Gaze shifts do not affect preference judgments of graphic patterns.

The gaze cascade hypothesis argues that orienting behavior reflected in gaze shift plays an important role in preference formation for an object. Gazing at an object serves as reinforcement, by which the likelihood of gazing at that object again is increased. Evidence for this hypothesis has been obtained mainly from experiments in which people compare two facial stimuli for attractiveness. Two experiments were conducted to examine whether the gaze cascade effect occurs in preference judgments of novel graphic patterns. In Exp. 1, eye movements were tracked during three types of comparison tasks i n which participantsdecided which one of two graphic patterns was more attractive, less attractive, or subjectively brighter. In Exp. 2, stimulus duration (900 or 300 msec.) and gaze shift (with or without) were manipulated. None of the results supported the hypothesis that gaze shifts would affect preference formation. Instead, the mere exposure effect was supported-stimuli that were viewed longer were preferred to those viewed for less time, regardless of gaze shift.