The Mere Exposure Effect Of Neutral Words And Negative Words:event-related Potentials Study

It is widely reported that people tend to develop a preference for a stimulus merely after repeatedexposure to it. But there are also many other studies that do not find the phenomenon. This divergencemight result from the different familiarity levels among studies. Some researchers suggest that when thelevel of familiarity is too high, people can not produce discriminately mere exposure effect.Thus, one mayask whether the high level of familiarity inhibit the mere exposure effect. This study analyzes the domesticand foreign related research, reviewed the effect from theory model,influence factors, and behavioral andneural physiology of the mere exposure effect.In this study, the mere exposure effect is observed by using a new type of divided-attentionmethod with Chinese participants responding to neutral and negative Chinese words. In Experiment, twogroups of36Chinese graduate participants were separately exposed to neutral (Experiment1) and negativestimuli (Experiment2). Each word was presented for6ms. For each pair of words, one word waspresented3times and the other not. After this study phase there was a test phase, in which participantsshould finish a forced-choice preference o recognition judgment. They were asked to examine eachword-pair and to choose the word which they liked better (preference judgment) or the word which theyhad seen in exposure phase (recognition judgment).The amplitudes of N120, P200and N500components were modulated by exposure level duringpreference judgment.LPC waves were found during recognition judgment.Repeated neutral exposure led todifference amplitudes of N120, P200and N500components during preference judgment. In contras,theLPC amplitude was no obvious difference during recognition judgment.Negative Chinese words was opposite.This study suggests recognition may inhibit the mere exposure effect.It is found that familiarityof above-chance recognition is greater than that of chance recognition.The implications of these findingsare that a high level of familiarity inhibits the primary affective reaction and performance this reaction witha more conscious and cognitive evaluation. The study shows the robustness of the mere exposure effect forfamiliar neutral and negative stimuli. ERP technology was used in this study, This is the new direction ofthe future research of the mere exposure effect.