Claudia Muth

The Aesthetic Aha: On the pleasure of having insights into Gestalt

Are challenging stimuli appreciated due to perceptual insights during elaboration? Drawing on the literature regarding aesthetic appreciation, several approaches can be identified. For instance, fluency of processing as well as perceptual challenge are supposed to increase appreciation: One group (Reber, Schwarz, & Winkielman, 2004) claims that fluency of processing increases appreciation. Others link aesthetics to engagement: Creation and manipulation of sense itself should be rewarding (Ramachandran & Hirstein, 1999). We experimentally tested the influence of insights during elaboration on liking. Pairs of stimuli - hardly detectable two-tone images including a face (Mooney face) and meaningless stimuli matched for complexity - were presented repeatedly. Having an insight as well as the intensity of the insight predicted subsequent gains in liking. This paper qualifies the role of insight (-aha!) on aesthetic appreciation through the effects of elaboration and problem-solving on understanding the processing of modern art.

Give Me Gestalt! Preference for Cubist Artworks Revealing High Detectability of Objects

In cubist paintings by Picasso, Braque and Gris it is possible to detect everyday objects like guitars, bottles or jugs, although they are often difficult to decipher. In this art-science collaborative study the authors found that participants without expertise in cubism appreciated cubist artworks more if they were able to detect concealed objects in them. The finding of this strong correlation between detectability and preference offers wide implications for art history and human cognition as it points to a mechanism that allows us to derive pleasure from searching for and finding meaningful patterns.

SeIns: Semantic Instability in Art

Many artworks defy determinacy of meaning by inducing a variety of potential meanings. We aim to describe different kinds of such semantic instability (which we call ‘ SeIns ’) by comparing related concepts as well as specific phenomena in order to arrive at concise definitions. These analyses will be positioned in the framework of Predictive Coding. Furthermore, this article fathoms the specifics of semantic instability in art and presents a psycho-aesthetic account on the appeal of semantic instability in art. We propose that one factor for the appeal of semantic instability might be that it offers the opportunity of rewarding insight. Furthermore, we suggest that positive affect can be gained not only by arriving at an insight but also by anticipating it — a crucial point with regard to those kinds of semantic instability that are not ‘resolvable’ into semantic stability. Current challenges within this field of research include the necessity of an empirical approach to classes of semantic instability, the lack of a specification of psycho-aesthetic theories on the appeal of each class, as well as the need for an integration of context- and person-related facets of the experience of art.

Semantic Stability is More Pleasurable in Unstable Episodic Contexts. On the Relevance of Perceptual Challenge in Art Appreciation

Research in the field of psychological aesthetics points to the appeal of stimuli which defy easy recognition by being “semantically unstable” but which still allow for creating meaning—in the ongoing process of elaborative perception or as an end product of the entire process. Such effects were reported for hidden images (Muth and Carbon, 2013) as well as Cubist artworks concealing detectable—although fragmented—objects (Muth et al., 2013). To test the stability of the relationship between semantic determinacy and appreciation across different episodic contexts, 30 volunteers evaluated an artistic movie continuously on visual determinacy or liking via the Continuous Evaluation Procedure (CEP, Muth et al., 2015b). The movie consisted of five episodes with emerging Gestalts. In the first between-participants condition, the hidden Gestalts in the movie episodes were of increasing determinacy, in the second condition, the episodes showed decreasing determinacies of hidden Gestalts. In the increasing-determinacy group, visual determinacy was rated higher and showed better predictive quality for liking than in the decreasing-determinacy group. Furthermore, when the movie started with low visual determinacy of hidden Gestalts, unexpectedly strong increases in visual determinacy had a bigger effect on liking than in the condition which allowed for weaker Gestalt recognition after having started with highly determinate Gestalts. The resulting pattern calls for consideration of the episodic context when examining art appreciation.

Heute ist alles „post“

Die drei Herausforderungen – Postmoderne, Postdemokratie, Postfaktizitat – sind alle nicht neu, werden aber in dieser Kombination von den Menschen als immer bedrohlicher erlebt. Dies kann ein Grund dafur sein, dass Menschen nach alternativen Erklarungen fur wichtige Ereignisse und gesellschaftliche Vorgange suchen.

Expecting the Unexpected: How Gallery Visitors Experience Semantic Instability in Art

The perception of artworks rarely—if ever—results in the instantiation of a determinate meaning. Instead, when entering an art gallery, we often expect Semantic Instability ( SeIns ): the experience of perceptual and cognitive habits being challenged. By comparing the experience of an artistic movie in an exhibition with the experience in a laboratory via the Continuous Evaluation Procedure, we found that the movie was less semantically unstable and more pleasing to the eyes of gallery visitors than to those of participants in the laboratory. These findings suggest that a gallery context might induce the expectation of perceptual challenge, thus decreasing the intensity of SeIns and at the same time heightening the appreciation of SeIns . Exhibition visitors might even be on the lookout for challenging experiences.

Affect and self-efficacy infuse the experience of ambivalent photographs

Ambivalent pictures offer several interpretations of different valence-e.g., some photographs by Claudia Otto document scenes which can be perceived as sad or happy, dangerous or sweet, and so on. We show that task experiences influence the experienced valence of these images. Previous work already documented that responses to images are task-dependent and self-created insights heighten pleasure. A resulting positive mood and high self-efficacy might broaden attention to positive valence. In contrast, low self-efficacy leads to the prediction of negative task experiences and strengthens the salience of a positive experience. In our study, participants rated the valence of ambivalent photographs to be more positive after positive feedback regarding the accomplishment of a precedent puzzle. We revealed a trend of positive feedback being more effective when it followed negative experiences. The experience of ambivalent images is strongly linked to mood and self-efficacy and both is influenced by task- experiences in psycho-aesthetic studies.

Die Kraft der Erzählung: Warum wir (Verschwörungs-)Geschichten lieben

Wir erinnern uns, denken und traumen in Geschichten. Zugleich haben wir den Drang, Zusammenhange zu entdecken und unwillkurlich Kausalitaten und Intentionen wahrzunehmen. Diese Mechanismen sind die Bausteine der ersten Verdachtsmomente von Verschworungen. Narrative Universalien sind wiederkehrende Erzahlelemente uber verschiedene Zeiten und Kulturen hinweg, hierzu scheint auch das „verborgene Wirken von Kraften“ zu gehoren. Gute Geschichten weisen oft Lucken auf; fordern heraus oder uberraschen und bieten unvollstandige Kausalstrange, die die Betrachterin und der Betrachter schliesen kann – und das auf vergnugliche Weise. Das konnte auch ein Anreiz fur das Aufdecken von Verschworungen sein.

Am Anfang war die Verschwörungstheorie

Wann entstand die erste Verschworungstheorie? Sicher wissen konnen wir das nicht. Wir nehmen aber an, dass die erste Verschworungstheorie etwa 12.000 Jahre vor Beginn unserer Zeitrechnung entstand, irgendwo im heutigen Syrien. Seitdem sind Geschichten uber Verschworungen Teil unserer Kulturgeschichte.

Die Magie der Komplexität

Obwohl wir zu pragnanten/einfachen Deutungen tendieren, uberschatzen wir manchmal die Komplexitat von Ereignissen. Auch Verschworungstheorien sind nicht immer die einfachsten Varianten der Verknupfung von Ereignissen.