GE CLST 73B Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Fear Conditioning, Startle Response, Sensory Cortex
Document Summary
Mere exposure effect - previous exposure to a stimulus leads to preference for it. Stiumli used are typically those that are unfamiliar to subject so they don"t have pre- existing preferences. Subjects are not necessarily aware of why they have the preference- can occur with subliminal presentations. When the stimuli pops out at you. (easier to process can be written off as preference) Amnesic patients were exposed to some korean melodies that were novel to them. After a delay the patients did not remember that they had heard any music. However, they expressed a preference for the melodies they had heard before. Much like patients who don"t have amnesia they prefered the one they had heard prior even though they couldn"t remember having heard it prior. The mere exposure effect may be like priming- increased perceptual fluency. Less resources needed for processing preexposed materials in sensory cortex.