The effect of stimulus complexity upon the frequency-Affect relationship

Abstract

The present experiment explores the effect of stimulus complexity upon the frequency- A ffect relationship. Repeated exposure of very complex stimulus patterns was expected to result in a u-shaped frequency-affect relationship while repeated exposure of simple patterns was expected to result either in an inverted-u or in a decreasing frequency- A ffect relationship. The results confirmed very clearly the first expectation (p < .01) hut not the second one since the frequency manipulation had no effect upon the liking of simple stimuli.