Visual interest in pictorial art during an aesthetic experience

Locher, Paul J.; Krupiński, Elizabeth A.; Mello‐Thoms, Claudia; Nodine, Calvin F.

doi:10.1163/156856808782713762

Cited by 88 publications

(147 citation statements)

References 0 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

139

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Second, subjects have a general tendency for fixating the middle of the screen irrespective of the distribution of the image features (see Tatler, 2007). Third, in art, main figurative elements often appear in a central position (Locher et al, 2007; Tyler, 2007). However, the larger distance of fixations from the image center observed for experts indicates that expertise can inhibit the center-viewing tendency.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Regarding the effects of viewing time, the results diverge. Locher et al (2007) found that a longer viewing time (100 ms vs. unlimited time, mean 32.5 s) raises the pleasingness of art stimuli, whereas Smith et al (2006) found no such effect (viewing times varying between 1, 5, 30, and 60 s). Moreover, Smith et al (2006), by either showing or omitting painting captions, noted that the information about a painting did not affect the ratings of viewers (mixed group of art-trained and lay viewers).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Subsequent to each painting, the subject had to answer questions on a printed questionnaire (see below). We used a presentation time of 10 s in Part 1 and a presentation time of 30 s in Part 2 since it is known that 10 s is sufficient to obtain an overview of a picture while 30 s is the average observation duration for an esthetic judgment when unlimited time is given (Locher et al, 2007). In the Metropolitan Museum of Art, visitors typically view paintings for less than 30 s, with a median of 17 s (Smith and Smith, 2001).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Experiencing Art: The Influence of Expertise and Painting Abstraction Level

Pihko¹,

Virtanen²,

Saarinen³

et al. 2011

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

146

147

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

How does expertise influence the perception of representational and abstract paintings? We asked 20 experts on art history and 20 laypersons to explore and evaluate a series of paintings ranging in style from representational to abstract in five categories. We compared subjective esthetic judgments and emotional evaluations, gaze patterns, and electrodermal reactivity between the two groups of participants. The level of abstraction affected esthetic judgments and emotional valence ratings of the laypersons but had no effect on the opinions of the experts: the laypersons’ esthetic and emotional ratings were highest for representational paintings and lowest for abstract paintings, whereas the opinions of the experts were independent of the abstraction level. The gaze patterns of both groups changed as the level of abstraction increased: the number of fixations and the length of the scanpaths increased while the duration of the fixations decreased. The viewing strategies – reflected in the target, location, and path of the fixations – however indicated that experts and laypersons paid attention to different aspects of the paintings. The electrodermal reactivity did not vary according to the level of abstraction in either group but expertise was reflected in weaker responses, compared with laypersons, to information received about the paintings.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Experiencing Art: The Influence of Expertise and Painting Abstraction Level

Pihko¹,

Virtanen²,

Saarinen³

et al. 2011

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

146

147

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…While eye-tracking investigations of many types of artworks have revealed a great inter individual variability in scan path characteristics, several systematic findings have emerged. For example, the spontaneous gaze behavior in viewing artworks seems to follow a “coarse-to-fine” strategy where an initial global sweep of the image is followed by a later period of visual scrutiny of finer local details (Locher et al, 2007). Furthermore, the points of high salience computed in terms of local feature differences in luminance, color and orientation were found to drive eye fixations in viewing abstract and representational artworks (Wallraven et al, 2007; DiPaola et al, 2010; Foulsham and Kingstone, 2010; Fuchs et al, 2011).…”

Section: How Does the Eye Search Through The Visual Complexity Of Polmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceptual and Physiological Responses to Jackson Pollock's Fractals

Taylor¹,

Špehar²,

Donkelaar³

et al. 2011

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

160

143

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Fractals have been very successful in quantifying the visual complexity exhibited by many natural patterns, and have captured the imagination of scientists and artists alike. Our research has shown that the poured patterns of the American abstract painter Jackson Pollock are also fractal. This discovery raises an intriguing possibility – are the visual characteristics of fractals responsible for the long-term appeal of Pollock's work? To address this question, we have conducted 10 years of scientific investigation of human response to fractals and here we present, for the first time, a review of this research that examines the inter-relationship between the various results. The investigations include eye tracking, visual preference, skin conductance, and EEG measurement techniques. We discuss the artistic implications of the positive perceptual and physiological responses to fractal patterns.

show abstract

“…Locher, Krupinski, Mello‐Thoms, and Nodine () took a more general approach to the time course of art perception to find out in what order different aspects of artworks are perceived. Based on their subjects’ free reports and eye movements, they propose that the change in pictorial properties of a percept (e.g., symmetry, complexity, structural features) might already reach a highly advanced stage after about 100 ms: Within 100 ms, people can extract enough information to form a significant holistic impression of the semantic meaning (i.e., gist) of paintings, including expressive aspects and ‘meaningful’ aesthetic judgements, as indicated by a significant correlation between pleasingness ratings at 100 ms and at unlimited PT.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Beauty in the blink of an eye: The time course of aesthetic experiences

Verhavert

Wagemans

Augustin

2017

British J of Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Under normal circumstances, perception runs very fast and seemingly automatic. In just a few ms, we go from sensory features to perceiving objects. This fast time course does not only apply to general perceptual aspects but also to what we call higher-level judgements. Inspired by the study on 'very first impressions' by Bar, Neta, and Linz (2006, Emotion, 6, 269) the current research examined the speed and time course of three aspects of the aesthetic experience, namely beauty, specialness, and impressiveness. Participants were presented with 54 reproductions of paintings that covered a wide variety of artistic styles and contents. Presentation times were 10, 50, 100 and 500 ms in Experiment 1 and 20, 30 and 40 ms in Experiment 2. Our results not only show that consistent aesthetic judgements can be formed based on very brief glances of information, but that this speed of aesthetic impression formation also differs between different aesthetic judgements. Apparently, impressiveness judgements require longer exposure times than impressions of beauty or specialness. The results provide important evidence for our understanding of the time course of aesthetic experiences.From the moment we open our eyes, we clearly see the world around us and quickly extract information and meaning from it. Studies have found that when presented with real-world images, people are able to detect objects based on presentations as short as 50 ms and to recognize objects after only about 100 ms of presentation (see, e.g., Fei-Fei, Iyer, Koch, & Perona, 2007;Grill-Spector & Kanwisher, 2005). However, this fast processing comprises different stages. For example, Fei-Fei et al. (2007) found that before 40 ms, sensory-related features (light-dark) are dominant for people's perception of stimuli, while from around 50 ms of presentation, a shift to more object-related features occurs. Subjects are able to name very general object categories like manmade objects ('furniture', 'desk') and gradually get more detailed and accurate over time (Fei-Fei et al., 2007). Such a coarse-to-fine development of percepts has been found in many psychophysical studies (for a review, see Hegde, 2008) and is a core characteristic of the percept formation or microgenesis (Bachmann, 2000). What subjects perceive increases in detail the longer they see it, even if the image does not change. This happens on a very fast timescale (Fei-Fei et al., 2007;Hegde, 2008). A very vivid illustration that such speed and differentiated time course do not pertain only to general perceptual and identification aspects, such as colour or object category, but also to judgemental aspects *Correspondence should be addressed to M. Dorothee Augustin, Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, KU Leuven, Tiensestraat 102, box 3711, 3000 Leuven, Belgium (email: mdorothee.augustin@posteo.de). San Verhavert has moved since this study was undertaken and is now based at Department of Training and Educational Sciences, Research group Edubron, University of Antwerp, Gratiekapelstraat 10, 2000 Antwe...

show abstract

Visual interest in pictorial art during an aesthetic experience

Cited by 88 publications

References 0 publications

Experiencing Art: The Influence of Expertise and Painting Abstraction Level

Experiencing Art: The Influence of Expertise and Painting Abstraction Level

Perceptual and Physiological Responses to Jackson Pollock's Fractals

Beauty in the blink of an eye: The time course of aesthetic experiences

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About