The aesthetics literature suggests that people are able to decide very quickly and reliably how much they like a particular stimulus (Lindgaard, Fernandes, Dudek, & Brown, 2005; Tractinsky, Cokhavi,   Kirschenbaum, & Sharfi, 2006). Likewise, studies suggest that prototypical stimuli are more appealing than non-prototypical stimuli (Fehr and Russel, 1984; Ritterfield, 2002; Uyeda and Mandler, 1980; Winkielman, Halberstadt, Fazendiero & Catty, 2006).  In consideration of this body of literature, the current paper contributes to the cognitive-affective debate within visual aesthetics by testing one aspect of Whitfield’s Categorical Motivational Model which posits that aesthetics fulfils an information processing function through its link with the categorization of prototypical stimuli. This will be done by testing for the existence of a prototypicality/appeal relationship using visual stimuli that vary in level of prototypicality in three different exposure conditions. These exposure times were developed to differentiate between more affective (physiological based) and more reflective (cognitively based) responses.   The mere exposure effect (Bornstein, 1989; Zajonc, 1980; 2001) has been shown to strengthen with an increase in the number of exposures of a given stimulus, suggesting that it is, in effect, based on ‘familiarity’ even though participants may not be aware of having seen a given stimulus before. If it is true that preference, and hence appeal, increases with additional viewing time, it is reasonable to expect that a longer viewing time might serve to increase appeal ratings also.