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{{Short description|Ease with which the brain processes information}}
In [[cognitive psychology]], '''processing fluency''' is the ease with which information is processed by the [[brain]]. It is commonly treated as a synonym for '''cognitive fluency''', a term used to describe the subjective experience of ease or difficulty associated with mental tasks. Processing fluency influences a range of [[Judgment|judgments]] and [[Decision-making|decisions]], including perceptions of [[truth]], [[interpersonal attraction|attractiveness]], [[knowledge by acquaintance|familiarity]], and [[confidence]].
Several subtypes of processing fluency have been identified. '''Perceptual fluency''' refers to the ease of processing [[sense|sensory]] stimuli, which can be affected by factors such as [[Visual perception|visual clarity]], [[Contrast (vision)|contrast]], or exposure duration. '''Retrieval fluency''' involves the ease with which information is accessed from [[memory]].<ref name="Alter2009" />
Higher fluency is often associated with more favorable evaluations, even when the ease of processing is unrelated to the content itself, a [[cognitive bias]] known as the [[fluency heuristic]].
==Research==
Research in cognitive neuroscience and psychology has shown that processing fluency influences different kinds of judgments. For instance, perceptual fluency can contribute to the experience of familiarity when fluent processing is attributed to the past. Repeating the presentation of a stimulus, also known as [[Priming (psychology)|priming]], is one method for enhancing fluency. Jacoby and Dallas in 1981 argued that items from past experience are processed more fluently.<ref name=Jacoby1981/> This becomes a learned experience throughout our lifetime such that fluent items can be attributed to the past. Therefore, people sometimes take fluency as an indication that a stimulus is familiar even though the sense of familiarity is false.<ref name=Whittlesea1993/> Perceptual fluency literature has been dominated with research that posits that fluency leads to familiarity. Behavioral measures of fluency do not have the temporal resolution to properly investigate the interaction between fluency and familiarity.
Further evidence has shown that artificial techniques can be used to trick people into believing they have encountered a stimulus previously. In one experiment,<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Brown|first1=Alan S.|last2=Marsh|first2=Elizabeth J.|date=2009-05-01|title=Creating Illusions of Past Encounter Through Brief Exposure|journal=Psychological Science|language=en|volume=20|issue=5|pages=534–538|doi=10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02337.x|pmid=19492436|s2cid=16445449}}</ref> participants were presented symbols which consisted of highly familiar symbols, less familiar symbols and novel symbols. Participants were required to report whether they had encountered any of the symbols presented before the experiment. A 35 millisecond flash preceded each symbol, in which the same, different or no symbol was flashed. It was found that the brief flash of stimulus boosted the fluency of the target item. When the same symbol was flashed, participants’ ratings of having encountered the symbol previously increased. This example illustrates that fluent processing can induce a feeling of familiarity.
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Later research observed that high perceptual fluency increases the experience of [[positive affect]].<ref name=Reber1998/> Research with [[psychophysiological]] methods corroborated this positive effect on affective experience: easy-to-perceive stimuli were not only judged more positively but increased activation in the [[zygomaticus major muscle]], the so-called "smiling muscle".<ref name=Winkielman2001/> The notion that processing fluency is inherently positive led to the [[processing fluency theory of aesthetic pleasure]],<ref name=Reber2004/> and it has been used to explain people's negative reactions towards migrants, who appear to be more difficult to process than non-migrants.<ref name=Rubin2010/>
Research relating to processing fluency and product design has shown that when the form of a product is highly unusual, it becomes difficult to process and is viewed less favourably than fluent counterparts.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal|last=Bloch|first=Peter H.|date=1995|title=Seeking the Ideal Form: Product Design and Consumer Response|journal=Journal of Marketing|volume=59|issue=3|pages=16–29|doi=10.2307/1252116|jstor=1252116|issn=0022-2429}}</ref> There is significant evidence that when consumers are presented with multiple choices, they will view objects more positively and more aesthetically pleasing when surrounded by congruent imagery.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Reber|first1=Rolf|last2=Schwarz|first2=Norbert|date=1999-09-01|title=Effects of Perceptual Fluency on Judgments of Truth|url=http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053810099903860|journal=Consciousness and Cognition|language=en|volume=8|issue=3|pages=338–342|doi=10.1006/ccog.1999.0386|pmid=10487787|s2cid=2626302|issn=1053-8100|url-access=subscription}}</ref> While consumers enjoy a moderate source of incongruity, too much disorder and unfamiliarity lead to feelings of being overwhelmed.<ref name=":2" /> Fluent product design has shown to encourage consumers to engage in approach activities such as touching and spending extended time viewing the product. <ref name=":2" />
Other studies have shown that when presenting people with a factual statement, manipulations that make the statement easier to mentally process—even totally nonsubstantive changes like writing it in a cleaner [[font]] or making it [[rhyme]] or simply repeating it—can alter judgment of the truth of the statement, along with evaluation of the [[intelligence]] of the statement's author.<ref name=Bennett2010/> This is called the "[[illusory truth effect|illusion of truth]] effect". Multiple studies have found that subjects were more likely to judge easy-to-read statements as true.<ref name=Reber1999/><ref name=Newman2012/><ref name=Waldman2014/> This means that perceived beauty and judged truth have a common underlying experience, namely processing fluency. Indeed, experiments showed that [[beauty]] is used as an indication for the correctness of mathematical solutions. This supports the idea that beauty is intuitively seen as truth.<ref name=Reber2008/> Processing fluency may be one of the foundations of [[Intuition (knowledge)|intuition]]<ref name=Topolinski2009/> and the [[Eureka effect|"Aha!" experience]].<ref name=Topolinski2010/><ref name="Wray2011"/>
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