Abstract
In this study, we combined the behavioral and objective approach in the field of empirical aesthetics. First, we studied the perception of beauty by investigating shifts in evaluation on perceived beauty of abstract artworks (Experiment 1). Because the participants showed heterogeneous individual preferences for the paintings, we divided them into seven clusters for the test. The experiment revealed a clear pattern of perceptual contrast. The perceived beauty of abstract paintings increased after exposure to paintings that were rated as less beautiful, and it decreased after exposure to paintings that were rated as more beautiful. Next, we searched for correlations of beauty ratings and perceptual contrast with statistical properties of abstract artworks (Experiment 2). The participants showed significant preferences for particular image properties. These preferences differed between the clusters of participants. Strikingly, next to color measures like hue, saturation, value and lightness, the recently described Pyramid of Histograms of Orientation Gradients (PHOG) self-similarity value seems to be a predictor for aesthetic appreciation of abstract artworks. We speculate that the shift in evaluation in Experiment 1 was, at least in part, based on low-level adaptation to some of the statistical image properties analyzed in Experiment 2. In conclusion, our findings demonstrate that the perception of beauty in abstract artworks is altered after exposure to beautiful or non-beautiful images and correlates with particular image properties, especially color measures and self-similarity.
Highlights
The field of experimental aesthetics attracted renewed interest in recent years
In Experiment 2, we studied the preferred paintings with respect to color and higherorder statistical image properties that have previously been linked to aesthetic perception and correlated these properties with the individualized evaluation data
In Experiment 2, we focused on statistical image features that were previously analyzed in studies of aesthetic images
Summary
The field of experimental aesthetics attracted renewed interest in recent years. Two main approaches have emerged in this field. The physiological and behavioral reactions of persons who view artworks are investigated. In imaging studies, brain regions that are differentially activated by aesthetic visual stimuli were identified. Some of these regions belong to the self-reflective and reward systems of the brain (O’Doherty et al, 2003; Cela-Conde et al, 2004; Kawabata and Zeki, 2004). Researchers ask how persons perceive artworks or other visually pleasing stimuli in psychological experiments
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