Human aesthetic processing entails the sensation‐based evaluation of an entity with respect to concepts like beauty, harmony or well‐formedness. Aesthetic appreciation has many determinants ranging ...from evolutionary, anatomical or physiological constraints to influences of culture, history and individual differences. There are a vast number of dynamically configured neural networks underlying these multifaceted processes of aesthetic appreciation. In the current challenge of successfully bridging art and science, aesthetics and neuroanatomy, the neuro‐cognitive psychology of aesthetics can approach this complex topic using a framework that postulates several perspectives, which are not mutually exclusive. In this empirical approach, objective physiological data from event‐related brain potentials and functional magnetic resonance imaging are combined with subjective, individual self‐reports.
Although the role of aesthetics and aesthetic education in everyday life was discussed as early as the ancient philosophers, the psychological mechanisms shaping the aesthetic quotient have hardly ...been investigated by empirical studies. The aim of this study was to examine the direct relationship between experience and aesthetic competence, and the mediating role of need for cognition. The study involved 201 Polish adults, aged 18 to 76 (M = 26.40; SD = 11.89), 65% of whom were women. The respondents completed anonymous questionnaires on an online platform. The surveys included a metric, the Aesthetic Competence Scale (ACS), the Aesthetic Experience Questionnaire (AEQ) and the Need for Cognition Scale (NCS). A positive correlation coefficient was obtained between all three variables studied, with need for cognition acting as a mediator in the relationship between experience and aesthetic competence. The findings indicate that individuals reporting intense aesthetic experiences have a higher aesthetic competence if this relationship is mediated by a high need for cognitive effort.
Faces considered attractive tend to possess a general harmony; however, scientific studies on the quantitative basis of human facial attractiveness are still sparse. The golden proportion has been ...the most documented ratio, but the actual existence of codified facial ratios in facially attractive individuals remains unclear.
The purpose of this systematic review was to evaluate the deviation from the golden proportion in the measurements of different natural vertical facial ratios.
A comprehensive search of the electronic databases that included PubMed/MEDLINE, Web of Science, Embase, Scopus, Scopus Secondary documents, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews was conducted using the terms “golden proportion”, “golden proportions”, “golden ratio”, “golden ratios”, “golden number”, “golden section”, “divine proportion”, “divine proportions”, “divine ratio”, “divine ratios”, and “Fibonacci” in combination with 1 or more of the ensuing terms: “facial proportion”, “facial proportions”, “facial measurement”, and “facial measurements”. Deviation of the facial proportions from the golden proportions was further analyzed by using a 1-sample t test (α=.05).
The 1-sample test showed no significant difference among the means of each variable (P>.05), suggesting that the golden proportion is found in natural facial esthetics.
No significant association was found between the golden ratio and facial evaluation scores among all ethnicities. The measurements and proportions for facial balance in the study population showed that the participant’s facial height proportions did not follow the golden proportion.
About a decade ago, psychology of the arts started to gain momentum owing to a number of drives: technological progress improved the conditions under which art could be studied in the laboratory, ...neuroscience discovered the arts as an area of interest, and new theories offered a more comprehensive look at aesthetic experiences. Ten years ago, Leder, Belke, Oeberst, and Augustin (2004) proposed a descriptive information‐processing model of the components that integrate an aesthetic episode. This theory offered explanations for modern art's large number of individualized styles, innovativeness, and for the diverse aesthetic experiences it can stimulate. In addition, it described how information is processed over the time course of an aesthetic episode, within and over perceptual, cognitive and emotional components. Here, we review the current state of the model, and its relation to the major topics in empirical aesthetics today, including the nature of aesthetic emotions, the role of context, and the neural and evolutionary foundations of art and aesthetics.
The field of neuroaesthetics has gained in popularity in recent years but also attracted criticism from the perspectives both of the humanities and the sciences. In an effort to consolidate research ...in the field, we characterize neuroaesthetics as the cognitive neuroscience of aesthetic experience, drawing on long traditions of research in empirical aesthetics on the one hand and cognitive neuroscience on the other. We clarify the aims and scope of the field, identifying relations among neuroscientific investigations of aesthetics, beauty, and art. The approach we advocate takes as its object of study a wide spectrum of aesthetic experiences, resulting from interactions of individuals, sensory stimuli, and context. Drawing on its parent fields, a cognitive neuroscience of aesthetics would investigate the complex cognitive processes and functional networks of brain regions involved in those experiences without placing a value on them. Thus, the congnitive neuroscientific approach may develop in a way that is mutually complementary to approaches in the humanities.
We developed and validated a rating scale to assess the aesthetic pleasure (or beauty ) of a visual data representation: the BeauVis scale. With our work we offer researchers and practitioners a ...simple instrument to compare the visual appearance of different visualizations, unrelated to data or context of use. Our rating scale can, for example, be used to accompany results from controlled experiments or be used as informative data points during in-depth qualitative studies. Given the lack of an aesthetic pleasure scale dedicated to visualizations, researchers have mostly chosen their own terms to study or compare the aesthetic pleasure of visualizations. Yet, many terms are possible and currently no clear guidance on their effectiveness regarding the judgment of aesthetic pleasure exists. To solve this problem, we engaged in a multi-step research process to develop the first validated rating scale specifically for judging the aesthetic pleasure of a visualization (osf.io/fxs76). Our final BeauVis scale consists of five items, "enjoyable," "likable," "pleasing," "nice," and "appealing." Beyond this scale itself, we contribute (a) a systematic review of the terms used in past research to capture aesthetics, (b) an investigation with visualization experts who suggested terms to use for judging the aesthetic pleasure of a visualization, and (c) a confirmatory survey in which we used our terms to study the aesthetic pleasure of a set of 3 visualizations.
This study aims to deepen the understanding of tourism photography by developing and testing a theoretical model that accounts for the relationships between visual esthetics and destination choice ...intention of tourists. Thus, we sought to use a stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) paradigm to predict destination choice intention, which includes three variables related to visual esthetics: first impression, visual appeal, and esthetic emotion. We used the combination of self-reported and eye movement data to examine the cognitive processes of tourists that visual esthetic formation. We found that compared to the built environment and amateur esthetic images, natural environment and professional esthetic images can get (1) higher visual appeal, (2) better first impression, and (3) higher visual processing fluency (or less cognitive effort) and positive esthetic emotions. Furthermore, visual appeal, first impression, and esthetic emotion deriving from environment esthetics and photograph esthetics have a positive impact on destination choice intention. This study has practical implications for destination planning and management.
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