Practice makes perfect, especially when doing what we like

Abstract

Previous research has found that aesthetic appeal can facilitate visual search performance. One avenue of enquiry is that appealing icons are processed better than unappealing icons. If appealing stimuli are better processed, then it may be expected that they will benefit from practice more than their unappealing counterparts. In the current study (N = 100) we examined the effect of stimulus appeal on visual search performance. Half of the participants searched for appealing icons first, followed by unappealing icons, and the order was reversed for the other half. First, visual search performance benefited from stimulus appeal, and specifically the interaction of stimulus appeal and complexity – visual stimulus appeal led to better search performance but only for stimuli that were visually complex, with no effect of appeal for visually simple stimuli. Second, task experience benefited appealing icons more than unappealing icons. These results extend current knowledge of the status of visual aesthetic appeal on performance. They provide new evidence that appealing stimuli benefit from practice and are easier to learn compared to their unappealing counterparts.