ABSTRACT
This comment seeks to inquire into both the independence of affect of cognition and into the nature of their interaction. It derives from a recent article (Zajonc, 1980) which reviewed theoretical and empirical evidence suggesting that cognition and affect are separable, parallel, and partially independent systems. The main evidence for independence of affect of cognition came from studies on the so-called mere exposure effect (Zajonc, 1968), that is, the phenomenon of increasing preference for objects that can be induced by virtue of mere repeated exposures. The traditional theory associated with this phenomenon since the days of Titchener, held that positive attitude to the repeatedly exposed object was produced by the increasing awareness of recognition of the object as familiar. A series of studies in our laboratory (Kunst-Wilson & Zajonc, 1980; Matlin, 1971; Moreland & Zajonc, 1977, 1979; Wilson, 1979), however, has shown that neither objective recognition nor subjective impression of recognition are necessary for the exposure effect, and that liking for a stimulus object can be enhanced by virtue of repeated exposure alone, independently of whether the subject is able or unable to recognize it as familiar. These results were obtained with a variety of stimuli, different methods of presentation, and diverse measures of affect. Nevertheless, they were entirely consistent in showing the exposure effect as being entirely independent of recognition when measured either by subjective report or by objective sensitivity scores (d’).
