Beauty: Neglected,but alive and kicking

This article is a commentary on ‘Ten years of a model of aesthetic appreciation and aesthetic judgments: The aesthetic episode – developments and challenges in empirical aesthetics’ (Leder & Nadal, 2014, this issue). It focuses on the importance of beauty in aesthetic appreciation and aesthetic judgments. Beauty is considered as a formal inherent property of visual stimuli that has the potential to elicit visual pleasure by direct sensory stimulation. It is argued that any comprehensive model of aesthetic experience must account fully for cognitive aspects of aesthetics (cultural, conceptual, psychological, and individual factors) as well as intrinsic properties of beautiful visual stimuli and how they relate to basic mechanisms of visual perception, which are universal among humans.     

Just how stable are stable aesthetic features? Symmetry,complexity, and the jaws of massive familiarization

Using both group- and individual-level analyses, we explored the complex and dynamic effects of basic visual features on aesthetic judgment. Specifically, the mediating influence of familiarization on the combined effects of complexity and symmetry on aesthetic judgment was examined. Experiment 1 showed that symmetry and complexity are indeed powerful determinants of aesthetic judgment. Experiment 2 demonstrated that massive familiarization generated contrast effects for complexity: participants familiarized to simple stimuli subsequently judged complex stimuli more beautiful and participants familiarized to complex stimuli subsequently judged simple stimuli more beautiful. In contrast, moderate familiarization in Experiment 3 did not elicit the above effects. Group-level analyses were augmented with judgment analyses of individual response patterns resulting in a more comprehensive assessment of aesthetic judgment.     

The malleable bicultural consumer: effects of cultural contexts on aesthetic judgments

• Grounded in the cognitive framework of processing fluency, this study proposes further support for the experiential perspective in aesthetics by positing that aesthetic response to the same object may be malleable, depending on how the symbolic properties of the object interact with different cultural contexts which either facilitate or debilitate the processing experience of the perceiver. The study employed an Internet experiment to test the hypotheses among 105 female Hispanic college‐aged students enrolled at a large midwestern university. The findings revealed that symbolic attributes of products interact with cultural contexts to affect aesthetic judgments of (Hispanic) consumers. Aesthetic judgments were more positive when evaluating culturally symbolic product attributes after exposure to congruent contextual cues that facilitate fluent processing. The study furnishes support for the impact of environment/context on consumer behavior and aesthetic judgment, thus establishing further support for the cognitive framework of conceptual fluency in explaining aesthetic response. The study also contributes to recent literature on “frame‐switching” among bicultural consumers by suggesting that these consumers navigate between competing cultural frames in response to visual primes, with resultant shifts in aesthetic judgments. Important marketing insights emerge from these findings.

Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Individual and group modelling of aesthetic judgment strategies

Individual differences in aesthetic judgments were investigated by comparing quantitative group and individual performance models of the judgment processes. Aesthetic judgments of beauty over novel, formal, graphic patterns were collected from 34 non‐artist college students using a two‐step ranking‐rating procedure. Their judgment processes were individually modelled using Judgment Analysis. The participants showed noted individual differences. Certain features of the stimulus material, which were considered to contribute to the picture's beauty by one participant, were used in an opposing fashion by another. A group model was derived based on the average ratings of the patterns' beauty. It was concluded that the group model was not an adequate representation of the present data, whereas the data revealed systematic judgment processes at the individual subject level.     

Visual form perception: Congruence among spatial configurations

Multidimensional scaling (MDS) techniques were used to obtain spatial solutions for judgments of similarity and discrimination difficulty between pairs of random polygons. For both tasks, it was possible to psychophysically predict the three dimensions of the final solutions using physical measures of the forms. These solutions were compared to each other and to a spatial analysis of discrimination difficulty measured in visual noise (Aiken & Brown, 1968) using canonical correlation techniques. Although the two judgment tasks were highly similor, it was concluded that neither was similar to the discrimination-in-noise solution.     

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.     

基于场景记忆的参照系整合过程中的物体方位判断

以绝对方位中的物体方位判断为实验任务,并按照以往研究把判断过程进行分解为获取目标位置信息、获取前行方向信息和判断目标物体相对于参照物体的方位信息,旨在考察不同信息获取过程下的目标位置和前行方向如何影响基于场景记忆的参照系整合过程中的绝对方位判断。实验1的判断任务同时包括这三个过程;实验2和实验3中的判断任务分别独立于路径描述（即定位后判断,先获知目标位置信息,再进行方位判断）和自身定向（即定向后判断,先获取前行方向信息,再进行方位判断）。每个任务均为目标位置（R0o－前、R45o－左前/右前、R90o－左/右、R135o－左后/右后, R180o－后）×前行方向（北、东南西、斜方向）的组内设计、因变量为正确率和判断时间为主,共有60名大学生被试（男女各半）参与实验。发现：朝北优势效应只在实验1中明显;三个实验任务中均存在正方向－左右位置优势效应、以及0o和180o位置优势效应;目标位置对物体方位判断的影响程度要大于前行方向对判断的影响程度。结合以往的研究来看,场景记忆上的判断比视觉媒介上的同类判断受目标位置影响的程度要大,其他影响模式比较一致。从判断的信息获取过程上对结果进行了讨论,这有助于理解绝对方位判断的认知结构     

Temporal stability and consistency of aesthetic judgments of beauty of formal graphic patterns

Temporal stability and consistency of nonartists' aesthetic judgments of beauty of formal graphic patterns was assessed. Temporal stability decreased markedly over several months. When items were repeated in an aesthetic judgment task participants responded consistently over trials rather than performing genuine repeated aesthetic judgments of beauty.     

The Subjective Basis of Kant's Judgment of Taste

Kant claims that the basis of a judgment of taste is a merely subjective representation and that the only merely subjective representations are feelings of pleasure or displeasure. Commentators disagree over how to interpret this claim. Some take it to mean that judgments about the beauty of an object depend only on the state of the judging subject. Others argue instead that, for Kant, the pleasure we take in a beautiful object is best understood as a response to its qualities, and that, accordingly, feelings of pleasure or displeasure are no different from other representations, such as colors or smells. While I agree that the judgment of taste is best understood as asserting a claim about an object's qualities, I argue that the distinction Kant makes between feelings of pleasure or displeasure and other representations should not be ignored. I show that one's liking or disliking for an object is merely subjective in the sense that its significance depends on what one has made of oneself through one's aesthetic education. The judgment of taste, then, is merely subjective because one must first become the kind of person whose feelings have the right significance at the right time before one can determine whether an object's qualities make it beautiful.     

The Relationship Between Visual Illusion and Aesthetic Preference – an Attempt to Unify Experimental Phenomenology and Empirical Aesthetics

Experimental phenomenology has demonstrated that perception is much richer than stimulus. As is seen in color perception, one and the same stimulus provides more than several modes of appearance or perceptual dimensions. Similarly, there are various perceptual dimensions in form perception. Even a simple geometrical figure inducing visual illusion gives not only perceptual impressions of size, shape, slant, depth, and orientation, but also affective or aesthetic impressions. The present study reviews our experimental phenomenological work on visual illusion and experimental aesthetics, and examines how aesthetic preference is influenced by stimulus factors determining visual illusions including anomalous surface and transparency as well as geometrical illusion. Along with line figures producing geometrical illusions, illusory surface figures inducing neon color spreading and transparency effects were used as test patterns. Participants made both of psychophysical judgments and of aesthetic judgments for the same test pattern. Both of geometrical illusions and aesthetic preferences were found to change similarly as a function of stimulus variables such as the number of filling lines and the size ratio of the inner and outer figural components. Also, following specific stimulus variables such as lightness contrast ratio and spatial interval between inducing figural elements (so called ``packmen''), strong effects of color spreading and transparency were accompanied with strong preferences. It seems that the paradigm to investigate aesthetic phenomena along with perceptual dimensions is useful to bridge the gap between experimental phenomenology and experimental aesthetics.     

STUDIES IN VISUAL PERCEPTION OF ARCHITECTURAL SPACES AND ROOMS: I. Judgment scales of open and closed space

G arling , T. Studies in visual perception of architectural spaces and rooms. I. Judgment scales of open and closed space. Scand. J. Psychol ., 1969, io , 250–256.—Eight observers judged open and closed space, viewing spaces from different spots along a street in a small town. The spaces were viewed and judged either as wholes or parts by using a ratio scaling procedure. The observers were found to make reliable judgments of closed and open space. The function relating these judgment to each other approximated, however, a complementary relation as expected for category ratings. Judgments of whole spaces might be predicted from averaged judgments of their parts.     

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。     

Very first impressions

First impressions of people's personalities are often formed by using the visual appearance of their faces. Defining how quickly these impressions can be formed has critical implications for understanding social interactions and for determining the visual properties used to shape them. To study impression formation independent of emotional cues, threat judgments were made on faces with a neutral expression. Consequently, participants' judgments pertained to the personality rather than to a certain temporary emotional state (e.g., anger). The results demonstrate that consistent first impressions can be formed very quickly, based on whatever information is available within the first 39 ms. First impressions were less consistent under these conditions when the judgments were about intelligence, suggesting that survival-related traits are judged more quickly. The authors propose that low spatial frequencies mediate this swift formation of threat judgments and provide evidence that supports this hypothesis.     

The two sides of beauty: Laterality and the duality of facial attractiveness

We hypothesized that facial attractiveness represents a dual judgment, a combination of reward-based, sexual processes, and aesthetic, cognitive processes. Herein we describe a study that demonstrates that sexual and nonsexual processes both contribute to attractiveness judgments and that these processes can be dissociated. Female participants rated the general attractiveness of faces presented in either their left or right visual field. In order to examine sexual and nonsexual components of these judgments, general attractiveness ratings were correlated with ratings of these same faces made by two independent groups of raters in two specific contexts, one sexual and one nonsexual. Based on an items analysis, partial correlation coefficients were computed for each individual and used as the dependent variable of interest in a 2 (laterality: right, left) by 2 (context: sexual, nonsexual) ANOVA. This analysis revealed an interaction such that faces rated in a sexual context better predicted attractiveness ratings of faces shown in the left than right visual field, whereas faces rated in a nonsexual context better predicted attractiveness of faces shown in the right than left visual field. This finding is consistent with the assertion that sexual and nonsexual preferences involve predominantly lateralized processing routes that independently contribute to what is perceived to be attractive.     

Brain correlates of aesthetic expertise: a parametric fMRI study

Several studies have demonstrated that acquired expertise influences aesthetic judgments. In this paradigm we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study aesthetic judgments of visually presented architectural stimuli and control-stimuli (faces) for a group of architects and a group of non-architects. This design allowed us to test whether level of expertise modulates neural activity in brain areas associated with either perceptual processing, memory, or reward processing. We show that experts and non-experts recruit bilateral medial orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and subcallosal cingulate gyrus differentially during aesthetic judgment, even in the absence of behavioural aesthetic rating differences between experts and non-experts. By contrast, activity in nucleus accumbens (NAcc) exhibits a differential response profile compared to OFC and subcallosal cingulate gyrus, suggesting a dissociable role between these regions in the reward processing of expertise. Finally, categorical responses (irrespective of aesthetic ratings) resulted in expertise effects in memory-related areas such as hippocampus and precuneus. These results highlight the fact that expertise not only modulates cognitive processing, but also modulates the response in reward related brain areas.     

相对到达时间任务中飞行员对客体特征与运动特征的分离

相对到达时间任务(RAT)是判断两个运动客体哪个先到达指定目标, 可用来评估个体动态空间能力。采用RAT任务对飞行员与普通被试进行对照研究, 寻求发现两组在运动客体特征和视觉空间运动特征及其相互关系上的处理差异。设计了3个实验分别考察客体颜色、客体大小、运动方向、速率大小、视线方向以及背景特征对判断的影响。结果显示：(1)客体颜色不影响运动客体的相对时间判断, 客体大小、运动方向、速率大小、视线方向以及背景特征影响判断; (2)控制组对显示屏上从左到右的运动客体的相对时间判断好于从右到左任务, 大速率任务判断更好, 对大客体快速行驶而小客体低速行驶时的相对到达时间更易区分, 且与两眼视线方向不一致的运动方向会使控制组判断更难, 运动背景中的目标线特征改变使控制组判断绩效降低; (3)和控制组比, 飞行员反应快正确率高, 其快速判断优势集中体现在从右到左运动以及小速率任务上, 且在不同运动方向和不同速率上的反应时均无差异, 飞行员的处理优势还表现在不受客体大小、视线方向改变和目标线特征改变的影响。结论：飞行员能在变化的空间中准确处理相对速度、相对距离、相对时间等运动信息, 能分离客体大小、背景、运动方向等因素对相对到达时间判断的影响, 在运动空间中飞行员具有较高场独立性认知特征和动态空间处理能力。     

Expressivist to the core: Metaaesthetic subjectivism is stable and robust

Two common observations about aesthetics are in tension: that people generally consider aesthetic judgments subjective, and that people generally behave like objectivists (arguing over judgments, making choices based on judgments of trusted critics, rejecting strong assertions of aesthetic equivalence). This tension would be resolved if the first observation turned out to be false—if people endorsed subjectivism weakly, flexibly, or rarely. We tested whether people can be pushed to endorse objectivism under certain circumstances. Across a large sample (N = 588), aesthetic subjectivism proved consistent and robust to experimental manipulations. Even judgments that reflected participants' own evaluations of artworks were considered just as subjective as judgments directly opposed to their personal evaluations. We conclude that the apparent tension can be explained by the philosophical position of expressivism and discuss expressivism's prospects as a framework for understanding aesthetic judgment.     

Taste and Acquaintance

The analogy between gustatory taste and critical or aesthetic taste plays a recurring role in the history of aesthetics. Our interest in this article is in a particular way in which gustatory judgments are frequently thought to be analogous to critical judgments. It appears obvious to many that to know how a particular object tastes we must have tasted it for ourselves; the proof of the pudding, we are all told, is in the eating. And it has seemed just as obvious to many philosophers that aesthetic judgment requires first‐person experience. In this article we argue that, despite its initial appeal, the claim that gustatory and critical judgments are analogous in this way is mistaken. The two sorts of judgments are, as a matter of fact, similar in their epistemology, but earlier theorists have got things entirely backward—neither gustatory judgment nor aesthetic judgment requires first‐hand acquaintance with their objects. Our particular focus in this article is on arguing that first‐person experience is not required to know how an item of food or drink tastes. In fact, there are a wide variety of ways in which we can acquire this knowledge.     

Recommending beauty: semantics and pragmatics of aesthetic predicates

The paper offers a semantic and pragmatic analysis of statements of the form ‘x is beautiful’ as involving a double speech act: first, a report that x is beautiful relative to the speaker’s aesthetic standard, along the lines of naive contextualism; second, the speaker’s recommendation that her audience comes to share her appraisal of x as beautiful. We suggest that attributions of beauty tend to convey such a recommendation due to the role that aesthetic practices play in fostering and enhancing interpersonal coordination. Aesthetic practices are driven by a disposition towards the attunement of attitudes and aesthetic recommendations contribute to forwarding such attunement. Our view is motivated by an attempt to satisfy the following set of desiderata: to account for (i) the experiential nature of aesthetic judgments, (ii) disagreements in aesthetic debates, and (iii) the normative aspirations of aesthetic discourse, as well as to avoid appealing to (iv) error theory and (v) realist ontological commitments.