Influence of visual search accuracy on affective evaluation of paintings

Do the cognitive tasks associated with objects and our efficacy in these tasks influence our preferences? We suggest that even in simple cognitive tasks our decisions are provided with internal feedback, experienced as positive (if the decision is correct) or negative (if the decision is incorrect) affect. The present study tests this hypothesis using a visual search task with thumbnails as stimuli. The obtained results are in partial agreement with the proposed hypothesis: when search was accurate evaluation ratings of paintings that served as targets were more positive than the ratings of distracting paintings. However, in case of inaccurate search no significant effects were obtained.

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