Order, complexity, and aesthetic preferences for neatly organized compositions.

Geert, Eline Van; Wagemans, Johan

doi:10.1037/aca0000276

Cited by 30 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 61 publications

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“…The fact that complexity may be automatically extracted by the visual system (as suggested by our Experiments 1–3) and produce effects on voluntary engagement (as suggested by our Experiments 4–5) suggests that the complexity of a stimulus could be a relevant factor in a wide variety of cognitive tasks or setting. Indeed, the complexity of a stimulus is already thought to play a role in cognitive processes as diverse as mental rotation (Bethell‐Fox & Shepard, 1988), word learning (Lewis & Frank, 2016), infant play (Brennan, Ames, & Moore, 1966), working memory (Alvarez & Cavanagh, 2004), and aesthetic beauty (Spehar, Clifford, Newell, & Taylor, 2003; Van Geert & Wagemans, 2020)—and there may well be many more such processes for which complexity could be relevant.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Curious Objects: How Visual Complexity Guides Attention and Engagement

Sun¹,

Firestone²

2021

Cognitive Science

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Some things look more complex than others. For example, a crenulate and richly organized leaf may seem more complex than a plain stone. What is the nature of this experience—and why do we have it in the first place? Here, we explore how object complexity serves as an efficiently extracted visual signal that the object merits further exploration. We algorithmically generated a library of geometric shapes and determined their complexity by computing the cumulative surprisal of their internal skeletons—essentially quantifying the “amount of information” within each shape—and then used this approach to ask new questions about the perception of complexity. Experiments 1–3 asked what kind of mental process extracts visual complexity: a slow, deliberate, reflective process (as when we decide that an object is expensive or popular) or a fast, effortless, and automatic process (as when we see that an object is big or blue)? We placed simple and complex objects in visual search arrays and discovered that complex objects were easier to find among simple distractors than simple objects are among complex distractors—a classic search asymmetry indicating that complexity is prioritized in visual processing. Next, we explored the function of complexity: Why do we represent object complexity in the first place? Experiments 4–5 asked subjects to study serially presented objects in a self‐paced manner (for a later memory test); subjects dwelled longer on complex objects than simple objects—even when object shape was completely task‐irrelevant—suggesting a connection between visual complexity and exploratory engagement. Finally, Experiment 6 connected these implicit measures of complexity to explicit judgments. Collectively, these findings suggest that visual complexity is extracted efficiently and automatically, and even arouses a kind of “perceptual curiosity” about objects that encourages subsequent attentional engagement.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Curious Objects: How Visual Complexity Guides Attention and Engagement

Sun¹,

Firestone²

2021

Cognitive Science

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“…In the online study by Van Geert and Wagemans (2019), 421 participants completed a twoalternative forced choice task with 100 fixed pairs, in which aesthetic preferences were assessed: participants indicated which of two simultaneously presented images they preferred. 84 of those participants completed a second optional part of the study and rated all individual images on how ordered, complex, soothing, and fascinating they perceived them to be.…”

Section: Preferences For Neatly Organized Compositionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To investigate whether the findings of Van Geert and Wagemans (2019) generalize to non-Western populations, a slightly shortened version of the study by Van Geert and Wagemans (2019) was conducted with native Chinese-speaking participants, and their preferences were compared to those of the native Dutch-speaking participants in the sample of Van Geert and Wagemans (2019). Due to practical constraints, only two out of the three original personality questionnaires and no rating data (i.e., order, complexity, soothingness, and fascination ratings) were collected in the Chinese sample.…”

Section: Preferencementioning

confidence: 99%

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Aesthetic Preferences for Neatly Organized Compositions: Native Chinese-vs. Native Dutch-Speaking Samples Images of neatly organized compositions are images of a set of objects, or parts of objects, organized in a neatly or tidy way (Van Geert & Wagemans, 2019). These images are very popular online (e.g., on the blog Things Organized Neatly © curated by Austin Radcliffe).…”

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A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Aesthetic Preferences for Neatly Organized Compositions: Native Chinese- vs. Native Dutch-Speaking Samples

E¹,

Ding²,

Wagemans³

2021

Preprint

Self Cite

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Do aesthetic preferences for images of neatly organized compositions (e.g., images collected on blogs like Things Organized Neatly©) generalize across cultures? In an earlier study (Van Geert & Wagemans, 2019), focusing on stimulus and person properties related to order and complexity, Dutch-speaking participants (N = 421) indicated their preference for one of two simultaneously presented images (100 pairs) and completed questionnaires such as the Big Five Inventory and the Personal Need for Structure scale. Preferences related to differences in order, soothingness, and fascination ratings between the images in a pair. In the current study, we compared the data of the native Dutch-speaking participants from this earlier sample (N = 356) to newly collected data from a native Chinese-speaking sample (N = 220). Overall, aesthetic preferences were quite similar across cultures, and preferences related to differences in soothingness and order between the images in a pair for both Chinese-speaking and Dutch-speaking participants. However, some interesting differences were found as well. Chinese-speaking participants showed an additional preference for simplicity, and Dutch-speaking participants for fascination. As fascination ratings of the images related positively with measures of order and complexity, whereas soothingness ratings related positively with order and negatively with complexity (Van Geert & Wagemans, 2019), these results hint at a cross-culturally consistent relationship between order and aesthetic appreciation, but a cross-culturally diverse link between complexity and appreciation.

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Why we like to touch: Consumers' tactile esthetic appreciation explained by a balanced combination of unity and variety in product designs

Post

Blijlevens²,

Hekkert

et al. 2023

Psychology and Marketing

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Tactile experiences are a pivotal part of consumer behavior and choice. However, very little is known about why consumers esthetically appreciate touching products.The principle of Unity-in-Variety, stating that consumers like to perceive variety but only when this variety is presented as a coherent whole, has been shown to partly explain consumers' esthetic appreciation in the visual domain. We theorize that the psychological mechanisms underlying the esthetic principle of Unity-in-Variety are modality-independent, and therefore that this principle also applies to consumers' tactile esthetic appreciation. Across three studies, using existing products and novel 3D printed product designs systematically manipulated along the perceptual dimensions of unity and variety, we show that both unity and variety independently contribute to tactile esthetic appreciation. Furthermore, because unity and variety are inherently partial opposites, esthetic appreciation of products is highest when both unity and variety are simultaneously maximized.

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Order, complexity, and aesthetic preferences for neatly organized compositions.

Cited by 30 publications

References 61 publications

Curious Objects: How Visual Complexity Guides Attention and Engagement

Curious Objects: How Visual Complexity Guides Attention and Engagement

A Cross-Cultural Comparison of Aesthetic Preferences for Neatly Organized Compositions: Native Chinese- vs. Native Dutch-Speaking Samples

Why we like to touch: Consumers' tactile esthetic appreciation explained by a balanced combination of unity and variety in product designs

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