The Impact of Accompanying Text on Visual Processing and Hedonic Evaluation of Art

Abstract

This study explores how accompanying text affects the way an individual views and interprets a painting. We randomly assigned participants to view 20 paintings from the classical era with factual information, contextualized background information, or no information displayed next to them. We then recorded their visual gaze using an eye-tracking device and asked them to evaluate the paintings. The results show that how people view a painting and how they evaluate a painting are two distinct cognitive processes. The contextual information serves to orient the viewing process. The accompanying text influences the visual attention and gaze pattern but has limited impact on the hedonic evaluation of paintings. Instead, hedonic evaluation is more of a taste acquired through education and socialization. This study offers an empirical footnote to discussions on the cognitive assumptions in sociological studies of art and cultural phenomena.

Contextualizing information enhances the experience of environmental art.

“…A possible interpretation would be that the contextualizing information guided participants in their experience, facilitating their search for meaning in the artwork, which could have resulted in less cognitive effort while trying to find a personal meaning and understanding. This is in alignment with results by Lin and Yao (2018), who also found that even though information disrupts visual attention, it makes it easier for participants to effectively process the painting. Taken together, these findings suggest that contextualizing information might facilitate the contemplation and reflection of art, allowing "easier" processing of an artwork.…”

“…Also, participants generally liked figurative artworks with title better (Bubić, Sušac, & Palmović, 2017;Lin & Yao, 2018).…”

“…sculptures or participatory processes) would produce consistent results. Lin and Yao (2018) investigated the effect of contextual information on 20 different artworks of the same art historical period. They found, that even though the information was guiding the gaze of the viewers, it did not impact the hedonic experience.…”

Perceived cognitive challenge predicts eye movements while viewing contemporary paintings

“…-Increase in the number of fixations associated with abstract paintings is greater for naive viewers than expert viewers (Pihko et al, 2011) and the maximum fixation duration is longer for naive viewers (Locher, Krupinski, & Schaefer, 2015). -Art knowledge and frequency of attendance to art events correlate positively with the number of fixations on paintings but are not related to fixation durations or revisits (Lin & Yao, 2018).…”

If it’s Mozart, it must be good? The influence of textual information and age on musical appreciation

“…194-198 for a review; Crozier and Chapman, 1981, for a review across all art forms). Additional evidence for effects of prior information was also provided by a number of more recent studies on the perception, enjoyment, and evaluation of music (Anglada-Tort & Müllensiefen, 2017;Kroger & Margulis, 2016;Margulis, 2010;Margulis, Kisida, & Greene, 2015;North & Hargreaves, 2005;Vuoskoski & Eerola, 2015;Ziv & Moran, 2006), art works, such as digital reproductions of paintings (Kirk, Skov, Hulme, Christensen, & Zeki, 2009;Lauring et al, 2016;Lin & Yao, 2017), photos (Tousignant & Bodner, 2014), poems (Blohm, Menninghaus, & Schlesewsky, 2017), or live theater performances (Wagner et al, 2015).…”