美感对西方绘画无意识加工的影响

采用连续闪烁抑制范式(Continuous Flash Suppression, CFS), 通过比较不同美感的图片的突破抑制时间,考察了美感对西方绘画无意识加工的影响。实验1使用黑白噪音图片, 通过单因素被试内设计考察了高、中、低三种美感等级的彩色西方绘画的突破抑制时间。结果发现, 美感高和美感中等的西方绘画比美感低的西方绘画能更快突破噪音图片的抑制进入意识。实验2考察在彩色噪音图片的抑制下, 美感是否依然影响彩色西方绘画突破抑制的时间。结果发现, 美感不影响西方绘画突破抑制时间, 且突破抑制时间显著长于实验1。这些结果表明美感对西方绘画无意识加工的影响受到双眼竞争的眼间抑制过程的限制, 只有在黑白噪音图抑制的情况下, 美感会影响西方绘画进入意识的速度。与黑白噪音图片相比, 彩色噪音图片可能对颜色信息的抑制更强, 干扰了美感对西方绘画无意识加工的影响。     

Influence of aesthetic perception on visual event-related potentials

The aim of the study was to assess the effects of visual aesthetic perception on event-related potentials (ERPs). Eight subjects assigned an aesthetic judgment (beautiful, neutral, or ugly) and a 10-step beauty estimation to the target stimuli, consisting of famous artistic pictures and geometric shapes. In a further task, the subjects performed a motor response to the previously judged pictures and geometric shapes. ERPs were recorded through 54 scalp electrodes during both tasks. The P3b amplitude was increased during the categorization of the geometric shapes compared to the artistic figures and during the vision of the beautiful targets preceding the motor response. The categorization of the aesthetic qualities of geometrical shapes seems to induce a higher level of attention, while a higher arousal variation was elicited by the recognition of beauty, in any form that was presented.     

不同类型美感体验的自主反应特点

不同美感体验类型有何特异的生理反应？美感的生理反应是否类似于积极情绪？本研究以音乐和图片两类材料为刺激,以心率、皮肤电为生理反应指标,测量了不同审美状态下的自主生理反应情况。结果发现：不论是听觉还是视觉通道,优美、壮美、悲剧、喜剧4种审美风格的刺激都使被试心率和皮肤电下降;不同的美感形态所引起的反应不同,喜剧和壮美风格刺激诱发的自主生理反应变化相对于其他两种风格显得更明显,喜剧风格效果尤为突出;不同美感体验类型特异生理反应具有跨通道的一致性;四种美感体验类型的生理反应都不同于消极情绪,而类似积极情绪,从生理反应视角证明了美感体验递属于积极情绪。     

The embodiment of beauty: Evidence from viewing Chinese concrete words and pictographs

How is beauty embodied? According to the viewpoint of embodied cognition, the aesthetic processing of words or pictographs has roots in their referential archetypes. Four experiments tested whether the beauty of referential archetypes was routinely activated during the explicit and implicit aesthetic evaluations of the font structures of concrete Chinese words and pictographs in congruent or incongruent font colour. Results showed font structures of simplified Chinese words and pictographs were judged to be more beautiful when they referred to beautiful archetypes; and this pattern was reversed when they referred to ugly archetypes. Moreover, judgement was facilitated when font colour was congruent for Chinese words and pictographs referred to beautiful archetypes. For those referred to ugly archetypes, judgement was inhibited in congruent font colour but facilitated in incongruent font colour, suggesting aesthetic perceptions of the font structures of Chinese words and pictographs were derived from their referential natural objects. The spontaneous generation hypothesis of beauty is proposed to account for these findings.     

What ugly and beautiful photographs reveal about COVID-19 lockdown experiences,everyday aesthetics and photography aesthetics

Against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, which restricted our daily (visual) experiences, we asked people to take an ugly and beautiful photograph from within their homes. In total, 284 photographs (142 ugly and 142 beautiful) and accompanying statements were submitted and brought to light an intimate portrait of how participants were experiencing their (lockdown) home environment. Results revealed an aesthetic preference for (living) nature. Beauty and ugliness were also connected to good versus bad views, mess versus cosiness, unflattering versus flattering portraits and positive versus negative (COVID-19) emotions. In terms of photography strategies, editing and colour were important for beautiful photographs, whereas a lack of effort and sharpness showed up relatively more in ugly photographs. A follow-up study revealed that other viewers' (n = 86) aesthetic judgements of the photographs were largely in line with the original submissions, and confirmed several of the themes. Overall, our study provides a unique photographic window on our everyday aesthetic experiences at home during the COVID-19 lockdown.     

Sibley on ‘Beautiful’ and ‘Ugly’

Abstract

Frank Sibley's ideas have been particularly influential among contemporary philosophers interested in aesthetics. Most studies, however, have focused only on his earlier works. In this essay, I explore Sibley's account of the adjectives ‘beautiful’ and ‘ugly’, paying particular attention to three papers that have only recently been published and that have not yet received adequate attention. In particular, I discuss his account of the adjective ‘beautiful’, which relies on the controversial notion of an aesthetic ideal. In addition, I discuss an account of how aesthetic judgements may change in relation to our coming to know the kind of object being judged and whether, as Sibley maintains, ‘beautiful’ and ‘ugly’ are asymmetric in the sense specified by the author.     

Independent effects of emotion and attention on sensory and affective pain perception

The present study investigated whether attention and emotion independently influence sensory and affective pain ratings. Fifty-four (27 female) participants rated sensory and affective pain in response to painful mechanic pressure stimulation while exposed to positive, neutral and negative slides from the International Affective Picture System. In doing so, participants were assigned to one of three groups, which focused attention either on the pictures or on the sensory or on the affective aspects of the pressure stimulation. Consistent with the motivational priming hypothesis, sensory and affective pain ratings were generally lower during exposure to positive compared to negative and neutral slides. In line with our assumptions, attention modulated sensory pain ratings with lowest ratings in the picture focusing group and highest in the affective pain focusing group. No attention effect for affective pain ratings and no interactions between emotional and attentional effects on pain perception were found.     

Exposure to violence reduces empathetic responses to other’s pain

Past researches showed that empathy for pain not only triggers a resonance mechanism between other and self, but also is modulated by contextual factors. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging, the present study demonstrated that short-term media violence exposure reduced both pain ratings and also the activation of anterior insula and anterior mid-cingulate cortex to other’s pain. Thus, violence exposure modulated empathic responses to other’s pain based on a physiological desensitization.     

中国画审美一致性的专业知识效应:一项fNIRS研究

摘 要 本研究结合fNIRS技术,考察了美术训练学生和普通学生在中国画审美一致性上的差异。行为上,虽然两组被试在审美评分上没有显著差异,但在评分一致性上,美术训练学生相比普通学生在“好看”评分上更一致。脑活动上,美术训练学生右侧颞顶联合区的16通道和24通道的神经活动一致性显著高于普通学生,且美术训练学生的神经活动一致性与“好看”评分呈负相关。本研究揭示了艺术专业知识对中国画审美的重要性,且神经活动一致性可作为中国画审美判断的一项潜在神经标记。     

Is better beautiful or is beautiful better? Exploring the relationship between beauty and category structure

We evaluate two competing accounts of the relationship between beauty and category structure. According to the similarity-based view, beauty arises from category structure such that central items are favored due to their increased fluency. In contrast, the theory-based view holds that people’s theories of beauty shape their perceptions of categories. In the present study, subjects learned to categorize abstract paintings into meaningfully labeled categories and rated the paintings’ beauty, value, and typicality. Inconsistent with the similarity-based view, beauty ratings were highly correlated across conditions despite differences in fluency and assigned category structure. Consistent with the theory-based view, beautiful paintings were treated as central members for categories expected to contain beautiful paintings (e.g., art museum pieces), but not in others (e.g., student show pieces). These results suggest that the beauty of complex, real-world stimuli is not determined by fluency within category structure but, instead, interacts with people’s prior knowledge to structure categories.     

Evaluative and skin-conductance responses to Renaissance and 20th-century paintings

Normative data on paintings from two periods are reported. Subjects rated the pleasingness and interestingness of 60 Renaissance and 60 20th-century (abstract) works, and indicated how much they wished to own a reproduction of each painting. Skin-conductance changes elicited by the paintings were also assessed. The data may facilitate the inclusion of real works of art in future experiments involving visual aesthetic materials (on either the independent- or the dependent-variable side) and are relevant for the research on some motivational and cognitive issues of current interest in the psychology of art.     

Everyday aesthetics in action: Parkour eyes and the beauty of concrete walls

Parkour is a physical discipline practised in public and semi-public spaces, most often in urban environments. In this article, the potential of parkour to open up new perspectives on everyday surroundings will be considered. Special attention will be paid to the ways in which practitioners of parkour (traceurs) build unique and highly embodied relationships with their daily space. Emotions that they attach to their environments and their aesthetic appreciation of mundane surroundings will be explored. The interpretations are based on in-depth interviews with traceurs in two cities in Finland, Helsinki and Jyväskylä. For them, the most inspiring environments combine different heights with solid structures that provide a good grip. Concrete is considered the ideal material, and suburban landscapes, which are often thought of as boring or even ugly by other urban dwellers, are highly valued among traceurs. Traceurs speak of ‘parkour eyes’, a specific way of looking; gradually, places which have not previously been seen as attractive or appealing start to reveal interesting details and opportunities for inventive practice. Although parkour does not leave any physical traces on the environment, it has the potential to make mundane environments visible as well as to reveal some of the aesthetic potential imbedded therein. In doing so, parkour questions established ideas of interesting and valuable environments and reassesses the aesthetic values of our everyday environments.     

An oblique effect in aesthetics: homage to Mondrian (1872-1944)

The effect of the orientation of Mondrian's paintings on their aesthetic appeal was examined. Eight paintings, four with horizontal/vertical frames in the original and four with oblique frames, were presented in eight different orientations and rated for aesthetic appeal on a 7-point scale. There was a stronger preference for pictures presented so that their component lines were horizontal and vertical than for pictures presented with their component lines in an oblique orientation. In addition, subjects showed a preference for the original orientation, perhaps because rotation changes the lateral balance of the paintings as well as the orientation of the component lines. There was no overall preference for one frame orientation over another, but there was an interaction between frame orientation and component orientation, resulting in a preference for paintings where the components were parallel to the surrounding frame. It is suggested that the aesthetic oblique effect reported here is related to the oblique effect in orientation perception and the privileged access which horizontal and vertical lines have to the visual system. This offers a possible mechanism for aesthetic judgments of abstract patterns: we find pleasing those stimuli which are closely tuned to the properties of the human visual system.     

Pigeons can discriminate “good” and “bad” paintings by children

Humans have the unique ability to create art, but non-human animals may be able to discriminate “good” art from “bad” art. In this study, I investigated whether pigeons could be trained to discriminate between paintings that had been judged by humans as either “bad” or “good”. To do this, adult human observers first classified several children’s paintings as either “good” (beautiful) or “bad” (ugly). Using operant conditioning procedures, pigeons were then reinforced for pecking at “good” paintings. After the pigeons learned the discrimination task, they were presented with novel pictures of both “good” and “bad” children’s paintings to test whether they had successfully learned to discriminate between these two stimulus categories. The results showed that pigeons could discriminate novel “good” and “bad” paintings. Then, to determine which cues the subjects used for the discrimination, I conducted tests of the stimuli when the paintings were of reduced size or grayscale. In addition, I tested their ability to discriminate when the painting stimuli were mosaic and partial occluded. The pigeons maintained discrimination performance when the paintings were reduced in size. However, discrimination performance decreased when stimuli were presented as grayscale images or when a mosaic effect was applied to the original stimuli in order to disrupt spatial frequency. Thus, the pigeons used both color and pattern cues for their discrimination. The partial occlusion did not disrupt the discriminative behavior suggesting that the pigeons did not attend to particular parts, namely upper, lower, left or right half, of the paintings. These results suggest that the pigeons are capable of learning the concept of a stimulus class that humans name “good” pictures. The second experiment showed that pigeons learned to discriminate watercolor paintings from pastel paintings. The subjects showed generalization to novel paintings. Then, as the first experiment, size reduction test, grayscale test, mosaic processing test and partial occlusion test were carried out. The results suggest that the pigeons used both color and pattern cues for the discrimination and show that non-human animals, such as pigeons, can be trained to discriminate abstract visual stimuli, such as pictures and may also have the ability to learn the concept of “beauty” as defined by humans.     

Arousal,positive and negative affect,and preference for Renaissance and 20th-century paintings

Treatments expected to raise the level of arousal and induce different degrees of positive and negative affect were paired on some trials with Renaissance or 20th-century paintings, whereas no paintings were shown on other trials. The design was within-subjects (24 females); the dependent measures were skin conductance (SC) and the preference for paintings. All treatments, including the paintings/no paintings factor, raised SC over the base-line, and the pattern was essentially additive. The perceived failure to attain control over aversive auditory stimulation (resulting in negative affect) raised SC to a higher level than did the unavoidable aversive stimulation (minimal affect) or monetary gains (positive affect). Paintings paired with affect (positiveor negative) were rated as more pleasing than were those paired with no affect. The Renaissance works were preferred to the 20th-century works when negative affect was induced, whereas the opposite was true in the case of positive affect. The collative-motivation model could not account for the fact that pleasingness of paintings was not related to SC by an inverted-U function. The contiguity model could not explain the considerable rated pleasingness of paintings paired with negative affect. In contrast, there was considerable support for a more comprehensive hypothesis (distraction/soothingness) based on attentional and affective considerations, and the differential cognitive labeling of fluctuations of arousal.This research was supported by Grant GS-42802 from the National Science Foundation to VJK. Some of the findings were presented at the 6th International Colloquium of Empirical Aesthetics, and the 21st International Congress of Psychology, both held during July 1976 in Paris, France.     

Aesthetic Adjectives: Experimental Semantics and Context‐Sensitivity

One aim of this essay is to contribute to understanding aesthetic communication—the process by which agents aim to convey thoughts and transmit knowledge about aesthetic matters to others. Our focus will be on the use of aesthetic adjectives in aesthetic communication. Although theorists working on the semantics of adjectives have developed sophisticated theories about gradable adjectives, they have tended to avoid studying aesthetic adjectives—the class of adjectives that play a central role in expressing aesthetic evaluations (e.g., ‘beautiful’, ‘ugly’, ‘elegant’). And despite the wealth of attention paid to aesthetic adjectives by philosophical aestheticians, they have paid little attention to contemporary linguistic theories of adjectives. We take our work to be a first step in remedying these lacunae. In this paper, we present four experiments that examine one aspect of how aesthetic adjectives ordinarily function: the context‐sensitivity of their application standards. Our results present a prima facie empirical challenge to a common distinction between relative and absolute gradable adjectives because aesthetic adjectives are found to behave differently from both. Our results thus also constitute a prima facie vindication of some philosophical aestheticians’ contention that aesthetic adjectives constitute a particularly interesting segment of natural language, even if the boundaries of this segment might turn out to be different from what they had in mind.     

Are the aesthetic preferences towards snake species already formed in pre-school aged children?

This study explores aesthetic preferences towards boa and python species among pre-school children and adults, and compares the ratings between the two groups. A set of snake photographs was presented (56 species) to children and adult respondents. The respondents were asked to select the five most preferred and five least preferred species. The children’s agreement on which species were ‘beautiful’ and which were ‘ugly’ was statistically significant and a positive relationship between the mean ranks provided by children and adults was also found (r = .54, P < .001). Children preferred species with thick necks and inconspicuous heads, usually small species, harmless to children. Large pythons probably posed more danger to children than they did to adults during human evolution in African savannas and therefore we hypothesize that young children’s aesthetic preferences were shaped by natural selection through interactions with dangerous snakes.     

美术专业与普通专业学生对中西方绘画作品的审美认知差异

审美认知是人类最高级最复杂的心理活动之一,在美育中具有重要的作用。本研究采用不同艺术类别及情绪效价的作品图片,考察美术专业与普通专业大学生对中西方绘画作品的审美认知差异。结果发现：美术专业学生与普通学生对西方画的审美认知差异极其显著,且美术专业学生对西方画产生的美感显著强于普通学生;而两类学生对中国画的审美认知差异并不显著;对于不同风格的绘画作品,两类学生都存在着审美偏好,且审美偏好一致,都对中国画产生的美感更为强烈;两类学生的审美认知反应时间差异极其显著,专业学生总体上要比普通学生进行更多更复杂的审美认知加工活动。研究表明,审美认知具有较强的可塑性,对于美育心理学的发展具有重要的价值。