Relations between Preference and Typicality in the Experience of Paintings

Abstract

ion. The abstract paintings are low in typicality and preference. The primitive painting by Rousseau (No. 8) is high in preference and typicality, in contrast to the other distortions associated with pop art (No. 14) and surrealism (No. 1), which are generally low in typicality and preference. These overall patterns are consistent with a preferencePurcell, Relations between Preference and Typicality in the Experience of Paintings 237 This content downloaded from 157.55.39.104 on Sun, 19 Jun 2016 06:38:05 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Table 1. Means and Standard Errors Associated with Each Painting. PAINTING TYPICALITY PREFERENCE High Correlation Low Correlation High Correlation Low Correlation 1 4.3(0.3) 5.6(0.3) 2.6(0.3) 3.5(0.4) 2 8.3(0.2) 8.7(0.2) 6.7(0.3) 5.2(0.5) 3 6.1(0.4) 7.8(0.4) 5.3(0.4) 6.3(0.6) 4 7.9(0.3) 7.7(0.4) 6.0(0.4) 4.6(0.5) 5 4.4(0.3) 6.5(0.5) 2.3(0.3) 3.6(0.5) 6 7.9(0.2) 8.3(0.3) 7.5(0.3) 7.6(0.5) 7 7.4(0.3) 7.7(0.4) 5.1(0.3) 5.0(0.4) 8 6.8(0.3) 6.4(0.4) 6.6(0.3) 5.9(0.5) 9 7.5(0.2) 8.1(0.3) 6.4(0.3) 7.3(0.4) 10 5.1(0.4) 6.3(0.5) 4.8(0.4) 5.6(0.6) 11 5.2(0.3) 5.8(0.5) 4.5(0.3) 4.8(0.5) 12 7.5(0.3) 7.8(0.4) 6.2(0.3) 5.4(0.4) 13 6.2(0.4) 7.0(0.5) 5.1(0.4) 5.2(0.5) 14 4.1(0.4) 4.6(0.6) 4.1(0.4) 5.1(0.5) 15 7.7(0.3) 8.0(0.3) 6.8(0.3) 6.2(0.4) 16 5.5(0.3) 6.5(0.5) 4.6(0.3) 4.9(0.5) 17 6.6(0.3) 7.6(0.4) 5.4(0.4) 5.4(0.6) 18 4.2(0.4) 5.1(0.5) 3.3(0.3) 4.7(0.5) 19 6.3(0.3) 7.2(0.4) 4.8(0.3) 5.4(0.5) 20 6.0(0.3) 5.6(0.4) 7.1(0.5) 5.9(0.5) for-prototypes model because the two types of judgments co-vary, and the similarities in the graphs illustrate the high correlation between the two types of judgments for this group. By contrast, differences between typicality and preference judgments are apparent in the graphs for the low-correlation group. The graphs for the typicality judgments for this group are similar in shape to those found with the high correlation group-typicality decreases with increases in the abstraction of the representation and with the types of distortions present, in the examples of surrealism and pop art. This similarity between the two groups of respondents in terms of typicality indicates that they have similar mental representations of paintings based on the degree of realism in the painting. Across the five groups of paintings depicting aspects of the world, there is a consistent pattern in the preference judgments for impressionist paintings (Nos. 3, 6, 9, 17, 19), although the extent of this difference varies. Generally, preference for the impressionist paintings was higher than preference for the realist paintings and somewhat higher than preference for the modern paintings. Lowest preference occurred for the abstract paintings. A further indication of how the lowcorrelation group prefers departures from typicality is apparent when the preferences for the two groups of respondents are compared for abstract paintings. While preference for abstract paintings is low for both groups, it is significantly higher for the low-correlation group (see Table 1, Paintings 18 and 5). When compared to the general decrease in typicality with increasing level of abstraction of representation for the low-correlation group, these results indicate that preference is associated with departure from existing mental representations and indicates why the correlations between preference and typicality are low for this group. The results for the paintings showing three types of distortion are interesting. For both groups of respondents, typicality is highest for the primitive painting and decreases for the surrealistic painting and for pop art painting, which was judged least typical. Preferences for both groups are similar and related to typicality, except for the surrealist example which is as low in preference as the abstract paintings. The distortions present in the primitive painting are mainly related to the scale of various naturalistically depicted elements. In the pop art painting, the distortions are mainly related to the amount of detail present in the forms and the colours used. The surrealFig. 1. Means for typicality and preference for the group showing a high correlation between the two judgments. The paintings were arranged in seven groups; the first five groups contained paintings with different types of scenes with increasing levels of abstraction, the sixth contained abstract paintings, and the seventh contained paintings with three types of distortion. The numbers along the horizontal axis are the painting numbers.