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neuroscience of aesthetics

anjan chatterjee and oshin vartanian

annals of the ny academy of sciences


this paper demonstrates the sensory-motor/emotion-valuation/meaning-knowledge systems

an aesthetic judgment is broadly defined as evaluative appraisal of objects

According to fluency theory,79,80 positive aesthetic experiences are driven by processing ease (p.177)

wtf is fluency theory? (graf and landwehr, fluency based aesthetics)

These studies suggest that what we attend to in the course of aesthetic interactions with artworks is strongly affected by our knowledge of compositional strategies, stylistic conventions, and practices. In other words, the extent to which we are able to distill the semantic properties of artworks beyond merely their sensory qualities affects the engagement of neural systems in the service of aesthetic experiences.

difference between aesthetic judgment (from the process of understanding) and aesthetic emotion (from the ease of acquisition/process)

Our integrated view builds on models that frame aesthetic experiences as the products of sequential and distinct information-processing stages, each of which isolates and analyzes a specific component of a stimulus (e.g., artwork)

aka different steps (look, understand, enjoy)

aesthetic responses in maths are devoid of sensations?

model of aesthetic experience (Leder et al):

One of the most reliable findings to emerge from empirical aesthetics is that expertise and formal training in the arts influence aesthetic experience, quantifiable both in terms of subjective ratings and viewing patterns measured by eye tracking.