCE, PRESENTED AND REVIEWED: (1) THE CORRELATION BETWEEN AFFECTIVE CONNOTATION OF WORDS AND WORD FREQUENCY, (2) THE EFFECT OF EXPERIMENTALLY MANIPULATED FREQUENCY OF EXPOSURE UPON THE AFFECTIVE CONNOTATION OF NONSENSE WORDS AND SYMBOLS, (3) THE CORRELATION BETWEEN WORD FREQUENCY AND THE ATTITUDE TO THEIR REFERENTS, AND (4) THE EFFECTS OF EXPERIMENTALLY MANIPULATED FREQUENCY OF EXPOSURE ON ATTITUDE. THE RELEVANCE FOR THE EXPOSURE-ATTITUDE HYPOTHESIS OF THE EXPLORATION THEORY AND OF THE SEMANTIC SATIATION FINDINGS WERE EXAMINED. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).
Subjects read aloud words presented once at the rate of one per second. A perceptual identification task, involving 30- or
50-msec presentations, followed. Some of the words presented for identification had been read previously; others were new.
After each presentation, in addition to identifying the word, the subjects judged its duration. The data indicate that a single
presentation of a word affects its later perception, as revealed by enhanced perceptual identification, longer duration judgments,
and better temporal discrimination. A second experiment showed that a single presentation influenced duration judgments even
when identification was not required. The final experiment addressed the issue of what is preserved in memory from a prior
presentation. The results from the three experiments indicate that duration judgments provide a valuable dependent measure
of memory in the perceptual identification task and support the misattribution hypothesis: A prior presentation enhances perceptual
identification, and this increase in relative perceptual fluency is incorrectly attributed to a longer presentation duration.
Evaluated the effects of 4 factor variations (pattern goodness of test stimuli and memory set items, discriminability of test stimuli, and similarity of test stimuli) on mean reaction time (RT) in a memory search task. 12 unpaid volunteer undergraduates served as Ss (7 right-handed and 5 left-handed). Results show that (a) the joint effect of pattern goodness and stimulus discriminability was additive; (b) a Pattern Goodness * Memory Load interaction affected RT; and (c) a significant Pattern Goodness * Similarity interaction also occurred. Findings are interpreted as evidence that (a) the time to form an internal representation of test stimuli is not influenced by pattern goodness; (b) the time to generate a visual representation of memory set items is influenced by goodness of these items; and (c) pattern goodness influences the time to compare test stimuli with memory set items.
Animal and human subjects readily develop strong preferences for objects that have become familiar through repeated exposures. Experimental evidence is presented that these preferences can develop even when the exposures are so degraded that recognition is precluded.
In this article we present a standardized set of 260 pictures for use in experiments investigating differences and similarities in the processing of pictures and words. The pictures are black-and-white line drawings executed according to a set of rules that provide consistency of pictorial representation. The pictures have been standardized on four variables of central relevance to memory and cognitive processing: name agreement, image agreement, familiarity, and visual complexity. The intercorrelations among the four measures were low, suggesting that they are indices of different attributes of the pictures. The concepts were selected to provide exemplars from several widely studied semantic categories. Sources of naming variance, and mean familiarity and complexity of the exemplars, differed significantly across the set of categories investigated. The potential significance of each of the normative variables to a number of semantic and episodic memory tasks is discussed.
Memory attributions Varieties of memory and consciousness: Essays in honour of Endel Tulving Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum Affective discrimination of stimuli that can-not be recognized
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Acknowledgments— This research was supported by the Swiss National Foundation (Fellowship No. 8210-040219 to Rolf Reber) We thank Rick Chalela and Elizabeth Wooley for their help in collecting data and Marek Drogosz Zajonc for valuable comments on earlier drafts of this article
- R Evision
R EVISION ACCEPTED 8/4/97) Acknowledgments— This research was supported by the Swiss National Foundation (Fellowship No. 8210-040219 to Rolf Reber). We thank Rick Chalela and Elizabeth Wooley for their help in collecting data and Marek Drogosz, Bärbel Knäuper, Yoshio Nakamura, Andrzej Nowak, and Robert B. Zajonc for valuable comments on earlier drafts of this article. at Univ. of Tasmania Library on October 13, 2014 pss.sagepub.com Downloaded from
Attraction, affiliation, and attachment
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Zajonc, R.B. (1971). Attraction, affiliation, and attachment. In J.E. Eisenberg & W.S. Dillon (Eds.), Man and beast: Comparative social behavior (pp. 141-179). Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.