Aesthetic Issues in Spatial Composition: Representational Fit and the Role of Semantic Context

Sammartino, Jonathan; Palmer, Stephen

doi:10.1068/p7233

Cited by 13 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…In keeping with previous findings, we observed a strong inward-moving or facing bias (Wald χ 2 = 691.56, p < .0001), showing that participants preferred leftward-moving or facing objects to be placed right-of-center and rightward-moving or facing objects to be placed left-of-center. This result replicates the robust inward bias previously reported for aesthetic preferences for the spatial composition of static, single-object pictures inside a frame (Bertamini et al., 2011; Palmer et al., 2008; Sammartino & Palmer, 2012a, 2012b; and Experiment 1 of this article). No main effect of speed was evident, because of the cancelling effect when the left- and right-moving or facing versions were averaged (Wald χ 2 = 5.94, p = .11), but a significant motion or facing direction × speed interaction was observed (Wald χ 2 = 47.25, p < .0001), resulting from the fact that the inward-moving or facing bias becomes weaker as the object is seen as moving faster.…”

Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 90%

“…The results of the experiments described here replicate and extend the inward bias in aesthetic preference for spatial compositions of pictures (Palmer et al., 2008; Sammartino & Palmer, 2012a, 2012b; also called the “anterior bias” by Bertamini et al., 2011). It occurs for pictures of a single object in a rectangular frame when the object faces leftward or rightward in the picture plane and produces a preference for the object to be positioned on the side of the frame opposite to the direction it faces.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

“…Bertamini, Bennett, and Bode (2011) replicated this effect by showing an aesthetic bias for pictures of animals to have more space in front of them than behind them, although they called it the anterior bias . These inward biases are very robust and have been replicated and extended in further studies (e.g., Sammartino & Palmer, 2012a, 2012b), including a recent analysis of the frame-based position of the faces of main characters in action films (Bode, Bertamini, & Helmy, 2016). Such findings provide clear evidence that balance—at least in its usual interpretation of physical balance—is not the dominant factor in spatial composition that it is usually portrayed as being.…”

mentioning

confidence: 61%

“…Why might an inward bias be present in static pictures depicting single objects that moved or faced rightward or leftward in the picture plane but not for the same objects when they moved or faced forward? Sammartino and Palmer (2012b) proposed an affordance space hypothesis to account for this pattern of results. The key idea is that every object is surrounded by a virtual spatial envelope, which they called its affordance space , whose distribution reflects its affordances: that is, its opportunities for action and interaction with respect to the viewer (Gibson, 1977).…”

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confidence: 99%

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Effects of Implied Motion and Facing Direction on Positional Preferences in Single-Object Pictures

Palmer

Langlois

2017

Perception

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Palmer, Gardner, and Wickens studied aesthetic preferences for pictures of single objects and found a strong inward bias: Right-facing objects were preferred left-of-center and left-facing objects right-of-center. They found no effect of object motion (people and cars showed the same inward bias as chairs and teapots), but the objects were not depicted as moving. Here we measured analogous inward biases with objects depicted as moving with an implied direction and speed by having participants drag-and-drop target objects into the most aesthetically pleasing position. In Experiment 1, human figures were shown diving or falling while moving forward or backward. Aesthetic biases were evident for both inward-facing and inward-moving figures, but the motion-based bias dominated so strongly that backward divers or fallers were preferred moving inward but facing outward. Experiment 2 investigated implied speed effects using images of humans, horses, and cars moving at different speeds (e.g., standing, walking, trotting, and galloping horses). Inward motion or facing biases were again present, and differences in their magnitude due to speed were evident. Unexpectedly, faster moving objects were generally preferred closer to frame center than slower moving objects. These results are discussed in terms of the combined effects of prospective, future-oriented biases, and retrospective, past-oriented biases.

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Section: Resultssupporting

confidence: 90%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

mentioning

confidence: 61%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of Implied Motion and Facing Direction on Positional Preferences in Single-Object Pictures

Palmer

Langlois

2017

Perception

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“…For example, someone might take a photograph of a pleasing landscape by carefully selecting a wellbalanced and appealing detail of the scene while a photograph of vomit in a dirty sink might be less esthetically motivated and composed. In a similar vein, Sammartino and Palmer (2012) postulated that people prefer images if their spatial composition optimally conveys an intended or inferred meaning of the image ("representational fit"), which enhances their esthetic impact.…”

Section: Prediction Of Affective Ratings By Global Image Propertiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global Image Properties Predict Ratings of Affective Pictures

et al. 2020

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Affective pictures are widely used in studies of human emotions. The objects or scenes shown in affective pictures play a pivotal role in eliciting particular emotions. However, affective processing can also be mediated by low-level perceptual features, such as local brightness contrast, color or the spatial frequency profile. In the present study, we asked whether image properties that reflect global image structure and image composition affect the rating of affective pictures. We focused on 13 global image properties that were previously associated with the esthetic evaluation of visual stimuli, and determined their predictive power for the ratings of five affective picture datasets (IAPS, GAPED, NAPS, DIRTI, and OASIS). First, we used an SVM-RBF classifier to predict high and low ratings for valence and arousal, respectively, and achieved a classification accuracy of 58-76% in this binary decision task. Second, a multiple linear regression analysis revealed that the individual image properties account for between 6 and 20% of the variance in the subjective ratings for valence and arousal. The predictive power of the image properties varies for the different datasets and type of ratings. Ratings tend to share similar sets of predictors if they correlate positively with each other. In conclusion, we obtained evidence from non-linear and linear analyses that affective pictures evoke emotions not only by what they show, but they also differ by how they show it. Whether the human visual system actually uses these perceptive cues for emotional processing remains to be investigated.

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The Interplay of Objective and Subjective Factors in Empirical Aesthetics

Chamberlain

2022

Human Perception of Visual Information

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The field of empirical aesthetics sets out to understand and predict our aesthetic preferences . Its history dates back to the birth of visual psychophysics and the work of Gustav Fechner (1876), while multiple models of aesthetic experience have been proposed in the intervening years (Chatterjee & Vartanian, 2014;Leder et al., 2004;Pelowski et al., 2017). This chapter briefly sets out the history of empirical aesthetics, and the state of the research field at present. I outline recent work on inter-observer agreement in aesthetic preference, before presenting empirical work that argues the importance of first objective (characteristics of stimuli) and then subjective (characteristics of context) factors in shaping aesthetic preference. Considering the role of properties of the stimulus, I will review literature on the relationship between aesthetic preference and symmetry, shape, compositional structure, colour and complexity as well as considering the potential role of statistical properties of images. I will then review putative subjective predictors of aesthetic preference including the role of context, framing and the influence of information about the artist and the artistic process. Both subjective and objective approaches will be evaluated from an individual differences perspective, focusing on the mediating role of familiarity, expertise, culture, cognitive ability and personality. Finally, I will attempt to draw these approaches together with reference to aesthetic sensitivity: an individual observer's propensity to have an aesthetic response to a particular objective image characteristic, and will explore some putative factors that may modulate and explain individual differences in aesthetic sensitivity.providing the foundation for later efforts to establish lawful relationships between stimulus properties and aesthetic preferences (Birkhoff, 1933;Eysenck, 1940) with reference to psychobiological mechanisms of arousal (Berlyne, 1974). Such efforts focused on the predictive value of low-level stimulus properties, such as colour, symmetry, proportion, contrast, contour, and later on collative properties such as order, complexity and ambiguity (Berlyne, 1974). Such an approach remains common in empirical aesthetics. However, more recent research in the field has placed focus on sensory and cognitive processing dynamics, modelling how observers respond to salient properties of the stimulus (Flavell et al., 2020;Reber et al., 2004), but also incorporating the sensory and cognitive history of the observer (Cutting, 2003;Zajonc, 1968). The latter approach highlights the critical role subjective aspects such as context and exposure play in shaping our aesthetic experiences. Objective and subjective perspectives have been brought together in comprehensive aesthetic models in recent years, bringing both psychological and neuroscientific understanding to the numerous objective and subjective mechanisms identified by researchers in the field (

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Aesthetic Issues in Spatial Composition: Representational Fit and the Role of Semantic Context

Cited by 13 publications

References 33 publications

Effects of Implied Motion and Facing Direction on Positional Preferences in Single-Object Pictures

Effects of Implied Motion and Facing Direction on Positional Preferences in Single-Object Pictures

Global Image Properties Predict Ratings of Affective Pictures

The Interplay of Objective and Subjective Factors in Empirical Aesthetics

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