Perceptual and perceptual-motor fluency as a basis for affective judgements: Individual differences in motor memory activation

Abstract

Abstract The current study investigated the repetition-liking effect as a function of variations in perceptual-motor processing and individual differences in use of perceptual-motor information. Turkish words from earlier repetition-liking research were used in comparing: (1) perceptual (looking) versus perceptual-motor (looking and pronouncing) processing; and (2) perceptual-motor fluency versus disfluency (pronouncing words in a consistent versus an inconsistent manner). Subjects were divided into groups based on an assessment of imagery ability, a variable associated with the tendency to reactivate motor information in memory. Words were liked more after fluent than after disfluent processing, but only in people with good imagery ability. Perceptual-motor fluency had no effect on the repetition-liking effect in poor imagers. It was concluded that perceptual-motor fluency has an important impact on liking judgements, and that this effect is mediated by individual differences in the tendency to automatic...