Abstract
Empirical aesthetics has found its way into mainstream cognitive science. Until now, most research has focused either on identifying the internal processes that underlie a perceiver's aesthetic experience or on identifying the stimulus features that lead to a specific type of aesthetic experience. To progress, empirical aesthetics must integrate these approaches into a unified paradigm that encourages researchers to think in terms of temporal dynamics and interactions between: (i) the stimulus and the perceiver; (ii) different systems within the perceiver; and (iii) different layers of the stimulus. At this critical moment, empirical aesthetics must also clearly identify and define its key concepts, sketch out its agenda, and specify its approach to grow into a coherent and distinct discipline.
Highlights
Why and How Should Cognitive Science Care about Aesthetics?Empirical aesthetics has found its way into mainstream cognitive science. Until now, most research has focused either on identifying the internal processes that underlie a perceiver’s aesthetic experience or on identifying the stimulus features that lead to a specific type of aesthetic experience
For more than two millennia, theoretical reflections on aesthetic perception and the creation of aesthetically appealing objects have been an important domain of humanist scholarship
In light of advances in the development of computational tools, artificial intelligence, and data collection from ever-larger sample sizes, we expect a significant increase of further evidence attesting to the value of feature-based approaches and their power to explain substantial amounts of variance in aesthetic experiences
Summary
Empirical aesthetics has found its way into mainstream cognitive science. Until now, most research has focused either on identifying the internal processes that underlie a perceiver’s aesthetic experience or on identifying the stimulus features that lead to a specific type of aesthetic experience. Subject-Oriented Approach The primary goal of this approach is to elucidate the general cognitive, emotional, and neurophysiological foundations underlying aesthetic experiences, including their structural and temporal organization in the brain, their subjective feeling (over time), and their functions in, and consequences for, our psychological lives. This approach is less concerned with how a stimulus elicits a specific aesthetic response. Constructivist positions, as discussed in the main text, represent an extreme version of this strand, calling into question interindividually shared properties and lawful prediction of aesthetic experiences across individuals
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