Fluency in semantic coherence detection: Insights from response times, confidence, and eye movements

This research investigated whether different sources of processing fluency equivalently shape intuitive semantic judgments and their underlying attentional mechanisms. Across two eye-tracking experiments (Ns = 39, 45), participants performed a Dyads of Triads task to identify coherent word sets. We manipulated emotional valence as a semantic fluency source (Study 1) and visual contrast as a perceptual fluency source (Study 2). In both studies, objective accuracy was at a high ceiling (>86%) and unaffected by our manipulations. However, subjective experience was sensitive to fluency. Positive emotional valence (Study 1) significantly accelerated response times and increased confidence ratings. In contrast, the perceptual fluency manipulation (Study 2) produced no significant main effects on these key subjective measures. Eye-tracking data confirmed that gaze preference for coherent triads was modulated by both manipulations. Our results reveal a dissociation between stable objective accuracy and malleable subjective experience, though the accuracy finding is constrained by a ceiling effect. Critically, our findings challenge a source-independence assumption within standard fluency theory: affective fluency robustly influenced metacognitive judgments, whereas perceptual fluency did not. This suggests that fluency sources with a direct affective component are particularly potent in shaping the experience of intuition.