In the white cube: Museum context enhances the valuation and memory of art

Author(s)
David Brieber, Marcos Nadal-Roberts, Helmut Leder
Abstract

Art museum attendance is rising steadily, unchallenged by online alternatives. However, the psychological value of the real museum experience remains unclear because the experience of art in the museum and other contexts has not been compared. Here we examined the appreciation and memory of an art exhibition when viewed in a museum or as a computer simulated version in the laboratory. In line with the postulates of situated cognition, we show that the experience of art relies on organizing resources present in the environment. Specifically, artworks were found more arousing, positive, interesting and liked more in the museum than in the laboratory. Moreover, participants who saw the exhibition in the museum later recalled more artworks and used spatial layout cues for retrieval. Thus, encountering real art in the museum enhances cognitive and affective processes involved in the appreciation of art and enriches information encoded in long-term memory.

Organisation(s)
Vienna Cognitive Science Hub, Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology
Journal
Acta Psychologica
Volume
154
Pages
36-42
No. of pages
7
ISSN
0001-6918
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actpsy.2014.11.004
Publication date
12-2014
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
501001 General psychology
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Developmental and Educational Psychology, Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
Portal url
https://ucris.univie.ac.at/portal/en/publications/in-the-white-cube-museum-context-enhances-the-valuation-and-memory-of-art(31e1524c-f7ba-447a-a025-eb5512fe3f17).html