What Experts Appreciate in Patterns: Art Expertise Modulates Preference for Asymmetric and Face-Like Patterns
- Author(s)
- Andreas Gartus, Mark Völker, Helmut Leder
- Abstract
This study set out to investigate whether and how aesthetic evaluations of different types of symmetric, as well as abstract vs. representational patterns are modulated by art expertise. To this end, we utilized abstract asymmetric, symmetric, and “broken” patterns slightly deviating from symmetry, as well as more representational patterns resembling faces (also symmetric or broken). While it has already been shown that symmetry preference decreases with art expertise, it was still unclear whether an already established relationship between art expertise and preference for abstract over representational art can be similarly found as a preference for abstract over representational patterns, as these are non-art objects. Nevertheless, we found profound differences in aesthetic preferences between art experts and laypersons. While art experts rated asymmetric patterns higher than laypersons, as expected, they rated face-like patterns lower than laypersons. Also, laypersons rated all other types of patterns higher than asymmetric patterns, while art experts rated the other patterns similar or lower than asymmetric patterns. We found this both for liking and for interest ratings. As no differences between art experts and laypersons were found regarding memory recognition of new and old patterns, this effect is not likely due to differences in memory performance. In sum, this study further extends our knowledge about the influence of art expertise on aesthetic appreciation.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology
- External organisation(s)
- University of Vienna
- Journal
- Symmetry
- Volume
- 12
- No. of pages
- 27
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3390/sym12050707
- Publication date
- 05-2020
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 501030 Cognitive science, 501001 General psychology, 501011 Cognitive psychology, 501006 Experimental psychology
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Computer Science (miscellaneous), Chemistry (miscellaneous), General Mathematics, Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/285f5393-1a27-4524-bd35-a20063a8f42f