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Mere exposure effect: A consequence of direct and indirect fluency-preference links.
Sylvie Willems1, Martial Van der Linden
1University of Liège, Belgium. sylvie.willems@ulg.ac.be
Consciousness and Cognition
|September 27, 2005
Summary
People adjust their perception of fluency based on picture quality expectations. Fluency effects are reduced when high picture quality aligns with expectations, especially when quality differences are noticeable.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Perception Science
Background:
- Perceptual fluency, the ease of processing stimuli, influences judgments of preference and familiarity.
- Expectations about stimulus properties can modulate the impact of fluency on these judgments.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how expectations about picture quality influence the effects of perceptual fluency on preference and familiarity.
- To determine if awareness of quality differences is necessary for expectations to moderate fluency attributions.
Main Methods:
- Three experiments manipulated picture quality and pre-exposure to vary stimulus fluency.
- Participants rated preferences and familiarity for test items under different quality conditions.
- Awareness of quality differences was assessed.
Main Results:
- Fluency effects were diminished when high picture quality met expectations, indicating adjusted attributions.
- This moderation was dependent on participants' awareness of quality differences.
- Imperceptible quality differences did not induce expectations, allowing both quality and pre-exposure fluency to influence responses.
Conclusions:
- Attributions of fluency to preference and familiarity are dynamically adjusted based on expectations about stimulus properties.
- Expectations moderate fluency effects only when the relevant stimulus differences (e.g., picture quality) are perceptible but not easily assessed.