Date of Award

6-2011

Document Type

Open Access

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

Department

Neuroscience

First Advisor

Stephen Romero

Language

English

Keywords

art, appreciation, impression, cognition, perception

Abstract

Aesthetic judgment processes were investigated in art-experienced and art-naïve individuals. Previous electrophysiological data suggest that aesthetic judgment is a two-stage process (Hofel & Jacobson, 2007). The first stage of aesthetic judgment is impression formation which is not spontaneous, and is reflected by an early Event Related Potential (ERP) frontocentral deflection. The second stage reflected by a lateralized late ERP positivity, evaluative categorization is also not spontaneous. Participants in the current study were instructed to either simply view black and white geometric patterns or were instructed to contemplate the beauty of the patterns. Results suggest that aesthetically stimulated processes differ between art-expereinced individuals and art-naive individuals, and impression formation requires intention in art-naive individuals, but occurs spontaneously in art-experienced individuals.

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