Emotional meaning of four typographical variables.

Kastl, Albert J.; Child, Irvin L.

doi:10.1037/h0026506

Cited by 41 publications

(43 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…4). These results are consistent with evidence from previous studies establishing a preference for curved objects ranging from simple lines to furniture and car interiors (12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20) and the grounding of that preference in affect (16,18), and extend them to the domain of architecture. Neuroanatomically, our results demonstrated that judging the beauty of curvilinear spaces was associated exclusively with an increase in ACC activity over and above judging the beauty of rectilinear spaces (Fig.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

“…In the spirit of early empiricists, experimenters manipulated contour using simple stimuli, such as lines or abstract displays composed of curves or angles. The results of these early studies, confirmed later using typography (15), converged to show that curvilinear forms are experienced as softer and more pleasant, whereas angular forms are experienced as harder and more serious.…”

supporting

confidence: 63%

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Impact of contour on aesthetic judgments and approach-avoidance decisions in architecture

Vartanian

Navarrete

Chatterjee

et al. 2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

286

324

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On average, we urban dwellers spend about 90% of our time indoors, and share the intuition that the physical features of the places we live and work in influence how we feel and act. However, there is surprisingly little research on how architecture impacts behavior, much less on how it influences brain function. To begin closing this gap, we conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging study to examine how systematic variation in contour impacts aesthetic judgments and approach-avoidance decisions, outcome measures of interest to both architects and users of spaces alike. As predicted, participants were more likely to judge spaces as beautiful if they were curvilinear than rectilinear. Neuroanatomically, when contemplating beauty, curvilinear contour activated the anterior cingulate cortex exclusively, a region strongly responsive to the reward properties and emotional salience of objects. Complementing this finding, pleasantness-the valence dimension of the affect circumplex-accounted for nearly 60% of the variance in beauty ratings. Furthermore, activation in a distributed brain network known to underlie the aesthetic evaluation of different types of visual stimuli covaried with beauty ratings. In contrast, contour did not affect approach-avoidance decisions, although curvilinear spaces activated the visual cortex. The results suggest that the well-established effect of contour on aesthetic preference can be extended to architecture. Furthermore, the combination of our behavioral and neural evidence underscores the role of emotion in our preference for curvilinear objects in this domain.neuroaesthetics | design | curvature | habitat theory

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 81%

supporting

confidence: 63%

Impact of contour on aesthetic judgments and approach-avoidance decisions in architecture

Vartanian

Navarrete

Chatterjee

et al. 2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

286

324

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Based on their findings, the authors came to the conclusion that the formal attributes having the biggest influence on the subjects' impression are the extreme size, character width and character brightness. Castle and Child [4] found that there is a connection between specific moods and specific variables of typefaces. However, the means of manipulation with the typographic stimuli in the mentioned studies, as well as the divided focus of the researches on multiple goals, reveal a certain confounding of variables which makes it hard to isolate with any certainty the specific, or universal characteristics that contribute to connection with the given attributes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Detecting universal structure and effects of typefaces

2017

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Original scientific paper This study investigates the effects of universal and specific characteristics of typefaces with combined method-through comparison of the results of digital analysis and subjects' responses to binary images stimuli. Results point to the dependency of the response in relation to the isolated characteristic of the universal structure. In other words, with the combined method in this study we disclose that certain attributes are assigned to typefaces in accordance with their matching or mismatching to the universal structure. The findings open the question of the functionality of existing classifications, and the need of redefining the old, or establishing the new classification systems of typefaces.Keywords: SSIM; typeface; typeface personality; universal structure Otkrivanje univerzalne strukture i djelovanja pisamaIzvorni znanstveni članak Ova studija istražuje učinke univerzalnih i specifičnih karakteristika pisama kombiniranom metodom -usporedbom rezultata digitalne analize i odgovora ispitanika na binarne slike podražaje. Rezultati ukazuju na zavisnost odgovora ispitanika u odnosu na izdvojeno svojstvo univerzalne strukture. Drugim riječima, kombiniranim postupkom, korištenim u ovom istraživanju, možemo otkriti da li su određena svojstva dodijeljena pismima sukladna s njihovim podudaranjem ili nesukladna s univerzalnom strukturom. Rezultati ovog istraživanja otvaraju pitanje funkcionalnosti postojećih klasifikacija i potrebu redefiniranja starih, ili uspostavljanja novih sustava klasificiranja pisama.

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“…But research suggests that properties such as uppercase versus lowercase, bold versus light (weight of a typeface), angularity versus roundedness, and serif versus sans serif all play a role (Kastl & Child, 1968;Tannenbaum, Jacobson, & Norris, 1964).…”

Section: Typographic Effectsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Mixed messages in brand names: Separating the impacts of letter shape from sound symbolism

Doyle¹,

Bottomley²

2011

Psychology and Marketing

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Recent work suggests that sound symbolism in brand names conveys marketing-relevant messages. However, if the customer sees a brand name rather than hears it, visual characteristics of the letters may convey messages of their own. These may conflict with or reinforce the message conveyed by sound symbolism of the name. Study 1 replicates the essence of the sound symbolism effect claimed in recent work. Study 2 shows that the visual characteristics of letters provide a plausible alternative explanation of these findings. Study 3 manipulates the visual characteristics in the brand name letters and reverses the previously found direction of sound symbolism effects. The findings suggest that powerful visual messages are present in brand names and that because of confounding, the contribution sound symbolism makes to the brand name may not always act as thought. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.When people see a brand name, many different specialized processes are activated in the brain, operating automatically and semi-autonomously (Gontijo et al., 2002;McClure et al., 2004;Shiv et al., 2005). It is useful to think of brand names being designed to broadcast messages on several different channels simultaneously. These include not only dictionary-like meanings and associations of the name (e.g., that IKEA is a Swedish retailer of furniture; that Budweiser is Psychology & Marketing, Vol. 28 an American beer), but also more subtle impressions left by color, shape, and sound. Though a name may broadcast on several channels, does it communicate on them, in the sense that messages in the separate channels are registered by the consumer, though not necessarily fully consciously, to affect the final overall meaning of the name? Conversely, are all messages that are received by the consumer actually intended to be broadcast, or can messages be inadvertently communicated?In reading a brand name, two prominent channels are its visual form and its sound. Because visual and auditory pathways in the brain are anatomically separate, the prima facie assumption is that separate channels should exist for the sound and visual form of a brand name, each making distinct and independent contributions to the overall message. But what are the a priori expectations of their relative strengths of contribution? On the one hand one might anticipate the visual side to dominate. Koch (2004Koch ( , p. 1108, for instance, notes that "humans are visual creatures . . . reflected in the large amount of brain tissue that is dedicated to the analysis of images and in the importance of seeing in daily life." On the other hand, language is an auditory process, which reading and writing must fit to, rather than vice versa. Children first learning to read (English) translate vision into sound into meaning using a laborious sounding-out strategy (phonics). As expertise develops, additional mechanisms may assist in reading, such as holistic word reading, but they never come to dominate phonics (Pelli & Tillman, 2007). Which modality is likely to exert the...

show abstract

Emotional meaning of four typographical variables.

Cited by 41 publications

References 8 publications

Impact of contour on aesthetic judgments and approach-avoidance decisions in architecture

Impact of contour on aesthetic judgments and approach-avoidance decisions in architecture

Detecting universal structure and effects of typefaces

Mixed messages in brand names: Separating the impacts of letter shape from sound symbolism

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