scholarly journals Perception and Appreciation of Tactile Objects: The Role of Visual Experience and Texture Parameters

Author(s):  
A. K. M. Rezaul Karim ◽  
Sanchary Prativa ◽  
Lora T. Likova

This exploratory study was designed to examine the effects of visual experience and specific texture parameters on both discriminative and aesthetic aspects of tactile perception. To this end, the authors conducted two experiments using a novel behavioral (ranking) approach in blind and (blindfolded) sighted individuals. Groups of congenitally blind, late blind, and (blindfolded) sighted participants made relative stimulus preference, aesthetic appreciation, and smoothness or softness judgment of two-dimensional (2D) or three-dimensional (3D) tactile surfaces through active touch. In both experiments, the aesthetic judgment was assessed on three affective dimensions, Relaxation, Hedonics, and Arousal, hypothesized to underlie visual aesthetics in a prior study. Results demonstrated that none of these behavioral judgments significantly varied as a function of visual experience in either experiment. However, irrespective of visual experience, significant differences were identified in all these behavioral judgments across the physical levels of smoothness or softness. In general, 2D smoothness or 3D softness discrimination was proportional to the level of physical smoothness or softness. Second, the smoother or softer tactile stimuli were preferred over the rougher or harder tactile stimuli. Third, the 3D affective structure of visual aesthetics appeared to be amodal and applicable to tactile aesthetics. However, analysis of the aesthetic profile across the affective dimensions revealed some striking differences between the forms of appreciation of smoothness and softness, uncovering unanticipated substructures in the nascent field of tactile aesthetics. While the physically softer 3D stimuli received higher ranks on all three affective dimensions, the physically smoother 2D stimuli received higher ranks on the Relaxation and Hedonics but lower ranks on the Arousal dimension. Moreover, the Relaxation and Hedonics ranks accurately overlapped with one another across all the physical levels of softness/hardness, but not across the physical levels of smoothness/roughness. These findings suggest that physical texture parameters not only affect basic tactile discrimination but differentially mediate tactile preferences, and aesthetic appreciation. The theoretical and practical implications of these novel findings are discussed.

Author(s):  
A. K. M. Rezaul Karim ◽  
Sanchary Prativa ◽  
Lora T. Likova

This exploratory study was designed to examine the effects of visual experience and specific texture parameters on both discriminative and aesthetic aspects of tactile perception. To this end, the authors conducted two experiments using a novel behavioral (ranking) approach in blind and (blindfolded) sighted individuals. Groups of congenitally blind, late blind, and (blindfolded) sighted participants made relative stimulus preference, aesthetic appreciation, and smoothness or softness judgment of two-dimensional (2D) or three-dimensional (3D) tactile surfaces through active touch. In both experiments, the aesthetic judgmen t was assessed on three affective dimensions, Relaxation, Hedonics, and Arousal, hypothesized to underlie visual aesthetics in a prior study. Results demonstrated that none of these behavioral judgments significantly varied as a function of visual experience in either experiment. However, irrespective of visual experience, significant differences were identified in all these behavioral judgments across the physical levels of smoothness or softness. In general, 2D smoothness or 3D softness discrimination was proportional to the level of physical smoothness or softness. Second, the smoother or softer tactile stimuli were preferred over the rougher or harder tactile stimuli. Third, the 3D affective structure of visual aesthetics appeared to be amodal and applicable to tactile aesthetics. However, analysis of the aesthetic profile across the affective dimensions revealed some striking differences between the forms of appreciation of smoothness and softness, uncovering unanticipated substructures in the nascent field of tactile aesthetics. While the physically softer 3D stimuli received higher ranks on all three affective dimensions, the physically smoother 2D stimuli received higher ranks on the Relaxation and Hedonics but lower ranks on the Arousal dimension. Moreover, the Relaxation and Hedonics ranks accurately overlapped with one another across all the physical levels of softness/hardness, but not across the physical levels of smoothness/roughness. These findings suggest that physical texture parameters not only affect basic tactile discrimination but differentially mediate tactile preferences, and aesthetic appreciation. The theoretical and practical implications of these novel findings are discussed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-27
Author(s):  
Zhepeng Rui ◽  
Zhenyu Gu

In human-computer interaction, the visual interaction of user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) plays an important role in enriching the quality of daily life. The purpose of our study analyzes the use of brain-computer interface (BCI), wearable technology, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to explore the aesthetic processing of visual neural response to UI and UX designs. Specifically, this review aims to understand neuroaesthetic processing knowledge, aesthetic appreciation models, and the ways in which visual brain studies can improve the quality of current and future UI and UX designs. Recent research has found that subjective evaluations of aesthetic appreciation produce different results for objective evaluations of brain research analysis. We applied SWOT analysis and examined the advantages and disadvantages of both evaluation methods. Furthermore, we conducted a traditional literature review on topics pertaining to the use of aesthetic processing knowledge in the visual interaction field in terms of art therapy, information visualization, website or mobile applications, and other interactive platforms. Our main research findings from current studies have helped and motivated researchers and designers to use convincing scientific knowledge of brain event-related potential, electroencephalography, and fMRI to understand aesthetic judgment. The key trend finds that many designers, artists, and engineers use artistic BCI technology in the visual interaction experience. Herein, the scientific methods applied in the aesthetic appreciation to human-computer interface are summarized, and the influence of the latest wearable brain technology on visual interaction design is discussed. Furthermore, current possible research entry points for aesthetics, usability, and creativity in UI and UX designs are explicated. The study results have implications for the visual user experience research domain as well as for interaction industries, which produce interactive projects to improve people’s daily lives.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stacey Humphries ◽  
Jacqueline Rick ◽  
Daniel Weintraub ◽  
Anjan Chatterjee

Visual art offers cognitive neuroscience an opportunity to study how subjective value is constructed from representations supported by multiple neural systems. A surprising finding in research on aesthetic judgment is that functional activation of motor areas of the brain often occurs in response to static, abstract stimuli, such as paintings. This motor activity has variously been hypothesised to reflect the embodied simulation of an artist’s painting movements or emotions, as well as possible preparatory approach-avoidance responses to liked and disliked artworks. However, whether this motor involvement functionally contributes to aesthetic appreciation has not been addressed. Here, we examined whether motor system dysfunction alters the aesthetic experiences of patients with Parkinson’s disease. 43 people with Parkinson’s disease and 40 controls made preference decisions and rated the motion content and their aesthetic appreciation of a set of high-motion action paintings (by Jackson Pollock) and a set of low-motion neoplastic paintings (by Piet Mondrian). People with Parkinson’s disease demonstrated stable and internally consistent preferences for abstract art, but their perception of movement in the paintings was significantly lower in both conditions than that of controls. In addition, people with Parkinson’s demonstrated enhanced preferences for high-motion art, and a fundamentally altered relationship between motion and aesthetic appreciation. Our results do not accord well with a straightforward embodied simulation account of aesthetic experiences, because artworks that did not include visual traces of the artist’s actions were still experienced as lower in motion by Parkinson’s patients. We suggest that the ability to form movement representations from static abstract images is more akin to a process of visual metaphor comprehension that is mediated through the motor system. Overall, we find support for hypotheses linking motion, motor responses and aesthetic appreciation, and provide clear evidence that altered neural functioning changes the way art is perceived and valued.


Projections ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Joerg Fingerhut

When watching a film, we are seeing-in moving images. Film’s visual experience is therefore twofold, encompassing a recognitional (the scene presented, the story told, etc.) and a configurational fold (editing, camera movement, etc.). Although some researchers endorse twofoldness with respect to film, there is also significant resistance and misrepresentations of its very nature. This paper argues that the concept is central to an understanding of the basic apprehension and the aesthetic appreciation of film. It demonstrates how twofoldness could play a more substantial role in a new cognitive film theory and a naturalized aesthetics of film. By discussing recent theories of our motor engagement with cinema it shows how referencing to the interplay of two filmic folds could inform such a theory.


Author(s):  
Dimitrios Makris ◽  
Maria Moira

The complex conditions of urban places render it difficult to identify and perceive their multivariate aesthetic characters. The question examined herein is in which ways digital media like Augmented Reality (AR) can facilitate a more comprehensive aesthetic appreciation of a place by individuals, enhance their overall experience and allow them to recognize the aesthetic distinctiveness of places that may be phenomenologically dense with aesthetics, memory, meaning, legibility. The framework proposed is founded on the inherent power of novels as chronotopes of potential dialogical experiences and on four characteristic strategies of AR.Narrative chronotope singularities are fundamental sources for understanding the collective, cultural, historical, social and spatial practices, leading to an understanding of urban environments. So the first step is to extract narrative chronotope analysis content from a novel’s urban substance (buildings, roads, squares), characters, plot and sequence of events. The second step involves a three-dimensional re-creation of urban heritage components. Finally, the AR media is interwoven with the novels based on four strategies: reinforcement of aspects of real-world urban places by digitally overlaying the novel’s setting; recontextualization to achieve the semantic transformation of places as the novel’s significance and meanings are revealed; remembrance by facilitating the emergence of diverse identities and memories; and re-embodiment through achieving a deeper understanding and re-interconnectedness with the aesthetic aspects of urban places.Augmented narrative descriptions restore harmony between body-mind-environment and fiction while ensuring that different times, places and psychological situations coincide. The proposed novel-based digitally-mediated interaction could provide a shift that leads to the embodiment, enhancement and re-conceptualization of the diverse aesthetic dimensions of constructs such as ‘heritage monuments’, ‘local community’, ‘public place’, etc.Article received: April 2, 2019; Article accepted: July 6, 2019; Published online: October 15, 2019; Review articleHow to cite this article: Makris, Dimitris and Maria Moira. "Augmented Entanglement of Narrative Chronotopes and Urban Territories." AM Journal of Art and Media Studies 20 (2019): 87-96. doi: 10.25038/am.v0i20.335 


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frederic Dierick ◽  
Fabien Buisseret ◽  
Loreda Filiputti ◽  
Nathalie Roussel

We have studied the kinematics of ballet figures performed by adolescent recreational dancers and determined the most effective muscle stretching modality allowing to increase their physical performance while not harming the aesthetic perception of their motion. Sixteen participants aged between 10 and 19 years were recruited to perform a grand battement, before and after a static or dynamic stretching of hamstring muscles. The three-dimensional kinematics of the grand battement was measured by an optoelectronic system and the aesthetics was scored from a video watched by a jury of professional dancers. Our results show that stretching has a significant impact on grand battement kinematics, and that the most important modifications are induced by dynamic stretching rather than static stretching. Dynamic stretching significantly improves the explosive aspects of the movement (duration and maximal speed), but leads to a significant reduction of its smoothness (jerk). Significant correlations between kinematic parameters and aesthetic scores have been observed, one of them being a positive correlation between thigh's range of motion and total aesthetic score. These correlations can serve as a reference for movement analysis experts, dancers and their teachers to improve physical performance required by the standards of today's dance practice without altering the corresponding aesthetic judgment.


2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mingcheng He ◽  
Wei Zhang ◽  
Hira Shahid ◽  
Yushan Liu ◽  
Xiaoling Liang ◽  
...  

Previous behavioral studies on aesthetics demonstrated that there was a close association between perceived action and aesthetic appreciation. However, few studies explored whether motor imagery would influence aesthetic experience and its neural substrates. In the current study, Chinese calligraphy was used as the stimuli to explore the relationship between the motor imagery and the aesthetic judgments of a participant using functional magnetic resonance imaging. The imaging results showed that, compared with the baseline, the activation of the brain regions [e.g., anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), putamen, and insula] involved in perceptual processing, cognitive judgments, aesthetic emotional, and reward processing was observed after the participants performed motor imagery tasks. The contrast analyses within aesthetic judgments showed that the kinesthetic imagery significantly activated the middle frontal gyrus, postcentral gyrus, ACC, and thalamus. Generally, these areas were considered to be closely related to positive aesthetic experience and suggested that motor imagery, especially kinesthetic imagery, might be specifically associated with the aesthetic appreciation of Chinese calligraphy.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Stacey Humphries ◽  
Jacqueline Rick ◽  
Daniel Weintraub ◽  
Anjan Chatterjee

Abstract Visual art offers cognitive neuroscience an opportunity to study how subjective value is constructed from representations supported by multiple neural systems. A surprising finding in aesthetic judgment research is the functional activation of motor areas in response to static, abstract stimuli, like paintings, which has been hypothesized to reflect embodied simulations of artists' painting movements, or preparatory approach–avoidance responses to liked and disliked artworks. However, whether this motor involvement functionally contributes to aesthetic appreciation has not been addressed. Here, we examined the aesthetic experiences of patients with motor dysfunction. Forty-three people with Parkinson's disease and 40 controls made motion and aesthetics judgments of high-motion Jackson Pollock paintings and low-motion Piet Mondrian paintings. People with Parkinson's disease demonstrated stable and internally consistent preferences for abstract art, but their perception of movement in the paintings was significantly lower than controls in both conditions. The patients also demonstrated enhanced preferences for high-motion art and an altered relationship between motion and aesthetic appreciation. Our results do not accord well with a straightforward embodied simulation account of aesthetic experiences, because artworks that did not include visual traces of the artist's actions were still experienced as lower in motion by Parkinson's patients. We suggest that the motor system may be involved in integrating low-level visual features to form abstract representations of movement rather than simulations of specific bodily actions. Overall, we find support for hypotheses linking motor responses and aesthetic appreciation and show that altered neural functioning changes the way art is perceived and valued.


Design Issues ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Odette da Silva ◽  
Nathan Crilly ◽  
Paul Hekkert

The aesthetic judgment of an artifact is usually interpreted as an assessment of the artifact's sensory properties. But an artifact can also be appreciated, and still aesthetically, for the way it fulfills its purpose. Existing design theory does not provide the concepts required for describing this aspect of aesthetic appreciation and so cannot fully explain what people mean when they say a product is beautiful. In this paper, we develop an understanding of the aesthetic judgment based on the principle of maximum effect for minimum means. We explain how a means–effect relationship can be established between a product and its purpose or effect, and how the product and the effect can be perceived to be minimal and maximal. We also explain how the appreciation of this relationship depends on a set of assumed alternatives for both the product or means and the effect. Finally, we provide some directions for future research into design aesthetics.


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