The Experience of Thinking

How the Fluency of Mental Processes Influences Cognition and Behaviour

Rainer Greifeneder editor Christian Unkelbach editor

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd

Published:30th Nov '12

Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back

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The Experience of Thinking cover

When retrieving a quote from memory, evaluating a testimony’s 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.


"This superb volume draws attention to the significance of cognitive fluency as a fundamental process underlying human judgment and behavior. The editors, both experts in this field attracted a remarkable number of distinguished international scientists for this book covering a wide range of phenomena – from self evaluation to person judgment, over consumer research, motivation science and self regulation. The book testifies to the breadth of fluency and related experiences and is definitely a “must” for researchers and PhD students in psychology. It is highly instructive to learn about the progress the field has made in the recent past to better understand how feelings and cognition interact!"- Jens Förster, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands


"The book provides an excellent overview about subjective experiences in thinking. The list of contributors is impressive and the single chapters fulfilled the high expectations that I had. An interesting, enjoyable, and "fluent" read recommendable for students and social cognition researchers alike."- Tina Glaser, University of Bielefeld, Germany


"The book provides an excellent overview about subjective experiences in thinking. The list of contributors is impressive and the single chapters fulfilled the high expectations that I had. An interesting, enjoyable, and "fluent" read recommendable for students and social cognition researchers alike."- Tina Glaser, University of Bielefeld, Germany

"Unkelbach (Univ. of Cologne, Germany) and Greifeneder (Univ. of Basel, Switzerland) seek to refine the arguably subjective concept of fluency, or "ease of processing." To that end, they have gathered 15 diverse contributions by an international group of prominent researchers to present recent theoretical developments and research about the experience of thinking. The breadth of topics also supports the editors' contention that fluency is a fundamental aspect of human judgment and behavior. Summing Up: Recommended." - A. I. Piper, New College of Florida, CHOICE

ISBN: 9781848720657

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 690g

286 pages