The relationship between aesthetic preferences of people for ceramic tile design and neural responses: An event-related potential study

Abstract

IntroductionThe aesthetic preferences of people can determine the success of a design and are often closely related to design features. The discovery of designs that match user preferences can provide a reference for designers. Ceramic tiles are widely used in environmental design; however, little attention has been paid to the aesthetic preferences of people for tiles. This study aimed to explore the relationship between aesthetic preferences for tile design and neural responses.Materials and methodsIn this study, two groups of tiles with different preference levels were randomly presented to 16 participants, and their electroencephalograms were recorded. The mean amplitudes of event-related potentials were analyzed by ANOVA.ResultsThe results showed that: (1) the aesthetic preferences of people for tiles could modulate brain activity; (2) tiles that people liked triggered higher N100 amplitudes; and (3) tiles that people disliked triggered higher P200 and late positive potential (LPP) amplitudes.DiscussionThese results suggest that N100, P200, and LPP are significantly related to the aesthetic preferences of people for ceramic tiles. The difference in N100 and P200 amplitudes indicates that participants developed aesthetic perceptions of the tiles in the early and middle stages of vision and formed different attention allocations to tiles with varying levels of aesthetic preference; in the middle and late stages of visual processing, the difference in the LPP amplitude indicates that the impression of people for tiles is further deepened in the later stage, forming a top-down emotion-driven evaluation. Exploring the relationship between the aesthetic preferences of people and neural responses is significant in establishing objective aesthetic judgment indicators for tiles and understanding the process of aesthetic cognition. This study provides relevant information for quantitative aesthetic assessments of environmental design, interior design, and marketing involving ceramic tiles.

The implicit preference evaluation for the ceramic tiles with different visual features: Evidence from an event-related potential study

“…For the tiles, in a previous ERP study, we found that the preference factor modulated the ERP amplitudes. For example, the N100 elicited by like-tiles is larger than that elicited by dislike-tiles ( Chen and Cheng, 2022 ). In a previous study, ceramic tiles were divided into two categories (like-tiles or dislike-tiles).…”

“…contained in tiles with different features can influence the preferences of people. However, there are few studies on the preferences of tiles, especially on physiological responses ( Chen and Cheng, 2022 ). Studying the preferences of people for tiles with different characteristics can help designers further improve the human experience.…”

“…Specifically, the like-tiles induced more brain activity than dislike-tiles in the early visual stage. After that, the disliked-tiles induced more brain activity than the like-tiles in the middle and late visual stages ( Chen and Cheng, 2022 ). Nevertheless, people may have different experiences with different tile types.…”

“…For example, light-toned tiles bring people feelings of pleasure and relaxation ( Agost and Vergara, 2014 ). Previous studies have shown that different levels of preference for tiles trigger differences in ERPs ( Chen and Cheng, 2022 ). However, the preference and neural responses that people generate for tiles with different features are still unknown.…”

“… Artacho et al (2020) found through questionnaires that pattern, lightness, and color are the most important factors in terms of the human visual perception of tiles, thus identifying the three factors of tiles (pattern, lightness, and color) in this study. In contrast to our previous study ( Chen and Cheng, 2022 ), the tiles in this study were applied to the indoor environment rather than presented as a single tile to make the participants feel more realistic. Furthermore, this study explores the influence of factors such as pattern, lightness, and color system.…”