Empirical studies suggest that art improves health and well-being among individuals. However, how aesthetic appreciation affects our cognitive and emotional states to promote physical and ...psychological well-being is still unclear. In this review, we consider the idea that the positive emotional output elicited from the aesthetic experience affects mood, and indirectly promotes health and well-being. First, we examine evidence that arts promoting well-being involve art museums, healthcare settings, and education. Second, we review some neuroimaging studies addressing aesthetic experience and emotional processing. In particular, we leveraged advances in neuroaesthetics to explore different hypotheses about the determinants of aesthetic pleasure during art reception, in the attempt to clarify how experiencing art promotes well-being. Finally, we propose research on aesthetic experience and psychophysiological measures of stress, with the goal of promoting a focused use of art as a tool for improving well-being and health.
The present research deals with the topic of emotional education through the arts. The purpose is to verify if the vision of art images – divided into three different picture categories, with ...disturbing, neutral, and serene content – can influence the participants’ emotional state depending on the content expressed by the pictures. Nine images, three for each category (Disturbing, Neutral, and Serene) were presented to a sample of participants. The hypothesis was that the vision of disturbing images may cause an increase in anxiety; neutral images would not cause significant changes, while the use of serene images would produce a reduction in anxiety. To verify the hypothesis, the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) was administered before and after the vision of the pictures. Findings showed that the state anxiety score of the participants who evaluate the disturbing and neutral pictures did not show a significant change before and after the vision of the pictures; on the contrary, for the group who evaluated the serene images, the values of pre- and post-anxiety score decreased significantly. A possible explanation of the asymmetry of the findings is that probably it is not enough to see disturbing images to increase the anxiety level. An art context heightens, in general, positive response also toward images with negative content. Interesting is that serene pictures decrease anxiety significantly: the simple vision of pictures with this content can produce a perception of wellbeing.
The perception of material properties, which refers to the way in which individuals perceive and interpret materials through their sensory experiences, plays a crucial role in our interaction with ...the environment. Affordance, on the other hand, refers to the potential actions and uses that materials offer to users. In turn, the perception of the affordances is modulated by the aesthetic appreciation that individuals experience when interacting with the environment. Although material perception, affordances, and aesthetic appreciation are recognized as essential to fostering sustainability in society, only a few studies have investigated this subject matter systematically and their reciprocal influences. This scarcity is partially due to the challenges offered by the complexity of combining interdisciplinary topics that explore interactions between various disciplines, such as psychophysics, neurophysiology, affective science, aesthetics, and social and environmental sciences. Outlining the main findings across disciplines, this review highlights the pivotal role of material perception in shaping sustainable behaviors. It establishes connections between material perception, affordance, aesthetics, and sustainability, emphasizing the need for interdisciplinary research and integrated approaches in environmental psychology. This integration is essential as it can provide insight into how to foster sustainable and durable changes.
In this paper, we provide an overview of research highlighting the relation between cultural processes, social norms, and food choices, discussing the implication of these findings for the promotion ...of more sustainable lifestyles. Our aim is to outline how environmental psychological research on urban affordances, through the specific concepts of restorative environments and walkability, could complement these findings to better understand human health, wellbeing and quality of life. We highlight how social norms and cultural processes are linked to food choices, and we discuss the possible health-related outcomes of cultural differences in food practices as well as their relation to acculturation and globalization processes. We also discuss the concepts of restorative environments and walkability as positive urban affordances, their relation to human wellbeing, and the possible link with cultural processes and sustainable lifestyles. Finally, we outline issues for future research and areas for policy-making and interventions on the links between cultural processes, healthy and sustainable food consumption and urban affordances, for the pursuit of public health, wellbeing and environmental sustainability.
Motion can be perceived in static images, such as photos and figurative paintings, representing realistic subjects in motion, with or without directional information (e.g., motion blur or speed ...lines). Motion impression can be achieved even in non-realistic static images such as motion illusions and abstract paintings. It has been shown that visual motion processing affects the diameter of the pupil, responding differently to real, illusory, and implied motion in photographs (IM). It has been suggested that these different effects might be due to top-down modulations from different cortical areas underlying their processing. It is worthwhile to investigate pupillary response to figurative paintings, since they require an even higher level of interpretation than photos representing the same kind of subjects, given the complexity of cognitive processes involved in the aesthetic experience. Also, pupil responses to abstract paintings allows to study the effect of IM perception in representations devoid of real-life motion cues. We measured pupil responses to IM in figurative and abstract artworks depicting static and dynamic scenes, as rated by a large group of individuals not participating in the following experiment. Since the pupillary response is modulated by the subjective image interpretation, a motion rating test has been used to correct individual pupil data according to whether participants actually perceived the presence of motion in the paintings. Pupil responses to movies showing figurative and abstract subjects, and to motion illusions were also measured, to compare real and illusory motion with painted IM. Movies, both figurative and abstract, elicit the largest pupillary dilation of all static stimuli, whereas motion illusions cause the smallest pupil size, as previously shown. Interestingly, pupil responses to IM depend on the paintings’ style. Figurative paintings depicting moving subjects cause more dilation than those representing static figures, and pupil size increases with the strength of IM, as already found with realistic photos. The opposite effect is obtained with abstract artworks. Abstract paintings depicting motion produce less dilation than those depicting stillness. In any case, these results reflect the individual subjective perception of dynamism, as the very same paintings can induce opposite responses in observer which interpreted it as static or dynamic. Overall, our data show that pupil size depends on high-level interpretation of motion in paintings, even when they do not represent real-world scenes. Our findings further suggest that the pupil is modulated by multiple top-down cortical mechanisms, involving the processing of motion, attention, memory, imagination, and other cognitive functions necessary for enjoying a complete aesthetic experience.
Usain Bolt's
pose, one arm highly extended to one side, suggests action. Likewise, static pictures of animals, legs extended, show animation. We tested a new cue for motion perception-extension-and ...in particular extension of dancer's legs. An experiment with pictures of a dancer finds larger angles between the legs suggest greater movement, especially with in-air poses and in lateral views. Leg positions graded from simply standing to very difficult front and side splits.
ratings (a small range) were more related to
ratings (a large range) than
ratings (a moderate range).
Several tools have been employed to detect the emergence and development of racial stereotypes and prejudices among little children and adolescents. In our study, we confront some of these tools, and ...present the results of the Skin Colours Test. In its specificity, the Skin Colours Test proposes a change in the object of investigation (appreciation of the homogeneity or heterogeneity of colours) and aims to detect explicit and implicit stereotypes and prejudices of boys and girls regarding aesthetic choices (even neutral choices) concerning skin colours. Sample: one group of 129 (64 F) students (M = 12.31), almost all of Italian descent, and another group of 129 (62 F) students (M = 12.36), less than 30% of different descents. Method: three pictures, each made up of 16 skin colours, were shown and students were asked to vote on their aesthetic preference between homogeneity or heterogeneity of skin colours and to give reasons for these choices. Main results: the motivations for some choices that preferred skin colour heterogeneity (neutral choice) over homogeneity, brought out stereotypes and biases. In addition, we consider the contextual specificities that the Skin Colours Test detects as crucial in order to detect specific educational needs and structure targeted educational interventions.
Objectives
The objective of this study is to assess the effectiveness of a brief online mindfulness intervention in reducing depression, rumination, and trait anxiety among university students.
...Method
The sample consisted of 486 participants including 205 (42%) in the experimental group and 281 (58%) in the control group. For a period of 28 days, participants in the experimental group engaged in daily mindfulness meditation during their free time. Additionally, they practised mindfulness meditation once a week during regular class hours. The control group was involved in regular class activities without practising mindfulness. The outcomes were assessed at pre- and post-intervention using well-validated measures of mindfulness, depression, rumination, and trait anxiety. The data were analysed using mixed-model ANCOVA while controlling for baseline mindfulness levels as co-variates.
Results
Our results demonstrated the effectiveness of a brief online mindfulness intervention in reducing depression, rumination, and trait anxiety of university students. Moreover, higher baseline mindfulness levels predicted better effectiveness of the brief online mindfulness intervention at an individual level and were inversely linked to depression, trait anxiety, and rumination.
Conclusions
This study conclusively demonstrated that a brief online mindfulness intervention significantly reduces depression, rumination, and trait anxiety among university students, with reductions observed in specific measures of these conditions, highlighting the role of initial mindfulness levels in moderating outcomes. These findings underscore the effectiveness of brief online mindfulness programs in mitigating mental health issues in a university setting and the importance of baseline psychological states in intervention outcomes.
Preregistration
This study is not preregistered
Art preferences are affected by a number of subjective factors. This paper reports two studies which investigated whether need for closure shapes implicit art preferences. It was predicted that ...higher need for closure would negatively affect implicit preferences for abstract art. In study one, 60 participants were tested for dispositional need for closure and then completed an Implicit Association Test (IAT) task to measure their implicit preference for abstract (vs. figurative) paintings. In study two, 54 participants completed the same IAT task. In this experiment need for closure was both manipulated by cognitive load and tapped as a dispositional trait. Results of the studies converged in showing that after controlling for other important individual factors such as participants'expertise and cognitive ability, need for closure, both as a dispositional trait and as a situationally induced motivational state, was negatively associated with implicit preference for abstract art.
Educational tools in art exhibitions seem crucial to improve the cultural and aesthetic experience, particularly of non-expert visitors, thus becoming a strategic goal for museums. However, there has ...not been much research regarding the impact of labels on the quality of visitors' aesthetic experience. Therefore, here we compared the impact on the cognitive and emotional experience of naïve visitors between essential and descriptive labels, through multiple objective and subjective measurements, focusing on the controversial modern art museum context. We found that, after detailed descriptions, observers spend more time inspecting artworks, their eyes wander more looking for the described elements, their skin conductance and pupil size increase, and overall, they find the content less complex and more arousing. Our findings show that people do receive important benefits from reading detailed information about artworks. This suggests that elaborating effective labels should be a primary goal for museums interested in attracting a non-expert public.
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