Cultural Relativity in Aesthetic Judgments: An Empirical Study

1971 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 817-818 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. J. Eysenck ◽  
Saburo Iwawaki
Keyword(s):  
Visual Field ◽  
Cultural Factors ◽  
Aesthetic Judgment ◽  
The Other ◽  
General Factor ◽  
Point Scale ◽  
Japanese Students ◽  
Cultural Relativity ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Aesthetic Judgments

179 British students rated the aesthetic appeal of 131 designs and 135 polygons on a 5-point scale. Similar judgments were made by 115 Japanese students who did not, however, rate both designs and polygons but rather one or the other set. Correlations between mean ratings for the designs and polygons were uniformly positive and high, suggesting the comparative absence of cultural factors determining aesthetic judgments in this field. The data were interpreted as favouring Eysenck's theory of a general factor of aesthetic judgment in the visual field.

scholarly journals The neural mechanism of aesthetic judgments of dynamic landscapes: an fMRI study

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xueru Zhao ◽  
Junjing Wang ◽  
Jinhui Li ◽  
Guang Luo ◽  
Ting Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Processing ◽  
Occipital Lobe ◽  
Neural Mechanism ◽  
Aesthetic Judgment ◽  
Neural Mechanisms ◽  
Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Dynamic Stimuli ◽  
Dynamic Landscapes ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Aesthetic Judgments

AbstractMost previous neuroaesthetics research has been limited to considering the aesthetic judgment of static stimuli, with few studies examining the aesthetic judgment of dynamic stimuli. The present study explored the neural mechanisms underlying aesthetic judgment of dynamic landscapes, and compared the neural mechanisms between the aesthetic judgments of dynamic landscapes and static ones. Participants were scanned while they performed aesthetic judgments on dynamic landscapes and matched static ones. The results revealed regions of occipital lobe, frontal lobe, supplementary motor area, cingulate cortex and insula were commonly activated both in the aesthetic judgments of dynamic and static landscapes. Furthermore, compared to static landscapes, stronger activations of middle temporal gyrus (MT/V5), and hippocampus were found in the aesthetic judgments of dynamic landscapes. This study provided neural evidence that visual processing related regions, emotion-related regions were more active when viewing dynamic landscapes than static ones, which also indicated that dynamic stimuli were more beautiful than static ones.

scholarly journals Autonomy and Aesthetic Engagement

Mind ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 129 (516) ◽  
pp. 1127-1156 ◽  
Author(s):  
C Thi Nguyen
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Aesthetic Appreciation ◽  
Aesthetic Value ◽  
Aesthetic Object ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Motivational Structure ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The One ◽  
The Right ◽  
Aesthetic Judgments

Abstract There seems to be a deep tension between two aspects of aesthetic appreciation. On the one hand, we care about getting things right. Our attempts at aesthetic judgments aim at correctness. On the other hand, we demand autonomy. We want appreciators to arrive at their aesthetic judgments through their own cognitive efforts, rather than through deferring to experts. These two demands seem to be in tension; after all, if we want to get the right judgments, we should defer to the judgments of experts. How can we resolve this tension? The best explanation, I suggest, is that aesthetic appreciation is something like a game. When we play a game, we try to win. But often, winning isn’t the point; playing is. Aesthetic appreciation involves the same flipped motivational structure: we aim at the goal of correctness, but having correct judgments isn’t the point. The point is the engaged process of interpreting, investigating, and exploring the aesthetic object. When one defers to aesthetic testimony, then, one makes the same mistake as when one looks up the answer to a puzzle, rather than solving it for oneself. The shortcut defeats the whole point. This suggests a new account of aesthetic value: the engagement account. The primary value of the activity of aesthetic appreciation lies in the process of trying to generate correct judgments, and not in having correct judgments.

Self-Consistency, Value Strength and Aesthetic Judgments

1966 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 367-370 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugene L. Hartley ◽  
Shirley Schwartz
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Test ◽  
Aesthetic Judgment ◽  
The Self ◽  
Aesthetic Value ◽  
Rank Difference ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Index 2 ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Self Consistency ◽  
Aesthetic Judgments

An empirical test was made of the relation of self-consistency to strength of the aesthetic value in determining aesthetic judgments. 25 undergraduate Ss responded to 24 paintings. From each respondent was collected: (1) using a self-anchoring scale adaptation, a self-rating of personality characteristics subjectively deemed the significant attributes characterizing those who liked and disliked each painting as the self-concept index, (2) rating of the degree of liking each painting on a six-point scale as the aesthetic behavior studied and (3) score on the Aesthetic Value of the Allport-Vernon-Lindzey Study of Values as the index of the strength or importance of the particular value involved. Tetrachoric correlations of the 24 sets of responses made by each individual in (1) and (2) were used as the indices of self-consistency. The mean rt = .50 ( p < .01). Rank difference correlations of these rts and the score on the Aesthetic Value from (3) indicated the importance of the value in determining the strength of the self-consistency ( rho = .39, p < 05), confirming the significance of this correlate of the self-consistency dynamic in aesthetic judgment.

scholarly journals AESTHETIC EXPERIENCE AND AESTHETIC JUDGMENTS: THE FEATURES OF THE RELATIONSHIPS

2020 ◽  
pp. 187-194
Keyword(s):  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Aesthetic Judgment ◽  
Human Existence ◽  
Inner Life ◽  
Complete Absorption ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
The Mind ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
Aesthetic Judgments

The article examines the essence and relationship of aesthetic experience and aesthetic judgment. It is argued that philosophical aesthetics deals with constants that are fundamental to aesthetic experience. Such constants are phenomena and characteristics that have a fundamental ontological status in the aesthetic sphere. It was found that the ontological characteristic of aesthetic experience is that it is not reducible to “pure” rationality, that is, it is not something that is “adapted” to complete and final comprehension by the mind alone. Therefore, a complete “absorption” of aesthetic experience by a certain semantic structure is impossible: such experience always goes beyond any discursive boundaries and simultaneously opens them. In addition, aesthetic experience serves as one of the means of a person’s “contact” with the world and society. Forming on the material of sensations, aesthetic experience extends from the most general ideas about the universe to the inner life of a person. The analysis also showed that the formulation of an aesthetic judgment is based on the concepts of the perfect and the imperfect. In turn, the mastery of such concepts is carried out in the process of correlating a certain aesthetic fact with the existing value scale. That is why aesthetic judgments have signs of normativity. They also create the basis for a common worldview and attitude, lay the foundation for mutual understanding between people of a certain culture. The study showed that the process of aesthetic assessment is a constant correlation of the existing state of affairs with something ideal (within a certain value scale), this is a permanent “demand” for perfection, as well as a tireless search for an opportunity to fulfill this “demand”. At the same time, ethical experience is dissociated from “pure” pragmatics, which personifies vital necessity, because the aesthetic sphere is always associated with a certain “redundancy” in human existence. Also, the results obtained in the course of the study suggested that philosophical aesthetics, which takes into account and investigates the specificity of the phenomenon of corporeality, as well as such phenomena of human existence as affective sensitivity and sensitive rationality, is able to overcome the limitation of “an-esthetic” naturalism in aesthetics.

The Fundamental Problem of Environmental Aesthetics

2019 ◽  
pp. 103-126
Author(s):  
Robert Stecker
Keyword(s):  
Fundamental Problem ◽  
Background Knowledge ◽  
Aesthetic Judgment ◽  
The Other ◽  
Central Issue ◽  
Environmental Aesthetics ◽  
Natural Objects ◽  
Aesthetic Judgments

The central issue in environmental aesthetics is whether there are norms that constrain aesthetic judgments about nature. This chapter will first explain why the search for constraints on aesthetic judgments about natural objects plays such a central role in environmental aesthetics. It will then try to figure out what kinds of norms might be invoked, and what principles or assumptions explain the choice of norms. The chapter considers two aspects of aesthetic judgment about which one might attempt to lay down some norms. One concerns the objects of aesthetic judgment. The other covers the background knowledge one needs to make appropriate or correct judgments. The chapter concludes by considering what role, if any, imagination and emotion play in such judgments.

Should Moral Judgments Affect Aesthetic Judgments (or the Other Way Around)?

Dangerous Art ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 144-160
Author(s):  
James Harold
Keyword(s):  
Moral Judgment ◽  
Complete Separation ◽  
Aesthetic Judgment ◽  
Moral Judgments ◽  
The Other ◽  
Aesthetic Value ◽  
Normative Question ◽  
Aesthetic Judgments

This chapter offers a defense of autonomism—the view that aesthetic and moral judgments are independent of one another. When we ask whether judging an artwork to be morally bad affects its aesthetic value, we are asking a normative question about what it is best for us to do. Should we take a moral judgment about the effects of an artwork to bear on our aesthetic judgment about the work itself? The chapter argues that we do not make any error if we refuse to change one judgment in light of the other. We are free to keep them separate. This chapter concludes with replies to objections from both those who endorse a stronger link between morality and aesthetics as well as those who want a complete separation.

scholarly journals AESTHETICS AND JUDGMENT: “WHY KANT GOT IT RIGHT”

2018 ◽  
Vol 26 (54) ◽  
Author(s):  
Morten Kyndrup
Keyword(s):  
Social Cohesion ◽  
Aesthetic Judgment ◽  
Short Paper ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Creation ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Point Of Departure ◽  
Aesthetic Preferences ◽  
As If ◽  
Aesthetic Judgments

The article argues that although all scholars within aesthetics basically know and recognize it, there is a tendency in many of its traditions to forget or to underestimate the importance of the aesthetic judgment. With Thierry de Duve’s short paper “Why Kant got it Right” as its point of departure, this importance is discussed. Not only its importance in aesthetic relations and to aesthetics as a discipline, but also in a broader sense, through the contribution to the overall social cohesion of society, offered by aesthetic judgments. All judgments are pronounced as-if a shared scale of aesthetic preferences did exist (which it does not). Judgments are addressed to communities, to the notion of a joint “we”, and thus they do participate in the creation and the maintenance of the social as such. Also professional aesthetic critique, including art critique, should be aware of that, since even historically achieved differentiations and divisions of labour may be lost again if not being developed and kept up to date.

scholarly journals The Impact of Motor Imageries on Aesthetic Judgment of Chinese Calligraphy: An fMRI Study

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mingcheng He ◽  
Wei Zhang ◽  
Hira Shahid ◽  
Yushan Liu ◽  
Xiaoling Liang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Motor Imagery ◽  
Aesthetic Experience ◽  
Aesthetic Judgment ◽  
Aesthetic Appreciation ◽  
Chinese Calligraphy ◽  
Imaging Results ◽  
Kinesthetic Imagery ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Aesthetic Judgments

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.

Quantitative Effects of Global Tempo on Expressive Timing in Music Performance: Some Perceptual Evidence

1995 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruno H. Repp
Keyword(s):  
Significant Interaction ◽  
Modulation Depth ◽  
Music Performance ◽  
Aesthetic Judgment ◽  
Performance Measurements ◽  
Point Scale ◽  
Relative Variation ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Temporal Dimensions

This study examines whether global tempo and expressive timing microstructure are independent in the aesthetic judgment of music performance. Measurements of tone interonset intervals in pianists' performances of pieces by Schumann ("Traumerei") and Debussy ("La fille aux cheveux de lin") at three different tempi show a tendency toward reduced relative variation in expressive timing at both faster and slower tempi, relative to the pianist's original tempo. However, this could reflect merely the pianists' discomfort when playing at an unfamiliar tempo. Therefore, a perceptual approach was taken here. Experimental stimuli were created artificially by independently manipulating global tempo (three levels) and "relative modulation depth" of expressive timing (RMD, five levels) in MIDI-recorded complete performances of the Schumann and Debussy pieces. Skilled pianists rated the quality of the resulting two sets of 15 performances on a 10-point scale. The question was whether the same RMD would receive the highest rating at all three tempi, or whether an interaction would emerge, such that different RMDs are preferred at different tempi. A small but significant interaction was obtained for both pieces, indicating that the listeners preferred a reduced RMD when the tempo was increased, but the same or a larger RMD when the tempo was decreased. Thus, they associated an increase in tempo with a decrease in (relative) expressive timing variation, which, in general agreement with the performance data, suggests that the two temporal dimensions are not independent.

Visual asymmetries during face encoding Increased dwell time and fixations in the upper and left hemifields

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fatima Maria Felisberti
Keyword(s):  
Face Recognition ◽  
Eye Movements ◽  
Visual Field ◽  
Face Processing ◽  
Dwell Time ◽  
The Other ◽  
Environmental Cues ◽  
Reading Habits ◽  
The Right

Visual field asymmetries (VFA) in the encoding of groups rather than individual faces has been rarely investigated. Here, eye movements (dwell time (DT) and fixations (Fix)) were recorded during the encoding of three groups of four faces tagged with cheating, cooperative, or neutral behaviours. Faces in each of the three groups were placed in the upper left (UL), upper right (UR), lower left (LL), or lower right (LR) quadrants. Face recognition was equally high in the three groups. In contrast, the proportion of DT and Fix were higher for faces in the left than the right hemifield and in the upper rather than the lower hemifield. The overall time spent looking at the UL was higher than in the other quadrants. The findings are relevant to the understanding of VFA in face processing, especially groups of faces, and might be linked to environmental cues and/or reading habits.

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