Aesthetic Science Flashcards
Scientifically investigates the nature of aesthetics/aesthetic behavior
Empirical Aesthetics
Theories are quantifiable, testable, falsifiable
Empiricism
Tries to give a realistic impression of the world
Mimetic Art
Feelings, expression. Less about the representation of reality; evokes a feeling felt before
Expressionist Art
Style and form. Shape, color, abstraction - not necessarily to evoke emotion
Formalist Art
Concepts and ideas. Takes away skill and virtuosity; recontextualizing objects to make them art
Conceptual Art
In science, we assume causation, everything happens for a reason; nothing is random
Determinism
People are always and everywhere about the same
Uniformity of Nature
Simpler explanations are better than complicated explanations
Parsimony
Overall generalizations, can’t be applied to a single person (e.g. people generally prefer symmetry)
Abstraction
Experimental = measurable
Aesthetic Science
Empirical, scientific, explains aesthetic perception, judgement vs. Top-down (more theoretical/conceptual)
Bottom-up Aesthetics
Objective beauty is related to aesthetic pleasure, if one increases, the other should too
Aesthetic Threshold
One thing changes, another stays the same (e.g. colored tiles in Alhambrah palace)
Unity in Variety
Our preferences come from association with other objects + ideas
Association
The whole is more than the sum of its parts, your brain fills in the gaps
Gestalt
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.
Mere exposure
Behaviorist explanation of aesthetics (positive = reward system, negative = aversion system), Stimulus complexity
Berlyne
In order to assess a pattern is (how novel, surprising, etc.), one must collate info from two or more sources
Collative
Include familiarity, complexity, redundancy, ambiguity
Collative Properties
Pleasure/happiness derived from doing what we like/avoiding what we don’t like (e.g. food, sex)
Hedonic Response
Mere exposure effect, concerned with familiarity
Zajonc
Focus on beauty stimulus/object features (symmetry, balance, Fechner’s aesthetics, Gestalt)
Objectivist Approach
Focus on beauty recipient/observer features (mere exposure, interestingness, processing fluency, context)
Subjectivist Approach
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.
Processing Fluency
Ease identifying stimulus
Perceptual Fluency
Familiarity of meaning and concepts
Conceptual Fluency
Priming the mind to receive a stimulus (exposure)
Perceptual Priming
Contrast of an image - effect on liking
Figure-ground Contrast
Priming, presentation duration
Objective Fluency
Rating of felt fluency
Subjective Fluency
More important than objective fluency
Felt Fluency
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)
Leder Model of Art
Knowledge-meaning, Sensory-motor, and Emotion-valuation (Chatterjee & Vartanian, 2014)
The Aesthetic Triad
Expertise, context, culture
Knowledge-meaning
Reward, emotion, wanting/liking
Emotion-valuation
Sensation, perception, motor system
Sensory-motor
