scholarly journals Can art promote understanding? A review of the psychology and neuroscience of aesthetic cogntivism

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander P. Christensen ◽  
Eileen Cardillo ◽  
Anjan Chatterjee
Keyword(s):  
Visual Art ◽  
Motivational States ◽  
Intuitive Appeal ◽  
New Knowledge ◽  
Empirical Investigations

Art promotes knowledge and understanding. Philosophers have debated this proposition, which is referred to as aesthetic cognitivism. Despite its intuitive appeal, few empirical investigations have tested the validity of this claim. In our review, we outline philosophical arguments for and against aesthetic cognitivism. Then, we discuss how empirical aesthetics and neuroscience can contribute to conversations about aesthetic cognitivism, with a focus on visual art. We propose that engagement is necessary to acquire new knowledge and understanding, describe motivational states associated with engagement, and posit who is most likely to experience these states and engage with art. We conclude with a discussion on how aesthetic cognitivism might be measured and modeled. By grounding aesthetic cognitivism in empirical aesthetics, researchers can construct testable hypotheses about art’s role in promoting knowledge and understanding.

scholarly journals Can art promote understanding? A review of the psychology and neuroscience of aesthetic cognitivism

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexander P. Christensen ◽  
Eileen Cardillo ◽  
Anjan Chatterjee
Keyword(s):  
Visual Art ◽  
Motivational States ◽  
Intuitive Appeal ◽  
New Knowledge ◽  
Empirical Investigations

Art promotes knowledge and understanding. Philosophers have debated this proposition, which is referred to as aesthetic cognitivism. Despite its intuitive appeal, few empirical investigations have tested the validity of this claim. In our review, we outline philosophical arguments for and against aesthetic cognitivism. Then, we discuss how empirical aesthetics and neuroscience can contribute to conversations about aesthetic cognitivism, with a focus on visual art. We propose that engagement is necessary to acquire new knowledge and understanding, describe motivational states associated with engagement, and posit who is most likely to experience these states and engage with art. We conclude with a discussion on how aesthetic cognitivism might be measured and modeled. By grounding aesthetic cognitivism in empirical aesthetics, researchers can construct testable hypotheses about art’s role in promoting knowledge and understanding.

scholarly journals THE SPACE BETWEEN US

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wilson Yeung Chun Wai ◽  
Estefanía Salas Llopis
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Art ◽  
Visual Art ◽  
Cultural Exchange ◽  
Art Exhibitions ◽  
Art Exhibition ◽  
New Knowledge ◽  
Collective Innovation ◽  
Collective Creation ◽  
Different Cultures

This article explores how to integrate the collective creation of contemporary art exhibitions, and how to transform exhibition works into contemporary language and novel visual art materials, thereby generating cultural exchange between Australia and Spain. The Space Between Us (2017- ), co-curated by Australian artist-curator Wilson Yeung and Spanish artist Estefanía Salas Llopis, resolve these questions by examining the contemporary art exhibition. This paper also asks how to transform art exhibitions into laboratories, how artists and curators work together in a collective innovation environment, how collective creation generates new knowledge, and how to develop collective creation among creative participants from different cultures and backgrounds. 

Food-Evoked Changes in Humans

2010 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Walla ◽  
Maria Richter ◽  
Stella Färber ◽  
Ulrich Leodolter ◽  
Herbert Bauer
Keyword(s):  
Food Intake ◽  
Startle Response ◽  
Brain Activity ◽  
Soft Drink ◽  
Ice Cream ◽  
Response Amplitude ◽  
Response Modulation ◽  
Motivational States ◽  
Localization Analysis ◽  
Study Participants

Two experiments investigate effects related to food intake in humans. In Experiment 1, we measured startle response modulation while study participants ate ice cream, yoghurt, and chocolate. Statistical analysis revealed that ice cream intake resulted in the most robust startle inhibition compared to no food. Contrasting females and males, we found significant differences related to the conditions yoghurt and chocolate. In females, chocolate elicited the lowest response amplitude followed by yoghurt and ice cream. In males, chocolate produced the highest startle response amplitude even higher than eating nothing, whereas ice cream produced the lowest. Assuming that high response amplitudes reflect aversive motivation while low response amplitudes reflect appetitive motivational states, it is interpreted that eating ice cream is associated with the most appetitive state given the alternatives of chocolate and yoghurt across gender. However, in females alone eating chocolate, and in males alone eating ice cream, led to the most appetitive state. Experiment 2 was conducted to describe food intake-related brain activity by means of source localization analysis applied to electroencephalography data (EEG). Ice cream, yoghurt, a soft drink, and water were compared. Brain activity in rostral portions of the superior frontal gyrus was found in all conditions. No localization differences between conditions occurred. While EEG was found to be insensitive, startle response modulation seems to be a reliable method to objectively quantify motivational states related to the intake of different foods.

Investment Traits and Intelligence in Adulthood

2013 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 82-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie von Stumm
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Fluid Intelligence ◽  
Need For Cognition ◽  
Openness To Experience ◽  
Intelligence Tests ◽  
Crystallized Intelligence ◽  
New Knowledge ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Over Time

Intelligence-as-knowledge in adulthood is influenced by individual differences in intelligence-as-process (i.e., fluid intelligence) and in personality traits that determine when, where, and how people invest their intelligence over time. Here, the relationship between two investment traits (i.e., Openness to Experience and Need for Cognition), intelligence-as-process and intelligence-as-knowledge, as assessed by a battery of crystallized intelligence tests and a new knowledge measure, was examined. The results showed that (1) both investment traits were positively associated with intelligence-as-knowledge; (2) this effect was stronger for Openness to Experience than for Need for Cognition; and (3) associations between investment and intelligence-as-knowledge reduced when adjusting for intelligence-as-process but remained mostly significant.

Oral Approach Avoidance

2019 ◽  
Vol 66 (5) ◽  
pp. 355-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Godinho ◽  
Margarida V. Garrido ◽  
Oleksandr V. Horchak
Keyword(s):  
Native Speakers ◽  
Writing System ◽  
Oral Movements ◽  
Motivational States ◽  
Oral Approach ◽  
Approach Avoidance ◽  
Abstract Words ◽  
European Family

Abstract. Words whose articulation resembles ingestion movements are preferred to words mimicking expectoration movements. This so-called in-out effect, suggesting that the oral movements caused by consonantal articulation automatically activate concordant motivational states, was already replicated in languages belonging to Germanic (e.g., German and English) and Italic (e.g., Portuguese) branches of the Indo-European family. However, it remains unknown whether such preference extends to the Indo-European branches whose writing system is based on the Cyrillic rather than Latin alphabet (e.g., Ukrainian), or whether it occurs in languages not belonging to the Indo-European family (e.g., Turkish). We replicated the in-out effect in two high-powered experiments ( N = 274), with Ukrainian and Turkish native speakers, further supporting an embodied explanation for this intriguing preference.

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