Influence of Object Interpretation and Recognition on its Affective Ratings: A Squirrel-Duck Perceived as a Squirrel is not Much Different from a Normal Squirrel

Abstract

The article focuses on the changes in affective (emotional) ratings under the influence of the choice of one of the interpretations of ambiguous images and subsequent recognition task performance. Earlier studies showed that recognition decision affects subsequent ratings of the stimulus: the more information is accumulated about the stimulus, the more positive will be its ratings at recognition, and the more negative at non-recognition (Chetverikov, 2014). We hypothesized that a choice of a single interpretation of a stimulus becomes a source of information for subsequent decision concerning recognition or non-recognition of the unambiguous interpretation of that stimulus. Thus, this decision will affect subsequent ratings of stimuli the same way as in the case of initially unambiguous stimuli. The experimental results confirmed our hypothesis. Ratings of unambiguous stimuli corresponding to selected and non-selected interpretation of ambiguous stimuli varied depending on the recognition decision in the same way as did ratings of previously presented and new unambiguous stimuli. When a stimulus is «old» and is recognized, it is liked more, than a recognized «new» stimulus; when it is not recognized, the effect is opposite. Thus, the more information about the stimulus has been accumulated, the higher is the influence of a decision concerning stimulus recognition on subsequent ratings. Similar results were found for confidence ratings. These were higher in the case of recognition than in the case of non-recognition, but the difference between the two situations was more pronounced for «old» stimuli than for «new» ones.