Sensorimotor fluency influences affect: Evidence from electromyography

Abstract

Fluency of visual processing induces affective responses, with easier-to-process stimuli being preferred (Winkielman & Cacioppo, 2001). The present study extends this research to the motor domain by investigating the effect of sensorimotor fluency on affective reactions to objects in a categorisation task. In fluent stimulus–response (s–r) trials, grasp-compatible objects were presented on the same side of the screen as the response hand; in non-fluent trials, grasp incompatible objects were presented on the opposite side of the screen to the response hand. Affective responses were measured implicitly using face muscle activity (electromyography). As predicted, participants exhibited greater cheek muscle activity (associated with smiling) in trials with s–r compatible responses compared with incompatible responses. These findings support hedonic models of fluency in which fluent processing elicits direct emotional experience, and suggest that models of hedonic fluency should take into account the integration of the motor system in visual processing.

Keywords:

• Emotion
• Action
• Electromyography
• EMG
• Stimulus–response compatibility

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by Economic and Social Research Council grant RES-000-23-0429 awarded to SPT and AEH.

This study was designed and data were collected at Bangor University. The manuscript was written at Bangor University and the Universtiy of Plymouth. Peter Cannon is now at the University of Cambridge.

We thank Mike Tucker, Piotr Winkielman, and two anonymous reviewers for their comments on this manuscript.

Notes

¹The AQ data was not used in the current study, but was collected for participant selection in other studies.