Empirical Studies of the Arts

Measured artistic impact (i.e., signs of being a masterpiece) in 105 compositions (containing 593 themes) by Beethoven, using a computer-managed content analysis. Two distinct measures of artistic impact, compositional popularity and aesthetic significance, were shown to be associated (often in a curvilinear fashion) with 4 content characteristics: melodic originality and variation and metric originality and variation. Some of these attributes are linked to such circumstances as the work's key, the instrumentation, and the number of movements; Beethoven's age and concurrent level of productivity, stress, and health; and the presence of international war in Europe. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Data on 8,992 themes were aggregated into 1,935 compositions by 172 composers from the Renaissance to the present day. It is concluded that the probability of a work being performed and recorded is a function of aesthetic attributes and melodic content, with direct and indirect effects of artistic, biographical, and historical conditions. Aesthetic taste is thus grounded in the intrinsic qualities of a piece, which in turn reflect the state of the composer at the time of composition. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Evaluated the presence and extent of Character Invasion (the effect of the character on the actor) and Director Influence (the effect of the director on actors' conceptualizations of their characters) by administering measures of semantic meaning to 10 college student actors participating in a production of Macbeth. Ss assessed how they perceived their characters and how they perceived themselves at 4 crucial times during the rehearsal to performance process (1st read-through, 1st run-through, last dress rehearsal, and 4th performance). The director assessed his conceptualizations of the play's characters at each of the 4 occasions, using the same semantic meaning measurement device. An analysis of the ratings casts doubt on both the character invasion and director influence hypotheses. However, there does seem to be an indirect director effect on actors' stage behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Compared recall of action in narrative film scenes that vary with regard to their necessity for the story, their typicality of the film's genre, and their function in the exposition or narrative development. These variables were dichotomized yielding a 2 × 2 × 2 design in which each of the 8 combinations of levels was represented by a specific scene. Recall of action was tested for each scene immediately after viewing the film and 1 wk later with 45 adults. Scenes that were necessary, typical, or that developed the narrative were recalled in greater detail, but only narrative development significantly increased the probability of recalling a scene's key action. Atypical scenes were better recalled during exposition, but typical scenes were better recalled during narrative development. There were no significant effects associated with delaying recall for 1 wk, nor with the ordinal position or amount of information in a scene. Results suggest that as the narrative develops, an event schema takes precedence over generic scripts in processing story information. Results are also discussed in terms of a "Script pointer plus tag" model, and it is suggested that plot and story may have different memory representations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Compared short- and long-term eventualist and preference responses of 45 students (aged 20–30 yrs) to 18 nonsense shapes of 3 different degrees of complexity. Ss rated the shapes according to their personal aesthetic preference and described the subjective content perceived in the shapes in 1 sentence. Eventualist and preference responses were positively intercorrelated in the short and long term. More complex stimuli received higher eventualist scores and decayed more slowly than less complex ones. More complex stimuli also scored better results in the scale of preferences, making the differences significant. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Examined the reliability and validity of an aesthetic judgment ability test, an instrument developed by the present authors to assess aesthetic judgment regarding paintings along specific dimensions (e.g., subject matter, expression, representation, forum). The test was administered to Ss differing in age and in extent of formal art training (123 junior high school students, 262 senior high school students, 54 university students, and 19 art experts). (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Investigated whether aesthetic and affective judgment are similar. 96 Ss (aged 19–50 yrs) rated 24 art pictures varying in theme and date of creation including 23 emotion-inducing slides representing different emotional qualities on 9 bipolar 8-point scales (e.g., warm-cold, meaningful-not meaningful). Factor analyses performed separately for each picture set revealed 2 basic dimensions, cognitive and emotional, which explained about 60% of the variance. ANOVA confirmed the differences between themes and date of creation for the art picture including the differences between emotional qualities of the emotion-inducing slides for both the cognitive and the emotional factor. Proportion of variance of the ratings explained by gender, age, and education was low. The results suggest that looking at art objects is a predominantly cognitive process requiring understanding whereas looking at emotional pictures evokes feelings with cognitive processes being only marginally involved. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Examined whether artistic background and verbal instructions influence the aesthetic preferences for rectangle proportions. Two types of instruction were used, and their effects on both naive and experienced (art school) students were assessed. Following a subjective instruction, emphasizing personal preference, mean ratings of 12 naive Ss revealed a preference peak around the Golden Section, whereas mean ratings of 12 experienced viewers peaked at the square. In the objective condition, involving judgment of the goodness of proportion regardless of personal liking, the mean preferences of both groups tended toward the square. Individual preference functions partly confirmed these mean patterns, but demonstrated large inter-S variability. The naive viewers were significantly more consistent in their ratings than the experienced ones. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Quantified 2 unique attributes of patterns that may elicit aesthetic preferences, namely, dimension and unpredictability. Exp 1, conducted with 24 college students who viewed 324 chaotic patterns, showed how aesthetic preferences correlate with the fractal dimension (F) and the Lyapunov exponent (L) of the patterns. F reflected the extent that space was filled, and L represented the unpredictability of the dynamic process that produced the pattern. Results show that preferred patterns had an average F = 1.26 and an average L = 0.37 bits per iteration, corresponding to many natural objects. The 2nd experiment, with 11 Ss, was a preliminary test of individual differences in preferences. Results suggest that self-reported creative individuals had a marginally greater preference for high F patterns, and self-reported scientific individuals preferred high L patterns. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Compared cognitive and affective responses of 10 naive female, 10 trained female, 10 naive male, and 10 trained male university students to 12 paintings. Ss rated the paintings individually on a series of scales and made comparative judgments of relative interest and pleasure between 66 possible pairs of the paintings. Naive females were significantly more sensitive to the emotional arousal (EA) dimension. Trained females were the least responsive to the EA dimension. Naive females and trained males were the most sensitive to the aesthetic effectance dimension. Comparative judgments of interest and pleasure were each based on 2 dimensions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Examined the relationship between measures of creativity and aesthetic preference and established personality scales in 3 studies involving 308 college students. Study 1 derived indices of fluency, originality, and preference for complexity and Meaningfulness using random polygons varying in complexity; the scales of the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire (Revised), a schizotypal personality scale, and the Sensation Seeking Scale Form V (see record 64:08099) were the personality measures. Study 2 added Openness to Experience from the NEO Personality Inventory (Revised) to the personality measures; factors derived from a music preference Scale were added to the creativity/preference set. Study 3 replaced the polygons used in Study 2 with 2 creativity tests, and added a word association task. Results suggest a substantial relationship between sensation-seeking, openness, and psychoticism, and a creativity/preference set particularly represented by preference for complexity, dislike of soft popular music, and originality or number of divergent thinking responses. Subscale analyses implicate willingness to question conventional values as a major component of the creative personality. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Used empirical-phenomenological methods to assess effects of aesthetic attitude on variations in aesthetic response. Immediately before viewing a painting, 30 Ss were randomly assigned to conditions in which they either attempted to physically relax or attempted to physically relax and psychically distance themselves from practical concerns. Then, Ss (1) provided verbal accounts of their experiences during 3 1-min viewings of a painting, (2) completed a painting style identification task, and (3) rated the target painting, the experimental procedures, and their background in art. Results revealed 5 distinct types of reported experience: tentative psychological interpretation, stereotyped rejection, quiet encounter, impatient overfamiliarity, and positive painterly evaluation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Three studies investigated the degree to which explanations by 108 undergraduates for a target person's reactions to tasks involving color evaluations were influenced by knowledge of others' choices in the same situation (consensus information). It was hypothesized that the assumed objectivity or subjectivity of a judgment is related to the utilization of such information. Each experiment involved the rendering of a judgment that was conceptualized as either objective (physical reality), quasi-objective (expert), or subjective (preference). Level of consensus or agreement regarding each judgment was also manipulated. In support of the hypothesis, results indicate that consensus information exerted an overall effect on attributions but had the most impact in the case of objective judgments. It is suggested that convergence of opinion may lead to the inference that an aesthetic judgment has an external, objective reference. The ramifications of normative evidence for the internal consumption of aesthetics are considered. (21 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

A short narrative film, edited in 4 ways (by varying the amount and type of deviation from linear montage and the presentation of action and events in their canonical order), was presented to 96 francophone adults. It was found that recall of action and reconstruction of the linear order of events were strongly associated with the degree of montage linearity, regardless of the particular plot or motives that were inferred. However, the most veridical perceptions of the protagonists were produced by a relatively deviant version, along with unexpectedly high recall and linear comprehension. Results suggest that understanding and recalling a film's events and an actor's behavior depended on the interplay between the underlying story grammar and the way the montage implied temporal continuity or a retroactive match through its depiction of spatial relations and movement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Three experiments with 85 undergraduates compared the aesthetic quality of compositions based on the golden section rectangle with compositions based on a rectangle with the ratio of 1.5. Ss made preference rankings for patterns that were based either on the golden section rectangle or the 1.5 rectangle. Results show that patterns based on the 1.5 rectangle were slightly preferred over the patterns based on the golden section. It is concluded that the golden section does not have a special aesthetic quality as compared with the ratio 1.5, and that other characteristics of visual patterns are more important from an aesthetic point of view. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Proposes a general model of perception and affect in consumer psychology. The model is illustrated in a reanalysis of data (see M. B. Holbrook and P. Anand; PA, Vol 78:11637) from 44 undergraduates who listened to a computerized jazz piece played at 14 different tempos while they were in either a low- or high-arousal condition. Results corroborate a previously established effect of current tempo on perceived activity, the nonmonotonic effect of current tempo on affect, and the rightward shift of this preference function due to increases in situational arousal. These findings are extended by showing (1) a contrast effect in which slower prior tempos raise the level of current perceived activity, and (2) an intervening role for perceived activity in partially mediating the effects of current tempo and fully mediating the effects of prior tempo on affect. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Examined relationships among 7 aesthetic response scales by requiring 140 Ss (aged 16–80 yrs) to rank 15 paintings. Three of 5 evaluative scales used (likeability, pleasingness, and preferability) were positively intercorrelated. Using these scales to examine painting content (landscape, portrait, still-life) and style (e.g., Impressionism, Surrealism) revealed that the scales did not always yield similar results. Although content effects were similar on all 3 scales, likeability and preferability were relatively insensitive to style effects, while pleasingness was more sensitive. Conclusions drawn from studies using aesthetic scales may depend on the particular scale used. The commonly used likeability and preferability scales, despite their apparent ecological validity, may not be the most informative ones. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Conducted 2 experiments involving 82 German university students to determine if different verbal criteria cause people to produce or select different proportions, with particular interest in testing the golden section hypothesis. One of the experiments followed G. T. Fechner's (1876) method of production, i.e., Ss had to draw rectangles, and the other experiment used the method of choice, i.e., Ss had to sort rectangles. Results show that different criteria lead to different proportions in the material produced and sorted, respectively. Thus, preference judgments seem to be the outcome of a mechanism of information processing that can use both sources of information, that is, the physical arrangement of the stimuli and the cognitively represented concept of the S. However, under neither condition was there a preference for the golden section. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

According to C. Martindale's (e.g., Martindale and K. Moore; see record 1989-10737-001) cognitive theory, the main determinant of aesthetic preference is prototypicality, and preference is usually related to its determinant in a monotonic or U-shaped fashion. Contrary to this view, it is argued that the empirical evidence that prototypicality is the main determinant of aesthetic preference is not convincing. The danger of circularity of explaining preference ratings by preference ratings is not precluded, and it is questionable whether the experiments reported by Martindale actually are experiments in the field of aesthetics. Finally, stable typicality effects may not be found in the case of aesthetically significant categories like paintings, sonatas, and poems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Studied the relationship between preferability, pleasingness, and interestingness scores for evaluations of 40 colors, 40 15-sec music selections, and 40 surnames. 102 undergraduates rated color, music, and surnames for a single characteristic on a 5-point rating scale. Preferability was highly correlated with pleasingness. The correlations between preferability and interestingness, in contrast, were different for the different types of stimulus material. In the case of surnames, the common variance for pleasingness and interestingness was only 43%, and the correlation was negative. It is concluded that when choosing an evaluative scale, it may be best to avoid preferability and likability, despite the high ecological validity of these scales. The pleasingness scale or, if appropriate, the interestingness scale, may be expected to produce less ambiguous judgments. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Three experiments examined the relative impact of lyrics vs music on mood. In Exp 1, the lyrics, music, or lyrics plus music of a sad song were presented to 42 college students. While the music alone increased positive affect and decreased depression, the lyrics plus music had the opposite effect. In Exp 2 (44 college students), the sad lyrics plus music also increased depression and decreased positive affect even when performed in an upbeat style. Exp 3 (40 college students) showed that pairing the melody with the sad lyrics led Ss to rate the melody alone as less pleasant 1 wk later. Lyrics appear to have greater power to direct mood change than music alone and can imbue a particular melody with affective qualities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Studied affective and emotional processes of 20 male and 20 female undergraduates in reading action-oriented and experience-oriented literary narratives using reading time and time estimation measures. The study tested hypotheses about these story types and about the relation between the emotional appeal of each story-type and time measures. Structural affects, which are predominant in action-oriented stories, accelerated reading, whereas empathy and identification with characters' emotions as well as the presence of the self-related emotions that are characteristic of experience-oriented stories slowed reading time. Action-oriented texts led to a shorter duration of both reading time and episode time, whereas experience-oriented texts resulted in an expansion of time experience. Most of the contradictory results found here could be explained by strong gender effects in how types of texts were read. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Examined the relationship between story understanding, memory, and attitude toward the contents of a story among 34 US college freshmen and 48 students (mean age 17.5 yrs) from the Attila József Grammar School in Budapest. An American and a Hungarian short story dealing with the social class vs repression dimension were used. Half of each population read 1, the 2nd half the other story, in 3-3 segments. Ss indicated their understanding of some sentences in a set of original and false, aggressive, cooperative, and evasive versions on 7 7-point scales. Ss judged the content of the sentences from the points of view of refusal, activity, aggressivity, security, oppression, strength, and anxiety on 5-point scales. Significant cross-cultural differences existed between the 2 populations in the content of the response-categories of understanding and the sensitivity toward aggressivity, oppression, and anxiety. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Reviews data on anaphora in narratives to evaluate 2 specific models of narrative structure: Story Grammar and Conceptual Dependency. Whereas Story Grammar deals with kinds of actions in a narrative and their relationship to one another, Conceptual Dependency provides a scheme for describing goals and actions of characters and their relation to memory and cognition. It is concluded that the Conceptual Dependency is more compatible with the facts of anaphora presented. The characteristics of a more suitable narrative theory are outlined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Explored the effects on 264 undergraduates of presenting different categories of art in contrasting order. In Exp 1, traditional and abstract paintings and Chinese calligraphy were used as stimuli, each type contrasting with the others, which led to shifts in appreciation as well as in perceived complexity. In Exp 2, fragments of traditional and modern classical music were presented. Again, results demonstrated enhancement of the appreciation of traditional music but no decrease in the appreciation of modern music. It seems that when art is concerned only positive contrast effects are obtained. It may be that it is considered socially undesirable to admit a lesser appreciation of modern than of traditional art. In Exp 3, socially neutral stimuli, real vs fake Chinese ideographs, differing in aesthetic quality, were contrasted. This yielded the expected positive as well as negative effects. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

19 college poets completed a 20-item check list that asked them how they felt about writing in general as well as before, at a pause, and after 7 poetry writing sessions. The intensity with which they experienced positive, negative passive, and negative active emotions was assessed as was the frequency with which those emotions were experienced when writing in general. Results indicate that the positive emotions intensified during writing. Instructor-rated skilled poets experienced more positive emotions than their unskilled counterparts. But poets rating themselves as unskilled felt both more positive and negative active when writing than their skilled counterparts. Student poets unaccustomed to writing on their own experienced more intense emotions across the writing episodes than those with more years. Free writing was associated with more intense anxiety than structured poetry exercises. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

179 Ss in 6 studies compared mass-produced and museum art. In 4 studies, preferences for the 2 kinds of art were compared. In 2 studies, recognition of the 2 kinds of art was tested. Either 16 or 28 examples of both kinds of art were shown either singly or in matched pairs, as slides or as photos; Ss were either informed or not about the kinds of art they were seeing. Ss of different ages, education, and art backgrounds were tested in various locations. Results indicate that both mass-produced and museum art were liked about equally, and the difference between the 2 kinds of art was not recognized. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Studied the appeal of mass-produced art (MPA), a popular and affordable type of art found in homes, businesses, and public places, but not in museums. Slides and photos of MPA were rated in 3 studies with 113 Ss who differed in sex and age (ranging from teenagers to older adults) and in educational and art backgrounds. MPA was generally liked, irrespective of individual differences. Other evaluative responses (whether the art was good, would be hung at home, and recommended for museum purchase) were also generally positive. Scenes from nature were most preferred, while still lifes and cityscapes were not. The contribution of popular art to the psychology of art and aesthetic theory is discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Administered the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking, the Remote Associates Test, The Quick Test, the Deciphering Language subscale of the Factor-Referenced Cognitive Tests, an artistic preference test, and a battery of hemisphere reference tests to 100 17–30 yr old Ss to determine whether highly creative Ss can be differentiated from Ss with lesser creativity on the basis of hemispheric processing. Results show that Ss with high creativity exhibited a greater tendency to habitually employ the right hemisphere in task solution and a pattern of cerebral lateralization marked by a greater segregation of verbal functions to the left hemisphere and bilateral representation of a nonverbal, melodic function. Predicting creativity level on the basis of hemispheric task performance was observed even when general intellectual abilities were equated in the high and low creative groups. (32 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Replicated the author's (1977) study assessing response to male and female comedians using 74 female and 68 male undergraduates. Comparison of the previous and present results revealed considerable change in contemporary evaluations of women comedians, whose ratings currently equal those of male comics. As both males and females showed enhanced appreciation for comedians of their own gender, it is suggested that reference groups and social perception provide a basis for understanding the role exerted on humor appreciation by gender. The social context of women's humor is discussed in terms of women's disinterest in comedy, stereotypes of femininity, acquisition of comedy skills, and the perception of women as funny. (55 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

The study of eye movements has been very successful in providing empirical support for theoretical writings concerning the influence of pictorial balance on perceptual processing of pictures and other types of visual displays. This article describes the nature of pictorial balance that emerges from eye movement research and related empirical findings. A graphic representation of the interaction of stimulus-driven and cognitively-driven aspects of balance perception derived from this literature is presented and discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Notes that orchestral musicians earn larger salaries as their career development wins them employment in major orchestras but that they may simultaneously face decreased musical satisfaction from their work. Such trade-offs and other contradictions are used in the development of a structural equation model of orchestral career commitment. The model is fitted to survey data drawn from a national sample of 6 symphony orchestras. (26 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Conducted 3 experiments in which 9 emotional themes were presented in dance expressions by 3 professional dance students. In Exp 1, these dance expressions were presented to 40 children (aged 5, 8, 10, and 12 yrs). Ss' free response interpretations were analyzed for adequacy, conceptual level, and complexity of response. Clear age trends emerged, especially differentiating the 5-yr-olds from the other groups. In Exp 2, 40 age-matched children and 10 adults viewed the dance themes and their interpretations were analyzed using a multiple choice response format. The same age trends were found. In Exp 3, 10 5-yr-olds and 11 8-yr-olds with dance experience and 10 5-yr-olds and 10 8-yr-olds without dance experience were compared. Experienced Ss used more emotional labels in interpreting the dance items. In the medium of dance, emotional interpretations gradually emerge from a preceding stage in which movements are imbued with action tendencies. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

In this first part of a report on work on metaphors, an approach to interpreting metaphor in a computational framework is described. The approach is based on the idea of selective inferencing, in which a processor draws or refrains from drawing certain inferences in a controlled fashion. A simple metaphor and a spatial metaphor schema are examined in this light. It is suggested that this treatment, from the perspective of artificial intelligence, accommodates the fundamental insight. In the second part of the report a novel metaphor will be examined, and a discussion of some classic issues concerning metaphor (the analogical processes that underlie metaphor, the stages in the life of a metaphor, and the definition of metaphor) will take place. (47 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

79 5th graders and 69 undergraduates indicated the magnitude of their preferences between pairs of 7 surface colors and later used the same 7 colors in a task to achieve color harmony to examine whether Ss' color preferences could be scaled on an interval or ratio scale. It is noted that, if Ss' preferences could be scaled, it would be possible to use parametric tests to study the relationships among the strength of color preference, the use of colors in painting, and quantitative relations among colors, as derived from F. Birren's (1969) account of Munsell's laws of color harmony. Munsell's laws are based on the assumption that 3 perceptual variables—hue, brightness, and saturation—are necessary and sufficient to represent all colors. Results show that Ss' color preferences could be meaningfully measured on a ratio scale. The derived intensities of color preference were largely accounted for by Munsell's laws of harmony, which could also be extended to derive quantitative relations between surface colors with known Munsell designations. Intensities of color preference and the quantitative use of colors in the color-harmony task were strongly related within individual Ss. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Presents results of an illustrative study based on 2 aspects of consumer tastes for cultural products, i.e., nostalgia and cultural hierarchy, that have a significant impact on the structure of the market. 156 adults rated their preferences towards sets of 3 products from 21 cultural categories, including movies, television, books, theater, sports, politics, and commercial advertising. Each category included a product from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s or 1980s. Results supported the hypothesis that taste patterns reflect age-related nostalgia and indicate a hierarchy from highbrow to lowbrow cultural products. Furthermore, Ss who were White, male, and Christian tended relatively to favor the more popular or lowbrow aspects of the consumer culture. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Studied the relationship of 5 motives (sensory arousal, cognitive arousal, escapism, mastery-control, and emotional involvement) and preferences for different types of content across media (literature, motion pictures, and TV programs). Data were gathered by distributing structured questionnaires to behavioral science graduate students. Students completed 1 questionnaire themselves and administered it to 4 nonstudents. The sample size was 364. Findings regarding sensory/sensual arousal suggest that it is linked to motion picture and literature content depicting violence, action, excitement, and sexuality. Findings for TV programming suggest that this medium serves as a primarily escapist vehicle for males. For females, TV viewing preference appears to be most strongly associated with the traditional female sex role (i.e., those having the emotional involvement/companionship motive). (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Examined whether the emotional and intellectual responses to sculptures increase or decrease over time. A second purpose was to explore the effects on these ratings of generating or receiving accounts of what was happening in these scenes. 72 Ss viewed 4 groups of figurative sculptures in a public gallery and rated them twice on 9 7-point scales. Ss generated interpretations for 2 sculptures and received interpretations for 2 others between the 1st and 2nd ratings. Results show that emotional responses predominated during the initial encounter, while intellectual activity was more significant in the second one. Generating interpretations reduced the tendency for emotional impact and perceived originality to diminish over time. A qualitative analysis suggests 4 kinds of written interpretations; objectifying, personalizing, universalizing, and metaphorizing. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

This article presents a quantitative analysis of Picasso's preliminary works for his painting Guernica, to examine the nature of the thought processes underlying creation of this great work of art and to demonstrate the usefulness of quantitative methods in studying creation of a single work of art. Results indicated that the preliminary works for Guernica were drawn from a very limited subject matter, which was closely related to the event that stimulated the painting. In addition, the overall structure of the painting can be seen from the very first sketches. Finally, the idea which served as the core for Guernica came out of Picasso's work at that time. These findings indicate that Picasso's creative process can be looked upon as elaborating a kernel idea, rather than generating numerous different ideas, and culling the final direction from them at a later stage. These results have two implications. Specifically, they indicate that it is possible to analyze the structure in Picasso's thought processes; more broadly, they demonstrate that development of individual works of art can be analyzed using quantitative methods to test hypotheses concerning the creative process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Discusses the art of 2 mentally retarded men to demonstrate the imaginative expression that occurs in a receptive environment such as a talented handicapped artist's workshop. These 2 Ss represent different levels of retardation (mild vs moderate) and varying degrees of artistic talent. Both exhibited the interpersonal growth that can accompany creative expansion. As a result, the Ss experienced an increased sense of competence that has provided the foundation for an identity as an artist. This creative opening was accompanied by an increased willingness and effectiveness in interpersonal communication. The technical and compositional proficiency displayed by the Ss challenges the traditional expectations of social-emotional delay and creative deficit in mental retardation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Investigated the influence of reader and text variables on personal resonance while reading literature. The distance between readers' cultural background and the thematic content of the text was studied. A Hungarian short story was presented to 40 Hungarian (culturally proximate) and 42 Danish (culturally distant) readers (aged 17–18 yrs). Narrative point of view (POV) was manipulated by changing some inside POV passages to outside POV. Cultural proximity resulted in the generation of more personally experienced, contextually rich, and vividly remembered events. The use of inside psychological POV in the story enhanced this effect only in the Hungarian Ss. The phenomenal quality of remindings elicited locally by reading the inside POV text passages differed from those of the same passages written from the outside POV, irrespective of Ss' cultural background. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

20 professional dancers learned a series of dance steps derived from a base geometric pattern and were given a recognition task in which previously experienced dance steps were performed along with new steps and a prototype dance. Ss judged if each of a 2nd set of dance steps was old or new and gave confidence ratings. Results show that professional dancers falsely recognized the prototype dance as an old dance. The judged familiarity of test dances was directly related to the mathematically determined similarity of test items to the prototype. A 2nd group of 34 nonprofessional Ss were presented with identical conditions and falsely recognized the prototype dance as an old dance. Results suggest that dance experts and nonexperts store frequently experienced features of a complex motor task and manifest this memory by giving false alarms to a prototypical pattern of a learning set. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Investigated the homogeneity of texts and demonstrated their trend and rhythmic properties. The corpus reported on in the present article is made up of 2 sets of texts. The 1st set consists of 7 reference texts (mostly short stories) to serve as foil for a 2nd set of 18 texts written and distributed by a Belgian terrorist group during 1984 and 1985. PROTAN, a computer-aided content analysis system, was used. Findings point 1st to the psychological significance of whether texts are homogeneous or not on a given dictionary. They point 2nd to the pertinence of content rhythms for describing texts. Results show that, compared to the reference texts, the 18 target texts are more orderly in more ways. This is in opposition to the opinion generally held by public authorities. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Challenged D. E. Berlyne's (1960, 1971) psychobiological theory, that the main determinants of esthetic preference are collative variables such as complexity and novelty, which are related to preference in an inverted- U manner. According to the present 1st author's (see record 1985-02765-001) cognitive theory, the main determinant of esthetic preference is prototypicality or meaningfulness, related to preference in a monotonic or U-shaped fashion. Three experiments concerning preference for semantic category exemplars were conducted on a sample of 133 female undergraduates. Typicality accounted for 8 or 9 times more of explained variance in preference than did long-term novelty, short-term novelty, or mere exposure. Preference was related to both typicality and collative variables by monotonic or U-shaped functions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Conducted a series of experiments examining the frequency and distribution of words evoking 22 different themes in A. Gide's (1958) l'Immoraliste to determine the extent to which existing statistical packages can be used for literary purposes. Multidimensional scaling and clustering results demonstrate that simple statistical techniques using standard programs such as THEME can produce parallel results to a traditional (i.e., impressionist) literary analysis. These techniques also permitted a refinement of the literary analysis. Regression produced less satisfying results. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Defines the golden section (GS) and presents examples of its occurrence. A review of experiments concerning the aesthetic quality of the GS indicates that the GS is more pleasing than other proportions. Studies addressing the GS are considered, including those on the evaluation of people, conservation of the GS, use of the GS to maximize information, and overtly marked dimensions. Results indicate that the GS informs the way distinctions are made such that when 1 thing is divided into 2 parts, the division tends to be made using the GS. It is suggested that the GS may be useful for understanding other forms of experience beside the aesthetic. (60 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Examined the effects of presenting titles along with abstract and semi-abstract paintings in 2 experiments. In the 1st, 160 adults rated 20 paintings for meaningfulness, pleasingness, interestingness, abstractness, or complexity in a between-Ss design, either with or without titles. The titles increased rated meaningfulness and decreased rated abstractness but had no effect on pleasingness (hedonic value) and other measures. In the 2nd experiment, with 36 adults, only the paintings' actual titles, and not bogus ones, increased their meaningfulness. The results are discussed in terms of the notion that titles are an aid to meaningful interpretation of paintings. The finding that titles increased meaningfulness but did not affect hedonic value is inconsistent with the theory that the hedonic value of paintings is linked to cognitive processes associated with meaning interpretation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Explores the immediate responses reported by a group of the present author's college-level students after they read "Hardening into Print," a contemporary poem by R. Eberhart. The present author's own response to the poem is discussed, and student responses are classified according to typical operations (i.e., staging, hedging, citing, associating with key words, paraphrasing, normalizing, generalizing). Examples of each operation are presented. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

The perception of a product through vision creates expectations of what will be perceived through touch. However, the tactual information perceived may disconfirm the expectations formed, resulting in a surprise reaction. In two experiments, participants' reactions to products with visual-tactual incongruities were studied. Participants were 100 students enrolled in the Industrial Design Engineering department at the authors' university. Our main aim was to investigate differences in reactions to two groups of products ("Visible Novelty" and "Hidden Novelty") that are hypothesized to evoke two different surprise reactions. A group of control products without visual-tactual incongruities was also tested. Furthermore, different measures of surprise, such as self-reports of the intensity of the surprise, observational measures of exploratory behavior, vocal expressions, and facial expressions were explored. Clear differences were found in participants' reactions toward products in the control group versus products with visual-tactual incongruities. Reactions toward products in the two groups of surprising products differed only slightly. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)

Argues that Bogolanfini, mud-dyed cloths painted by women of the Bamana tribe in Mali (West Africa), are documents containing coded knowledge and are "speech made visible." Bogolanfini designs are regular geometric patterns; however, they are invariably marked by "inaccuracies" and irregularities. It is contended that these irregularities are not mistakes but are intentional. The inaccuracies serve to conceal this knowledge from all but the initiated and are analogous to the ambiguities in indigenous writing systems. In Bamana culture, direct speech is frowned on, and metaphorical and ambiguous speech is favored. In some cases, direct communication of knowledge is believed to lead to madness. Hypothetically, the irregularities in Bogolanfini cloths reflect these cultural values concerning speech, writing, and communication in general. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)