Measuring processing fluency: one versus five items
Graf and colleagues take on a measurement question sitting underneath a large body of consumer research. Processing fluency is recruited constantly as an explanatory construct, yet how best to measure the fluency experience has received little attention, and practice has been inconsistent, particularly over whether to use a single-item or a multi-item measure. The authors ask whether fluency can be measured consistently across different experimental manipulations, and which type of measure carries the highest validity. Following classic scale development procedures, they propose a reliable and valid multi-item measure, then compare it against a single-item measure in terms of predictive validity. Both measures mediated the effect of fluency on five established fluency manipulations, which the authors read as showing that a single item is sufficient. Beyond providing a measure that later research can adapt to different empirical settings, the paper offers evidence on the replicability of fluency effects, and on the theoretical conjecture that people have a uniform experience of fluency across different manipulations.
Graf and colleagues take on a measurement question sitting underneath a large body of consumer research. Processing fluency is recruited constantly as an explanatory construct, yet how best to measure the fluency experience has received little attention, and practice has been inconsistent, particularly over whether to use a single-item or a multi-item measure. The authors ask whether fluency can be measured consistently across different experimental manipulations, and which type of measure carries the highest validity. Following classic scale development procedures, they propose a reliable and valid multi-item measure, then compare it against a single-item measure in terms of predictive validity. Both measures mediated the effect of fluency on five established fluency manipulations, which the authors read as showing that a single item is sufficient. Beyond providing a measure that later research can adapt to different empirical settings, the paper offers evidence on the replicability of fluency effects, and on the theoretical conjecture that people have a uniform experience of fluency across different manipulations.
Written from the abstract, OpenAlex.
What our sources record
Reproduced as it was written when this source was checked, figures and all.
Journal of Consumer Psychology. Cited as evidence that the field was still arguing about how to measure the central construct a decade on. Verified at the published record 2026-10-01. doi:10.1002/jcpy.1021
Where we use it
- The Brand You Can Pronounce, Why We Look
Reliability of this reference
No persistent link has been resolved for this source yet.
The source
No link available. The citation as the article records it:
Graf, L. K. M., Mayer, S., & Landwehr, J. R. (2017). 'Measuring processing fluency: one versus five items.' Journal of Consumer Psychology. Cited as evidence that the field was still arguing about how to measure the central construct a decade on. Verified at the published record 2026-10-01. doi:10.1002/jcpy.1021