Repeated Exposure Effect on the Likeability of Odors Depends on the Exposure Time and Stimulus‐Processing During Exposure

Abstract

We investigated whether stimulus‐processing in sensory or semantic memory influenced affective responses after repeated exposures. This entailed exploring whether activating sensory memory by comparing odor strength during exposure (Experiments 1 and 3) or activating semantic memory by naming the odor during exposure (Experiments 2 and 4) changed affective responses to the odor. Generally pleasant or generally unpleasant odors were presented to participants 40 times (Experiments 1 and 2) or 10 times (Experiments 3 and 4), and their liking for the odor was rated before and after the exposure. Results indicated that affective responses to odors became neutral after 40 exposures, regardless of processing the odor in sensory or semantic memory during the exposure. The liking score changed only for likable odors after 10 exposures, when the odor was processed in sensory memory (bottom‐up processing) during the exposure. These findings suggest that affective responses change through repeated exposure, regardless of the type of stimulus processing. However, the repeated exposure effect differed based on the stimulus‐processing type during the exposure, when the number of exposures was limited.