Processing fluency: Difference between revisions

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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]], [[attractiveness]], [[familiarity]], and [[confidence]].

{{Lead rewrite|date=June 2016}}

'''Processing fluency''' is the ease with which the brain processes information. Perceptual fluency is the ease of processing stimuli based on manipulations to perceptual quality. Retrieval fluency is the ease with which information can be retrieved from memory.<ref name=Alter2009/>

Several subtypes of processing fluency have been identified. '''Perceptual fluency''' refers to the ease of processing [[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. [[Event-related potentials]] (ERPs) are a method of averaging brainwaves that has been successful in dissociating different cognitive mechanisms due to small time scale that brainwaves are measured.<ref name=Rugg2007/> One study was able to use a manipulation of visual clarity to change perceptual fluency during a recognition task. This manipulation effected ERPs for fluency and familiarity at different times and locations in the brain, leading them to believe that these two mechanisms do not come from the same source.<ref name=Leynes2012/>

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.