Fluency of thinking is defined here as the subjective feeling of the ease or difficulty of the experience of different types of cognitive processes, such as making decisions and retrieving information. This work highlights current theory and research in the field and will be of interest to students and professionals in social and cognitive psychology. In the first part of the book, the editors present a general model of fluency effects in judgment and decision making. Part 2 explores fluency in social processing, and Part 3 examines adaptive and strategic uses of fluency. The book's final chapter sums up six principles of fluency. Unkelbach teaches experimental psychology at the University of Cologne, Germany. Greifeneder teaches social psychology at the University of Basel, Switzerland. Psychology Press is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group. Annotation ©2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
When retrieving a quote from memory, evaluating a testimonys truthfulness, or deciding which products to buy, people experience immediate feelings of ease or difficulty, of fluency or disfluency. Such "experiences of thinking" occur with every cognitive process, including perceiving, processing, storing, and retrieving information, and they have been the defining element of a vibrant field of scientific inquiry during the last four decades.
This book brings together the latest research on how such experiences of thinking influence cognition and behavior. The chapters present recent theoretical developments and describe the effects of these influences, as well as the practical implications of this research. The book includes contributions from the leading scholars in the field and provides a comprehensive survey of this expanding area. This integrative overview will be invaluable to researchers, teachers, students, and professionals in the field of social and cognitive psychology.
