Processing fluency influences judgment as metacognitive cue. Laham, Koval, & Al-
ter (2012) demonstrated name-pronunciation effect whereby easy-to-pronounce (i.e.,
easy-to-process) names were judged more positively. In their study, however, the “pro-
nouncability” was not defined by objective criteria, which may cast doubt on the inter-
nal validity of the effect. To overcome this limitation, the present study replicated the
name-pronunciation effect by manipulating two objectively defined and well-established
pronouncability factors: within-item phonological similarity and phonotactic frequency
of the name. Phonological similarity is manipulated by making the constituent morae
share the same vowel or not. Phonotactic frequency is defined by a composite score of
mora, bi-mora and position-mora frequency. We asked participants to rate impression
of names, presenting nonwords as names of foreign person who would come to their of-
fice. The result indicated independent effects of phonological similarity and phonotactic
frequency with phonologically similar and low phonotactic frequency names being rated
negatively. The present study confirmed the internal validity of the name-pronunciation
effect in the previous study.
