Aesthetic Science

Question 1

Scientifically investigates the nature of aesthetics/aesthetic behavior

Answer 1

Empirical Aesthetics

Question 2

Theories are quantifiable, testable, falsifiable

Answer 2

Empiricism

Question 3

Tries to give a realistic impression of the world

Answer 3

Mimetic Art

Question 4

Feelings, expression. Less about the representation of reality; evokes a feeling felt before

Answer 4

Expressionist Art

Question 5

Style and form. Shape, color, abstraction - not necessarily to evoke emotion

Answer 5

Formalist Art

Question 6

Concepts and ideas. Takes away skill and virtuosity; recontextualizing objects to make them art

Answer 6

Conceptual Art

Question 7

In science, we assume causation, everything happens for a reason; nothing is random

Answer 7

Determinism

Question 8

People are always and everywhere about the same

Answer 8

Uniformity of Nature

Question 9

Simpler explanations are better than complicated explanations

Answer 9

Parsimony

Question 10

Overall generalizations, can’t be applied to a single person (e.g. people generally prefer symmetry)

Answer 10

Abstraction

Question 11

Experimental = measurable

Answer 11

Aesthetic Science

Question 12

Empirical, scientific, explains aesthetic perception, judgement vs. Top-down (more theoretical/conceptual)

Answer 12

Bottom-up Aesthetics

Question 13

Objective beauty is related to aesthetic pleasure, if one increases, the other should too

Answer 13

Aesthetic Threshold

Question 14

One thing changes, another stays the same (e.g. colored tiles in Alhambrah palace)

Answer 14

Unity in Variety

Question 15

Our preferences come from association with other objects + ideas

Answer 15

Association

Question 16

The whole is more than the sum of its parts, your brain fills in the gaps

Answer 16

Gestalt

Question 17

Repetition creates a positive association. (e.g. words shown more often had positive association than words shown just once) It has its limits and at a certain point, positive association begins to reverse.

Answer 17

Mere exposure

Question 18

Behaviorist explanation of aesthetics (positive = reward system, negative = aversion system), Stimulus complexity

Answer 18

Berlyne

Question 19

In order to assess a pattern is (how novel, surprising, etc.), one must collate info from two or more sources

Answer 19

Collative

Question 20

Include familiarity, complexity, redundancy, ambiguity

Answer 20

Collative Properties

Question 21

Pleasure/happiness derived from doing what we like/avoiding what we don’t like (e.g. food, sex)

Answer 21

Hedonic Response

Question 22

Mere exposure effect, concerned with familiarity

Answer 22

Zajonc

Question 23

Focus on beauty stimulus/object features (symmetry, balance, Fechner’s aesthetics, Gestalt)

Answer 23

Objectivist Approach

Question 24

Focus on beauty recipient/observer features (mere exposure, interestingness, processing fluency, context)

Answer 24

Subjectivist Approach

Question 25

The more fluently an object/stimulus is processed, the more positive our response is; speed and accuracy of stimulus processing - it makes us feel good to make sense of the world (posi reinforcement). Works better for understanding liking than interestingness.

Answer 25

Processing Fluency

Question 26

Ease identifying stimulus

Answer 26

Perceptual Fluency

Question 27

Familiarity of meaning and concepts

Answer 27

Conceptual Fluency

Question 28

Priming the mind to receive a stimulus (exposure)

Answer 28

Perceptual Priming

Question 29

Contrast of an image - effect on liking

Answer 29

Figure-ground Contrast

Question 30

Priming, presentation duration

Answer 30

Objective Fluency

Question 31

Rating of felt fluency

Answer 31

Subjective Fluency

Question 32

More important than objective fluency

Answer 32

Felt Fluency

Question 33

Integrates multiple processes focuses on cognitive interactions and affective processes, includes diversity (individual differences), and distinguishes between aesthetic judgments and emotion (eg art is valuable or has worth, but maybe not emotionally moving) (Leder, 2004 & 2014)

Answer 33

Leder Model of Art

Question 34

Knowledge-meaning, Sensory-motor, and Emotion-valuation (Chatterjee & Vartanian, 2014)

Answer 34

The Aesthetic Triad

Question 35

Expertise, context, culture

Answer 35

Knowledge-meaning

Question 36

Reward, emotion, wanting/liking

Answer 36

Emotion-valuation

Question 37

Sensation, perception, motor system

Answer 37

Sensory-motor