The effects of presentation time on preference for curvature of real objects and meaningless novel patterns

Corradi, Guido; Rosselló‐Mir, Jaume; Vañó, Javier; Chuquichambi, Erick G.; Bertamini, Marco; Munar, Enric

doi:10.1111/bjop.12367

Cited by 25 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 43 publications

(66 reference statements)

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“…In Corradi et al (2018) we found similar effect sizes with real objects and meaningless patterns presented for short-medium times (84, 150, 300 ms), but different effect sizes for long times. The effect faded in the presentation time-until response with images of real objects as in Munar et al (2015), whereas it increased with meaningless patterns.…”

Section: Type Of Stimuli and Presentation Timesupporting

confidence: 73%

The Curvature Effect

Corradi¹,

Munar²

2020

Preprint

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Preference for curved over sharp-angled contours is a well-known effect. However, it was quite unexplored during the 20th century and only a few sporadic studies dealt with it. Nevertheless, there has been renewed interest in this topic over the past two decades. This interest has come from two perspectives, one related to the current experimental aesthetics and the other from different applied approaches: marketing, packaging, interior design, and security perception, among others. Quite a few studies have demonstrated the effect with different stimuli, conditions, and participants. However, a comprehensive understanding of this effect is still lacking. We present the salient issues of the current studies in order to provide a more complete picture of this phenomenon. The applied research line is a promising field to combine with research from experimental aesthetics. Finally, we indicate a few challenges that experimental research should address to achieve a unified framework for a better understanding of the curvature effect.

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Section: Type Of Stimuli and Presentation Timesupporting

confidence: 73%

The Curvature Effect

Corradi¹,

Munar²

2020

Preprint

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“…Using the same experimental paradigm, Gómez-Puerto et al (2017) found the same curvature advantage across Western and non-Western cultures. Corradi et al (2018) found that the approach to curvature was greatest when real objects were presented for 84 ms, but it faded when participants were given unlimited viewing time, as in Munar et al (2015). Corradi et al (2019) uncovered a remarkable breadth of variation in individual preferences, showing that participants who were highly sensitive to curvature in real objects were also highly sensitive to curvature in abstract shapes.…”

Section: Approachabilitymentioning

confidence: 93%

Preference for paintings is also affected by curvature.

Ruta¹,

Vañó²,

Pepperell³

et al. 2023

Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts

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Preference for curvature has been demonstrated using many types of stimuli, but it remains an open question whether curvature plays a relevant role in responses to original artworks. To investigate this, a novel set of paintings was created, consisting of three variations-curved, sharp-angled, and mixed-of the same 16 indeterminate subjects. The present research aimed to differentiate between liking and wanting decisions. We assessed liking both online (Study 1) and in the lab (Study 2, Task 2), using a continuous slider and a dichotomous forced choice, respectively. In both tasks, participants assigned higher ratings to the curved compared to the sharp-angled version of the paintings. Similarly, when participants were explicitly asked if they wanted to take the paintings home, they assigned higher wanting ratings to the curved version (Study 2, Task 3). However, when they were asked to act as a curator selecting the works they wanted for their gallery (Study 2, Task 4) and to make a physical effort to visually consume the painting (implicit wanting; Study 2, Task 1), no significant difference was found. Finally, we found that implicit wanting decisions did not predict liking for paintings, while liking predicted explicit wanting of the artworks in both the home and art contexts. This confirmed that it is possible to differentiate between liking and wanting responses to artistically relevant stimuli. We conclude that this theoretical distinction helps to explain previous conflicting results on the curvature effect, establishing a new line of research in the field of empirical aesthetics.

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“…The idea of a preference for smooth curvature has a long history (for a review and historical perspective see Bertamini et al, 2015). This phenomenon has been documented for a variety of visual stimuli: familiar and unfamiliar objects (Bar & Neta, 2006;Bar & Neta, 2007;Corradi et al, 2019a;Corradi et al, 2019b) geometric or irregular abstract shapes, which prevent familiarity effects (Silvia & Barona, 2009;Bertamini et al, 2015) hand-drawn objects (Bertamini & Sinico, 2021) car design (Leder & Carbon, 2005) and complex interior design environments (Vartanian et al, 2013;Banaei et al, 2017;Ruta et al, 2019). The curvature effect has been replicated across a range of tasks, including explicit forced choice responses (''like''/''no like''), rating scales (Likert scale or visual attention scales-VAS) and selection procedure where participants chose one of two stimuli presented simultaneously (Gómez-Puerto, Munar & Nadal, 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of gender and academic degree on preference for smooth curvature of abstract shapes

Palumbo

Rampone

Bertamini

2021

PeerJ

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Background Preference for smooth contours occurs for a variety of visual stimuli. However, there are individual differences. Openness to experience, a trait associated with aesthetic appreciation, emotional sensitivity and abstract thinking, correlates with this preference. The evaluation of meaningless stimuli entails automatic associations influenced by knowledge, intellectual interests and individual experiences which are diverse. However, it is difficult to capture this variability in studies restricted to Undergraduate students in Psychology with a prevalence of female participants. Methods Here we examined preference for curvature with 160 undergraduate students in Psychology, Mathematics, Engineering and Computer Science, balanced for gender. Participants viewed abstract shapes varying for contour (angular vs. curved). The shapes presented variations in Vertices (10, 20, 30) and Concavity (30%, 40%, 50%) to increase complexity. Participants rated how much they liked each shape on a 0 (dislike) to 100 (like) scale. Furthermore, because students in pure Science disciplines present autistic-like traits as measured with the Autism Quotient (AQ), and there is evidence that individuals with autism respond positively to edgy abstract shapes, participants also completed the AQ. Results Overall participants preferred curved shapes to angular shapes. We confirmed past research showing that complexity played a key role, with simple shapes with less vertices (10 vertices) being preferred over shapes with larger number of vertices (20 and 30 vertices). Furthermore, simple shapes (10 vertices) were preferred more with more concavities (50%). Importantly, an interaction between academic degree and gender revealed that preference for smooth curvature was stronger for Psychology female participants. Science students scored higher than Psychology students on the AQ. Interestingly, multilevel analyses showed that the variability of AQ traits in the sample did not contribute to this interaction. The results are discussed in relation to theories of preference formation and individual differences.

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The effects of presentation time on preference for curvature of real objects and meaningless novel patterns

Cited by 25 publications

References 43 publications

The Curvature Effect

The Curvature Effect

Preference for paintings is also affected by curvature.

The role of gender and academic degree on preference for smooth curvature of abstract shapes

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