| This study involves psychological aspects of aesthetic perception. It combines research on prototypes, the effects of information and the ability of artworks to communicate emotional messages. A mixed design was used with information (No Information, Artist/Title/Year, Description only and Artist/Title/Year + Description) as the between-subjects factor and artistic style (Representational and Abstract) as the within-subjects factor. Participants were 123 undergraduate college students. Participants viewed 20 artworks and rated each on artistic style, typicality, preference, complexity, familiarity, meaningfulness, expressive characteristics and emotional reaction. Results revealed several significant findings for typicality. As typicality increased so did ratings of interestingness (r (102) = .407, p = .0001), liking ( r (101) = .346, p = .001) and meaningfulness ( r (102) = .285, p = .004). Further, as typicality increased so did ratings of strength (r (103) = .263, p = .007) and value (r (103) = .324, p = .001). There was also a significant effect of descriptive information on ratings of interestingness (F (3,98) = 4.21, p = .008), liking (F (3,98) = 3.66, p = .01) and meaningfulness (F (3,98) = 3.64, p = .02) but only in representational artworks. In addition, analysis of the relationship of complexity and aesthetic preference (interest and liking) revealed two different curvilinear trends. With abstract art, there was an inverted U-shaped trend while with representational art there was a U-shaped trend. Implications of these findings for understanding aesthetic perception and for future research are discussed. |
