Easier to recognize and easier to like
Experiments on processing fluency examine whether making a picture easier to recognize changes how positively people rate it. That offers one contribution to visual liking without claiming to explain everything people find beautiful.
Questions you could explore
- How could you distinguish ease of recognition from liking in an experiment?
- How could a control comparison separate prior familiarity from an image's immediate visual clarity?
Start reading
- Reber, Winkielman and Schwarz / Psychological ScienceEffects of Perceptual Fluency on Affective Judgments
The 1998 paper manipulates perceptual fluency in several ways; Experiment 2 uses contrast. Its measured judgments are narrower than a universal theory of taste.
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