
Matthew PelowskiUniversity of Vienna | UniWien · Fakultät für Psychologie
Matthew Pelowski
About
125
Publications
192,923
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
3,006
Citations
Introduction
•••• Project Coordinator: Horizon2020 Framework Programme, SC6-TRANSFORMATIONS, Societal Challenges and the Arts. ARTIS (Art and Research on Transformations of Individuals and Society). •••• 2020 Berlyne Award for outstanding research by a junior scholar, APA Division 10, Society for the Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. •••• 2016 Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten Award for Outstanding Contributions of a Young Scientist, International Association of Empirical Aesthetics.
Additional affiliations
July 2015 - present
January 2014 - January 2015
July 2011 - December 2013
Publications
Publications (125)
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a devastating diagnosis with, however, potential for an extremely intriguing aesthetic component. Despite motor and cognitive deficits, an emerging collection of studies report a burst of visual artistic output and alterations in produced art in a subgroup of patients. This provides a unique window into the neurophysiolo...
The past three decades have seen multiple reports of patients with neurodegenerative disorders, or other forms of putative changes in their brains, who also show changes in how they approach and produce visual art. Authors argue that these cases may provide a unique body of evidence, so-called ‘artistic signatures’ of neurodegenerative diseases tha...
Abstract:
Art viewing has been increasingly seen as having benefits for well-being. However, research on these impacts is disparate, and our understanding of the processes that underlie the impact of art viewing is underdeveloped. We present a systematic review (CRD42022296890), which critically evaluates the evidence of the well-being effects of a...
The use of art exhibitions to mediate people’s attitudes toward societal challenges—climate change, refugees; general prosocialness—is an emerging interest for institutions, artists, policy, and, recently, for empirical study. However, there is still much need for data regarding whether, and in which ways, we might detect attitude change. Even more...
Art-viewing is a defining component of society and culture, in part because the experience involves a wide-range and nuanced configuration of emotional and cognitive responses. Precisely because of this complexity, however, questions of the actual nature, scope, and variety of art experience remain largely unanswered: what kinds of patterns do we e...
Art viewing has been increasingly seen as having benefits for well-being. However, research on these impacts is disparate, and our understanding of the processes that underlie the impact of art viewing is underdeveloped. We present a systematic review (CRD42022296890), which critically evaluates the evidence of the well-being effects of art viewing...
Background
Conventional medical management, while essential, cannot address all multifaceted consequences of Parkinson’s disease (PD). This pilot study explores the potential of a co-designed creative arts therapy on health-related quality of life, well-being, and pertinent non-motor symptoms.
Methods
We conducted an exploratory pilot study with a...
We offer first, exploratory evidence into a design element employed by artists and curatorsto maximize impacts of art interventions towards attitude change. In two exhibitions involvingrefugee acceptance (Study 1, N = 41) and climate (Study 2, N = 49), we collected curator/artist-provided profiles of intended emotions, which were matched to viewer...
We offer first, exploratory evidence into a design element employed by artists and curatorsto maximize impacts of art interventions towards attitude change. In two exhibitions involvingrefugee acceptance (Study 1, N = 41) and climate (Study 2, N = 49), we collected curator/artist-provided profiles of intended emotions, which were matched to viewer...
Background
Recent research in the field of “Arts and Health” has demonstrated the beneficial impact of arts-based interventions on health and well-being across diverse populations. Recognizing their potential, especially in cases where conventional healthcare cannot address the multifaceted impact of conditions such as in Parkinson's disease (PD),...
Objective
Everyday creativity is fundamental to human existence and improved well‐being. Beyond recent attention regarding how contextual, lifestyle, personality, and neurobiological differences might foster everyday creativity, empathy may also constitute an intriguing connection. However, this potential relationship has not yet been systematicall...
Emotions are considered important in aesthetic experience. Given that emotions have bodily dimensions, it follows that interoception—the ability to perceive bodily signals accurately—may play a role in experiences of art. This raises the intriguing question of whether variation in interoceptive abilities relates to differences in art experience. We...
Background
Transformative experiences (TEs) have been conceptualized in many ways, contexts, magnitudes, and durations, but at their heart, they entail some manner of adjustment, which contributes to changing individuals’ worldviews, actions, views of others and/or their own feelings, personality, and identity. Among the many elicitors identified a...
This interdisciplinary study considers the intricate interplay between built environments and how individuals perceive and engage with their surroundings as well as how such perceptions influence their performance and well-being. Beyond meeting basic infrastructural needs, we argue that the emotional and aesthetic dimension of space-especially the...
Art research has long aimed to unravel the complex associations between specific attributes, such as color, complexity, and emotional expressiveness, and art judgments, including beauty, creativity, and liking. However, the fundamental distinction between attributes as inherent characteristics or features of the artwork and judgments as subjective...
Buildings are an integral part of our physical environment and have aesthetic significance with respect to the organizational integrity of architectural elements. While Gestalt principles are essential in design education, their relationship with architectural features remains understudied. The present study explored how Gestalt principles and comp...
Interest is emerging in how art can enhance well-being and positively impact mental health. One aspect concerning a more wide-ranging view of the potential well-being impacts of art is the idea that engaging art can make us feel more connected to our neighborhood or surroundings and give us a sense of community. Although this has long been a goal f...
In empirical art research, understanding how viewers judge visual artworks as beautiful is often explored through the study of attributes—specific inherent characteristics or artwork features such as color, complexity, and emotional expressiveness. These attributes form the basis for subjective evaluations, including the judgment of beauty. Buildin...
Urban human-made environments present a range of potential benefits for wellbeing through their design. However, there is a lack of comprehensive organization on this topic. To this end, we performed a scoping review to provide an overview of how the urban environment, particularly its designed components, has been previously studied in relation to...
Find the published manuscript here -->
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/385852222_What_Can_Happen_When_We_Look_at_Art_An_Exploratory_Network_Model_and_Latent_Profile_Analysis_of_Affective_Cognitive_Aspects_Underlying_Shared_Supraordinate_Responses_to_Museum_Visual_Art
Introduction
Gestalt perception refers to the cognitive ability to perceive various elements as a unified whole. In our study, we delve deeper into the phenomenon of Gestalt recognition in visual cubist art, a transformative process culminating in what is often described as an Aha moment. This Aha moment signifies a sudden understanding of what is...
Previous research in western countries shows that artists whose work deviates from their own previous style (intrapersonal deviance) and other artists’ styles (interpersonal deviance) gain greater impact than nondeviant artists (Stamkou et al., 2018). However, aesthetic norms are embedded in cultural contexts that shape the meaning of artist devian...
Few domains so saliently distinguish the uniqueness of humans as that of our creativity and especially our propensity to make and appreciate art. Any visit to a museum, or an elementary school classroom, will also confirm our special respect and importance given to art and artists. However, because of the complexity and nuance in art making and enj...
Interventions considering the arts are increasingly gaining acceptance in the clinical-methodological repertoire, and in supporting people with diseases. However, current approaches are often limited considering the variety of offered creative activities and are neglecting the influence of the artistic context. Furthermore, there is often a focus o...
Predictive processing (PP) offers an intriguing approach to perception, cognition, but also to appreciation of the arts. It does this by positing both a theoretical basis—one might say a ‘metaphor’—for how we engage and respond, placing emphasis on mismatches rather than fluent overlap between schema and environment. Even more, it holds the promise...
Predictive processing (PP) offers an intriguing approach to perception, cogni- tion, but also to appreciation of the arts. It does this by positing both a theoretical basis—one might say a ‘metaphor’—for how we engage and respond, placing emphasis on mismatches rather than fluent overlap between schema and environment. Even more, it holds the promi...
Can art have a positive impact on individuals and society? Can it reduce anxiety and help bring people together? Researchers in the ARTIS project are probing the way that people engage with works of art, which could then open up the possibility of using art to achieve positive outcomes, as Professor Matthew Pelowski explains.
In today's age of social media and smartphones, portraits-such as selfies or pictures of friends and family-are very frequently produced, shared and viewed images. Despite their prevalence, the psychological factors that characterize a 'good' photo-one that people will generally like, keep, and think is especially aesthetically pleasing-are not wel...
Emotions are considered important in aesthetic experience. Given that emotions have bodily dimensions, it follows that interoception—the ability to perceive bodily signals accurately—may play a role in experiences of art. This raises the intriguing question of whether variation in interoceptive abilities relates to differences in art experience. We...
Publically visible art can stop us in our tracks. It offers us affordances to emotionally engage, to reflect or reorientate. This holds for public monuments, murals, but also for publicly available street-level gallery art. In our study we assessed whether an open, street-level exhibition in Gallery Wedding, Berlin altered visitors’ Connection to,...
Creativity is a compelling yet elusive phenomenon, especially when manifested in visual art, where its evaluation is often a subjective and complex process. Understanding how individuals judge creativity in visual art is a particularly intriguing question. Conventional linear approaches often fail to capture the intricate nature of human behavior u...
Installation art, with its immersive and participatory character, has been argued to require the use and awareness of the body, which potentially constitute key parts of the artwork's experience and appreciation. Heightened body awareness is even argued to be a key to particularly profound emotional or even transformative states, which have been fr...
Images are never seen in isolation. Instead, they are perceived within a spatial and temporal tapestry of neighboring images. What impact do other images have on our emotional response toward a particular image? Answers to this basic question have vital implications for a range of fields—especially for visual communication and for curating art, whe...
Installation art, with its immersive and participatory character, has been argued to evoke and require the use and awareness of the body, which potentially constitute key parts of the artwork’s experience and appreciation. Heightened body awareness is even argued to be a key to particularly profound emotional or even transformative states, which ha...
Embodied cognition claims that how we move our body is central for experience. Exploring dimensions of bodily engagement should, therefore, also be central for engaging art. However, little attention has been paid to the actual ways viewers move in front of art and how this impacts experiences. We aim to close this gap, using a new paradigm in a ga...
This book, of which this chapter is a part, is about people who changed the ways in which they related to being visually creative or made art. Maybe they suddenly found themselves with a heightened interest in producing artworks, ramping up, greatly, their artistic production. Maybe they found themselves spontaneously able to see or think in novel...
When experienced in-person, engagement with art has been associated with positive outcomes in well-being andmental health. However, especially in the last decade, art viewing, cultural engagement, and even ‘trips’ tomuseums have begun to take place online, via computers, smartphones, tablets, or in virtual reality. Similarly, towhat has been report...
For a book devoted to the overlap of visual art making and creativity with the putatively changing brain, it makes sense to talk about what we know of the typical artist and the artistic brain. What are the regions of interest—in fact, are there any—that can be connected to the specific production of art? Are there any particular areas or neurobiol...
The use of art installations to mediate people’s responses toward societal challenges— climate change, refugees, general prosocialness—is emerging as a main interest for arts institutions, artists, policy, and, recently, empirical study. However, there is still much need for data regarding whether and in what ways we might find detectable change. E...
Recurrent, unvarying, and seemingly purposeless patterns of action and cognition are part of normal development, but also feature prominently in several neuropsychiatric conditions. Repetitive stereotyped behaviors (RSBs) can be viewed as exaggerated forms of learned habits and frequently correlate with alterations in motor, limbic, and associative...
When experienced in-person, engagement with art has been associated—in a growing body of evidence—with positive outcomes in wellbeing and mental health. This represents an exciting new field for psychology, curation, and health interventions, suggesting a widely-accessible, cost-effective, and non-pharmaceutical means of regulating factors such as...
Understanding consciousness is a major frontier in the natural sciences. However, given the nuanced and ambiguous sets of conditions regarding how and when consciousness appears to manifest, it is also one of the most elusive topics for investigation. In this context, we argue that research in empirical aesthetics—specifically on the experience of...
Embodied cognition claims that the way we move our body is central for experience. Exploring dimensions of bodily engagement should therefore also be central for understanding the experience of viewing and evaluating art. However, in both laboratory and in more ecologically-valid gallery studies, little attention has been paid to the actual ways vi...
Art, as a prestigious cultural commodity, concerns aesthetic and monetary values, personal tastes, and social reputation in various social contexts—all of which are reflected in choices concerning our liking, or in other contexts, our actual willingness-to-pay for artworks. But, how do these different aspects interact in regard to the concept of so...
We present a unique opportunity to test the ability of artists to systematically evoke emotions in an audience via art and, transversely, for viewers to pick out intentions of the artist. This follows a recent article which had shown this connection using installation artworks by MFA student-artists. However, this earlier article had left open ques...
In empirical aesthetics, choosing stimuli, especially artworks, is a persistent challenge. Artworks differ largely in terms of style, complexity, formal features, and valence, as well as historical context, presentation quality, genre, and content, all of which might influence aesthetic experiences. To advance the comparability of studies and incre...
Digital images taken by mobile phones are the most frequent class of images created today. Due to their omnipresence and the many ways they are encountered, they require a specific focus in research. However, to date, there is no systematic compilation of the various factors that may determine our evaluations of such images, and thus no explanation...
In this chapter, the authors report on how they joined in the exciting project to lay the theoretical foundations describing aesthetic experiences with artwork. Their 2017 paper was a culmination of meetings, later intense collaboration in Vienna’s empirical aesthetic research group, and the convergence of the models that the authors had independen...
This review will consider all studies evaluating the effectiveness or efficacy of art viewing related to improving or supporting subjective wellbeing. The evaluation must be designed to include active art viewing, rather than just interventions that include proximity to art, i.e., the presence of art in a building or room without directly ensuring,...
Neuroscience joins the long history of discussions about aesthetics in psychology, philosophy, art history, and the creative arts. In this volume, leading scholars in this nascent field reflect on the promise of neuroaesthetics to enrich our understanding of this universal yet diverse facet of human experience. The volume will inform and stimulate...
Advertising plays a critical role in the commercial success of services and
products. However, despite a long history of attempts to evaluate the efficacy
of advertisements, actual objective, consistent means of assessing and antici-
pating whether an advertisement might be effective and why it would be
expected to translate to actual, desired purc...
Consumer neuroscience—as a valuable complement to traditional, largely behavioral, research methods—is attracting increasing interest from researchers of marketing and consumer behavior. Although this field has made very important contributions, most consumer neuroscience studies to date have mainly focused on individuals' brain responses to simple...
When experienced in-person, engagement with art has been associated—in a growing body of evidence—with positive outcomes in wellbeing and mental health. This represents an exciting new field for psychology, curation, and health interventions, suggesting a widely-accessible, cost-effective, and non-pharmaceutical means of regulating factors such as...
Art making is a promising prism through which to appreciate the nuanced relationship between cognition, goal-directed behavior and the changing brain in the context of neurodegenerative diseases. As an area for future exploration, the value of art therapy as a potent behavioral and ultimately neurochemical, intervention has exciting potential.
A rather well-accepted finding from museum studies is that repeated art viewing may be tied to reduced attention towards art as individuals see more-and-more stimuli. This attention decrease from repeated art viewing appears to be a basic consequence of interaction with media. Considering lab-based studies in empirical and psychological aesthetics...
Teamwork is indispensable in human societies. However, due to the complexity of studying ecologically valid synchronous team actions, requiring multiple members and a range of subjective and objective measures, the mechanism underlying the impact of synchrony on team performance is still unclear. In this paper, we simultaneously measured groups of...
In most people’s lives, aesthetic experiences are probably frequent and occur in multiple, often very different and idiosyncratic situations. Usually, aesthetic experience involves an episode with the experiencing person in a specific situation, stretched out over time, in which certain objects, their environment, and various constituting elements...
Most people encounter art images as digital reproductions on a computer screen instead of as originals in a museum or gallery. With the development of digital technologies, high- resolution artworks can be accessed anywhere and anytime by a large number of viewers. Since these digital images depict the same content and are attributed to the same ar...
This chapter discusses the general impact of context on the aesthetic experience. It is de signed to anticipate the other chapters’ discussions of context’s specific areas—the so cial, the physical or institutional, information and framing, museums, background or per sonality-related features. Here, the authors offer a more general consideration...
Studies have routinely shown that individuals spend more time spontaneously looking at people or at mimetic scenes that they subsequently judge to be more aesthetically appealing. This “beauty demands longer looks” phenomenon is typically explained by biological relevance, personal utility, or other survival factors, with visual attraction often dr...
The importance of curatorial narrative—the embedding of artworks or an entire exhibition inside a wider context of meaning and significance—is clear in theory but has not been empirically investigated. We do not actually know if curatorial decisions, even something as simple as changing the order or the types of other artworks with which a painting...
The idea that simple visual elements such as colors and lines have specific, universal associations—for example red being warm—appears rather intuitive. Such associations have formed a basis for the description of artworks since the 18th century and are still fundamental to discourses on art today. Art historians might describe a painting where red...
We investigate the potential for modulations in art assessment, involving either "bottom-up" artwork-derived visual features or more overt "top-down" considerations based on personal history or taste. Such changes-whereby individuals might come to relatively increase or decrease their liking of the same works of art-have been suggested in recent ar...
The paper got accepted to Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts in Febuary 2020.
Pre-print can be found here; 10.2139/ssrn.3434578
NOTE: that this is therefore also a provisiory file and not the final typeset article.