Neuroscience
Today's recommended paper reflects one of my research interests when I was an undergraduate:
Experiencing Art: The Influence of Expertise and Painting Abstraction Level.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 2011;5:94
Authors: Pihko E, Virtanen A, Saarinen VM, Pannasch S, Hirvenkari L, Tossavainen T, Haapala A, Hari R
Abstract
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.
PMID: 21941475 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
- Pre-schoolers Can Tell Abstract Expressionist Art From Similar Works By Children And Animals
Hans Hofmann's painting 'The Gate' via Wikipedia. Abstract expressionist art in the style of, say, Hans Hofmann or Jackson Pollock, often looks as though it has been thrown at random upon the canvas. It's common to hear sceptics...
- It's Content First, Style Later, When It Comes To People's Perception Of Art
When you look at a painting, what do you think you process first - the painting's content or its style? According to Dorothee Augustin and colleagues it is the content of a painting that we register first, with dazzling speed - within 10 ms (less...
- Aesthetic Appreciation On The Line
Seeking to understand aesthetics from the perspective of brain processes is all the rage these days, and has given birth to the nascent field of neuroaesthetics. Now Valeria Drago and co-workers have shown that people who are able to more accurately bisect...
- Pain & Paintings: Beholding Beauty Reduces Pain Perception And Laser Evoked Potentials
-Marcel Duchamp, Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 Neuroesthetics, a term coined by Semir Zeki, is "the attempt to use neuroscience to understand art and aesthetic behaviour" (as defined in an excellent overview by BRAINETHICS). Some would say the venture...
- Neuropsychology Abstract Of The Day: Art And Neuroscience
Returning to a fav topic of mine, here is a new research study: The right hemisphere in esthetic perception Front Hum Neurosci. 2011;5:109 Bromberger B, Sternschein R, Widick P, Smith W, Chatterjee A Abstract Little about the neuropsychology of art perception...
Neuroscience
Neuropsychology Abstract of the Day: Art and Neuroscience
Today's recommended paper reflects one of my research interests when I was an undergraduate:
Experiencing Art: The Influence of Expertise and Painting Abstraction Level.
Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 2011;5:94
Authors: Pihko E, Virtanen A, Saarinen VM, Pannasch S, Hirvenkari L, Tossavainen T, Haapala A, Hari R
Abstract
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.
PMID: 21941475 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
- Pre-schoolers Can Tell Abstract Expressionist Art From Similar Works By Children And Animals
Hans Hofmann's painting 'The Gate' via Wikipedia. Abstract expressionist art in the style of, say, Hans Hofmann or Jackson Pollock, often looks as though it has been thrown at random upon the canvas. It's common to hear sceptics...
- It's Content First, Style Later, When It Comes To People's Perception Of Art
When you look at a painting, what do you think you process first - the painting's content or its style? According to Dorothee Augustin and colleagues it is the content of a painting that we register first, with dazzling speed - within 10 ms (less...
- Aesthetic Appreciation On The Line
Seeking to understand aesthetics from the perspective of brain processes is all the rage these days, and has given birth to the nascent field of neuroaesthetics. Now Valeria Drago and co-workers have shown that people who are able to more accurately bisect...
- Pain & Paintings: Beholding Beauty Reduces Pain Perception And Laser Evoked Potentials
-Marcel Duchamp, Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 Neuroesthetics, a term coined by Semir Zeki, is "the attempt to use neuroscience to understand art and aesthetic behaviour" (as defined in an excellent overview by BRAINETHICS). Some would say the venture...
- Neuropsychology Abstract Of The Day: Art And Neuroscience
Returning to a fav topic of mine, here is a new research study: The right hemisphere in esthetic perception Front Hum Neurosci. 2011;5:109 Bromberger B, Sternschein R, Widick P, Smith W, Chatterjee A Abstract Little about the neuropsychology of art perception...