Generalization of the mere exposure effect through peculiarity of handwriting

Abstract

It is known that the mere exposure effect generalizes to the previously unseen letter strings that are similar along certain abstract dimensions(i.e., artificial grammar) to the exposed letter strings. We examined the generalization of the mere exposure effect through peculiarity of handwriting. Participants were repeatedly exposed to a set of handwritten words in Japanese hiragana. In a subsequent test phase, they were assigned to one of two conditions(same-word condition vs. changed-word condition). Participants who were assigned to the same-word condition were required to rate the handwritten words identical to the previous exposure phase, and those who were assigned to the changed-word condition rated the previously unseen words handwritten by the same person. The results showed that the mere exposure effect occurred not only for the sameword condition but also for the changed-word condition, while the effect under the changed-word condition was weak compared to the same-word condition. This means that the mere exposure effect generalized to the novel letter strings with the same handwriting previously exposed. The implications and future directions are discussed.