Sounds easy, looks nice: Crossmodal transfer of auditory processing fluency to visual object preference.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Crossmodal Perception
• Affective Science

Background:

• Perceptual fluency, the ease with which information is processed, positively influences affect.
• This positive affect is often misattributed to the object itself, leading to higher preference for easily processed items.
• Previous research primarily demonstrated unimodal fluency-preference effects, leaving crossmodal influences understudied.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate whether perceptual fluency in one sensory modality (auditory) can influence preference judgments for objects in another modality (visual).
• To explore the conditions under which crossmodal fluency-based preference effects occur, including temporal lags and object type (static vs. moving).

Main Methods:

• Six experiments were conducted manipulating auditory perceptual fluency while participants viewed visual objects.
• Participants rated their liking for the visual objects.
• Auditory stimuli varied in fluency, and temporal lags between auditory and visual stimuli were manipulated.

Main Results:

• Visual objects were rated higher when presented with more fluent auditory stimuli.
• This crossmodal effect persisted even when a temporal lag was introduced between auditory and visual stimuli.
• The effect was less reliable for static visual objects compared to moving ones.

Conclusions:

• Perceptual fluency effects on preference are not limited to unimodal processing and can operate crossmodally.
• Auditory fluency can enhance visual object liking, demonstrating a link between auditory processing ease and visual preference.
• Findings have implications for understanding attitude formation and change in real-world crossmodal contexts.