Experiencing Art: the Influence of Expertise and Painting Abstraction Level

Overview

Journal Front Hum Neurosci

Specialty Neurology

Date 2011 Sep 24

PMID 21941475

Citations 39

Authors

Elina Pihko

Anne Virtanen

Veli-Matti Saarinen

Sebastian Pannasch

Lotta Hirvenkari

Timo Tossavainen

Arto Haapala

Riitta Hari

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

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.

Citing Articles

Decomposing the True Score Variance in Rated Responses to Divergent Thinking-Tasks for Assessing Creativity: A Multitrait-Multimethod Analysis.

Jendryczko D J Intell. 2024; 12(10).

PMID: 39452512 PMC: 11508196. DOI: 10.3390/jintelligence12100095.

The effect of social factors on eye movements made when judging the aesthetic merit of figurative paintings.

Trawinski T, Palumbo L, Begum R, Donnelly N Sci Rep. 2024; 14(1):21843.

PMID: 39294260 PMC: 11410938. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-72810-4.

Effectiveness of labels in digital art experience: psychophysiological and behavioral evidence.

Castellotti S, DAgostino O, Del Viva M Front Psychol. 2024; 15:1342667.

PMID: 39011289 PMC: 11248719. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1342667.

The way we look at an image or a webpage can reveal personality traits.

Le Bras T, Allibe B, Dore-Mazars K Sci Rep. 2024; 14(1):15488.

PMID: 38969715 PMC: 11226433. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-62210-z.

Art perception is affected by negative knowledge about famous and unknown artists.

Kaube H, Abdel Rahman R Sci Rep. 2024; 14(1):8143.

PMID: 38584222 PMC: 10999426. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-58697-1.

References

Cristino F, Mathot S, Theeuwes J, Gilchrist I . ScanMatch: a novel method for comparing fixation sequences. Behav Res Methods. 2010; 42(3):692-700. DOI: 10.3758/BRM.42.3.692. View

Vogt S, Magnussen S . Expertise in pictorial perception: eye-movement patterns and visual memory in artists and laymen. Perception. 2007; 36(1):91-100. DOI: 10.1068/p5262. View

Itti L, Koch C . Computational modelling of visual attention. Nat Rev Neurosci. 2001; 2(3):194-203. DOI: 10.1038/35058500. View

Locher P, Krupinski E, Mello-Thoms C, Nodine C . Visual interest in pictorial art during an aesthetic experience. Spat Vis. 2007; 21(1-2):55-77. DOI: 10.1163/156856807782753868. View

Richardson D, Dale R, Kirkham N . The art of conversation is coordination: common ground and the coupling of eye movements during dialogue. Psychol Sci. 2007; 18(5):407-13. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01914.x. View

de Jong M . A physiological approach to aesthetic preference. I. Paintings. Psychother Psychosom. 1972; 20(6):360-5. DOI: 10.1159/000286439. View

Koch C, Ullman S . Shifts in selective visual attention: towards the underlying neural circuitry. Hum Neurobiol. 1985; 4(4):219-27. View

Bilalic M, Kiesel A, Pohl C, Erb M, Grodd W . It takes two-skilled recognition of objects engages lateral areas in both hemispheres. PLoS One. 2011; 6(1):e16202. PMC: 3025982. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0016202. View

Kundel H, Nodine C, Krupinski E, Mello-Thoms C . Using gaze-tracking data and mixture distribution analysis to support a holistic model for the detection of cancers on mammograms. Acad Radiol. 2008; 15(7):881-6. DOI: 10.1016/j.acra.2008.01.023. View

10.

Locher P, Smith J, SMITH L . The influence of presentation format and viewer training in the visual arts on the perception of pictorial and aesthetic qualities of paintings. Perception. 2001; 30(4):449-65. DOI: 10.1068/p3008. View

11.

Zangemeister W, Sherman K, Stark L . Evidence for a global scanpath strategy in viewing abstract compared with realistic images. Neuropsychologia. 1995; 33(8):1009-25. DOI: 10.1016/0028-3932(95)00014-t. View

12.

Tatler B, Baddeley R, Gilchrist I . Visual correlates of fixation selection: effects of scale and time. Vision Res. 2004; 45(5):643-59. DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2004.09.017. View

13.

Tatler B . The central fixation bias in scene viewing: selecting an optimal viewing position independently of motor biases and image feature distributions. J Vis. 2008; 7(14):4.1-17. DOI: 10.1167/7.14.4. View

14.

Vosskuhler A, Nordmeier V, Kuchinke L, Jacobs A . OGAMA (Open Gaze and Mouse Analyzer): open-source software designed to analyze eye and mouse movements in slideshow study designs. Behav Res Methods. 2008; 40(4):1150-62. DOI: 10.3758/BRM.40.4.1150. View

15.

Anders S, Lotze M, Erb M, Grodd W, Birbaumer N . Brain activity underlying emotional valence and arousal: a response-related fMRI study. Hum Brain Mapp. 2004; 23(4):200-9. PMC: 6871723. DOI: 10.1002/hbm.20048. View

16.

Tyler C . Some principles of spatial organization in art. Spat Vis. 2007; 20(6):509-30. DOI: 10.1163/156856807782758377. View