Fluency and Processing Styles The study of Alter et al. (2007):Alter et al. (2007): It is known that positive mood signal that the interaction between person and environment is going smoothly; therefore not much has to be done, and people can think heuristically. In contrast, negative mood signals that something is wrong and attention is needed; people have to think analytically (Bless et al., 1990; Bohner et al., 1992).Bless et al., 1990Bohner et al., 1992 Contributor© POSbase 2009

Fluency and Processing Styles Similarly, high processing fluency may signal that the interaction between person and environment is going smoothly; therefore not much has to be done, and people can think heuristically. In contrast, low processing fluency signals that something is wrong and attention is needed; people have to think analytically.processing fluency Alter et al. (2007) tested this assumption. © POSbase 2009

Fluency and Processing Styles In one of their experiments, they gave participants the Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT). In this test, an intuitively plausible answer contradicts the correct answer which can be found after some thinking.Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT) The authors presented the CRT in an easy-to-read font (fluent condition) for one group and in a difficult- to-read font (disfluent condition) for another group. © POSbase 2009

Fluency and Processing Styles From the three tasks in the CRT, participants in the fluent condition solved 2.45 tasks on average, whereas the participants in the disfluent condition solved 1.90 task. From the participants in the fluent condition, 90% made at least one mistake, but only 35% of the disfluent condition did so. © POSbase 2009

Fluency and Processing Styles Other experiments in the same article showed that processing ease, compared to processing difficulty, led to more heuristic processing in product evaluation, the representativeness heuristic, and syllogistic reasoning. In sum, the studies supported the notion that easy processing signals that the situation is well, eliciting heuristic processing, whereas processing difficulties signal problems and elicit analytical processing (see Song & Schwarz, 2008, for a similar finding). Song & Schwarz, 2008 © POSbase 2009