Visual features, aesthetic judgments, and modulating factors

The act of making aesthetic judgments of objects in the environment involves a complex interplay of numerous factors that are present during any given aesthetic episode (Leder, Belke, Oeberst, & Augustin, 2004). Since Fechner (1876), empirical aesthetics has had a tradition of examining the influence of visual features on aesthetic judgments. However, the influence of modulating factors on the relationship between visual features and aesthetic judgments remains largely unexplored. This dissertation addressed this shortcoming. It investigated the effects of visual features, such as symmetry and complexity, on aesthetic judgments and how these effects are influenced by modulating factors, such as familiarity and stimulus-inherent emotional valence. The project was multifaceted, and examined several factors known to influence aesthetic judgments. A wide range of stimuli, behavioral and psychophysiological methodologies, and traditional and newly developed paradigms were employed. Leder et al.’s (2004) information processing model of aesthetic experiences and aesthetic judgments was used as a framework for contextualizing the investigations. The model consists of five stages that can be mapped into two broad levels of processing: automatic, implicit processing; and deliberate, explicit processing. This dissertation addressed both levels. First, it examined the effects of symmetry, complexity, and familiarization on aesthetic judgments of basic patterns and faces (Tinio & Leder, 2009a; Tinio, Gerger, & Leder, 2010), and showed that the effects of symmetry and complexity were generally robust. It also showed how massive familiarization to a particular type of stimulus resulted in specific modulation of the effects. Second, it examined emotion as a modulating factor in the preference for curved objects (Leder, Tinio, & Bar, 2010). Results showed that the preference for curved objects was found only in objects with neutral and positive emotional valence. Negative emotional valence associated with some objects had overridden the positive influence of curvature. Third, the dissertation investigated the influence of image quality degradations on aesthetic judgments of images of natural and human-made scenes (Tinio & Leder, 2009b; Tinio, Leder, & Strasser, in press). The results demonstrated that people preferred images of natural over human-made scenes, and that this preference was modulated by image quality. Finally, several investigations focused on the behavioral consequences of attractiveness in real-world scenes and how they are modulated by situational demands (Leder, Tinio, Fuchs, & Bohrn, in press). Results indicated that attractive faces received longer looks, although responses to attractiveness depended on specific situational demands. Each set of studies presented in this dissertation is prefaced by an introduction to the main theoretical and empirical issues addressed, and copies of the original manuscripts are provided. In addition, the implications of the results on the field of empirical aesthetics and psychology in general are discussed. Finally, a discussion of the current state and future directions of each research topic is provided.