Innate and learned components of human visual preference

The Cognitive-Emotional Design and Study of Architectural Space: A Scoping Review of Neuroarchitecture and Its Precursor Approaches

Humans respond cognitively and emotionally to the built environment. The modern possibility of recording the neural activity of subjects during exposure to environmental situations, using neuroscientific techniques and virtual reality, provides a promising framework for future design and studies of the built environment. The discipline derived is termed "neuroarchitecture". Given neuroarchitecture's transdisciplinary nature, it progresses needs to be reviewed in a contextualised way, together with its precursor approaches. The present article presents a scoping review, which maps out the broad areas on which the new discipline is based. The limitations, controversies, benefits, impact on the professional sectors involved, and potential of neuroarchitecture and its precursors' approaches are critically addressed.

Palatability of Horse Treats: Comparing the Preferences of Horses and Humans

Despite its importance to product development, few data compare preferences for horses with human consumers. The objectives of this research were to compare treat preferences of horses against horse owners. Product A was a disk-shaped cinnamon-flavored flax-based treat, and product B was a textured apple-flavored oat-based treat. Horses were presented with two treat products in a paired preference test which comprised separate olfaction and consumption periods. Consumers evaluated the treats separately for purchase intent as well as hedonic testing of sensory attributes. No difference was observed for first product sniffed, consumed, or finished during the horse preference test. However, moderate positive correlations were observed between first product sniffed and consumed (P = .01, ф = 0.40) as well as first product consumed and finished (P < .01, ф = 0.48). Horse owners rated product A lower in appearance, texture, size, and purchase intent (P < .01) than product B. These results indicate that consumer testing for animal food should be considered during product development.

Spontaneous Ocular Scanning of Visual Symmetry Is Similar During Classification and Evaluation Tasks

Visual symmetry perception and symmetry preference have been studied extensively. However, less is known about how people spontaneously scan symmetrical stimuli with their eyes. We thus examined spontaneous saccadic eye movements when participants (N = 20) observed patterns with horizontal or vertical mirror reflection. We found that participants tend to make saccades along the axis of reflection and that this oculomotor behaviour was similar during objective classification and subjective evaluation tasks. The axis-scanning behaviour generates a dynamic sequence of novel symmetrical images from a single static stimulus. This could aid symmetry perception and evaluation by enhancing the neural response to symmetry.

Item Features Interact With Item Category in Their Influence on Preferences

Low-level visual features are known to play a role in value-based decision-making. However, most previous studies focused on the role of only a single low-level feature or only for one type of item. These studies also used only one method of measurement and provided a theory accounting for those specific findings. We aimed to utilize a different more robust approach. We tested the contribution of low-level visual features to value-based decision-making of three item types: fractal-art images, faces, and snack food items. We used two techniques to estimate values: subjective ratings and actual choices. We found that low-level visual features contribute to value-based decision-making even after controlling for higher level features relevant for each item category (for faces, features like eye distance and for food snacks, features like price and calories). Importantly, we show that, overall, while low-level visual features consistently contribute to value-based decision-making as was previously shown, different features distinctively contribute to preferences of specific item types, as was evident when we estimated values using both techniques. We claim that theories relying on the role of single features for individual item types do not capture the complexity of the contribution of low-level visual features to value-based decision-making. Our conclusions call for future studies using multiple item types and various measurement methods for estimating value in order to modify current theories and construct a unifying framework regarding the relationship between low-level visual features and choice.

Symmetry preference in shapes, faces, flowers and landscapes

Most people like symmetry, and symmetry has been extensively used in visual art and architecture. In this study, we compared preference for images of abstract and familiar objects in the original format or when containing perfect bilateral symmetry. We created pairs of images for different categories: male faces, female faces, polygons, smoothed version of the polygons, flowers, and landscapes. This design allows us to compare symmetry preference in different domains. Each observer saw all categories randomly interleaved but saw only one of the two images in a pair. After recording preference, we recorded a rating of how salient the symmetry was for each image, and measured how quickly observers could decide which of the two images in a pair was symmetrical. Results reveal a general preference for symmetry in the case of shapes and faces. For landscapes, natural (no perfect symmetry) images were preferred. Correlations with judgments of saliency were present but generally low, and for landscapes the salience of symmetry was negatively related to preference. However, even within the category where symmetry was not liked (landscapes), the separate analysis of original and modified stimuli showed an interesting pattern: Salience of symmetry was correlated positively (artificial) or negatively (original) with preference, suggesting different effects of symmetry within the same class of stimuli based on context and categorization.

The aesthetic preference for symmetry dissociates from early-emerging attention to symmetry

Symmetry is a basic geometry property that affects people's aesthetic experience in common ways across cultures and historical periods, but the origins of the universal preference for symmetrical patterns is not clear. We assessed four-year-old children's and adults' reported aesthetic preferences between symmetrical and asymmetrical visual patterns, as well as their spontaneous attentional preferences between the patterns. We found a striking dissociation between these two measures in the children: Children looked longer at the symmetrical patterns, relative to otherwise similar but asymmetrical patterns, but they showed no explicit preference for those patterns. These findings suggest that the human's aesthetic preferences have high postnatal plasticity, calling into question theories that symmetry is a "core feature" mediating people's aesthetic experience throughout life. The findings also call into question the assumption, common to many studies of human infants, that attentional choices reflect subjective preferences or values.

Aesthetic Responses to Exact Fractals Driven by Physical Complexity

Fractals are physically complex due to their repetition of patterns at multiple size scales. Whereas the statistical characteristics of the patterns repeat for fractals found in natural objects, computers can generate patterns that repeat exactly. Are these exact fractals processed differently, visually and aesthetically, than their statistical counterparts? We investigated the human aesthetic response to the complexity of exact fractals by manipulating fractal dimensionality, symmetry, recursion, and the number of segments in the generator. Across two studies, a variety of fractal patterns were visually presented to human participants to determine the typical response to exact fractals. In the first study, we found that preference ratings for exact midpoint displacement fractals can be described by a linear trend with preference increasing as fractal dimension increases. For the majority of individuals, preference increased with dimension. We replicated these results for other exact fractal patterns in a second study. In the second study, we also tested the effects of symmetry and recursion by presenting asymmetric dragon fractals, symmetric dragon fractals, and Sierpinski carpets and Koch snowflakes, which have radial and mirror symmetry. We found a strong interaction among recursion, symmetry and fractal dimension. Specifically, at low levels of recursion, the presence of symmetry was enough to drive high preference ratings for patterns with moderate to high levels of fractal dimension. Most individuals required a much higher level of recursion to recover this level of preference in a pattern that lacked mirror or radial symmetry, while others were less discriminating. This suggests that exact fractals are processed differently than their statistical counterparts. We propose a set of four factors that influence complexity and preference judgments in fractals that may extend to other patterns: fractal dimension, recursion, symmetry and the number of segments in a pattern. Conceptualizations such as Berlyne's and Redies' theories of aesthetics also provide a suitable framework for interpretation of our data with respect to the individual differences that we detect. Future studies that incorporate physiological methods to measure the human aesthetic response to exact fractal patterns would further elucidate our responses to such timeless patterns.

The Role of Visual Eccentricity on Preference for Abstract Symmetry

This study tested preference for abstract patterns, comparing random patterns to a two-fold bilateral symmetry. Stimuli were presented at random locations in the periphery. Preference for bilateral symmetry has been extensively studied in central vision, but evaluation at different locations had not been systematically investigated. Patterns were presented for 200 ms within a large circular region. On each trial participant changed fixation and were instructed to select any location. Eccentricity values were calculated a posteriori as the distance between ocular coordinates at pattern onset and coordinates for the centre of the pattern. Experiment 1 consisted of two Tasks. In Task 1, participants detected pattern regularity as fast as possible. In Task 2 they evaluated their liking for the pattern on a Likert-scale. Results from Task 1 revealed that with our parameters eccentricity did not affect symmetry detection. However, in Task 2, eccentricity predicted more negative evaluation of symmetry, but not random patterns. In Experiment 2 participants were either presented with symmetry or random patterns. Regularity was task-irrelevant in this task. Participants discriminated the proportion of black/white dots within the pattern and then evaluated their liking for the pattern. Even when only one type of regularity was presented and regularity was task-irrelevant, preference evaluation for symmetry decreased with increasing eccentricity, whereas eccentricity did not affect the evaluation of random patterns. We conclude that symmetry appreciation is higher for foveal presentation in a way not fully accounted for by sensitivity.

Seeing two faces together: preference formation in humans and rhesus macaques

Humans, great apes and old world monkeys show selective attention to faces depending on conspecificity, familiarity, and social status supporting the view that primates share similar face processing mechanisms. Although many studies have been done on face scanning strategy in monkeys and humans, the mechanisms influencing viewing preference have received little attention. To determine how face categories influence viewing preference in humans and rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta), we performed two eye-tracking experiments using a visual preference task whereby pairs of faces from different species were presented simultaneously. The results indicated that viewing time was significantly influenced by the pairing of the face categories. Humans showed a strong bias towards an own-race face in an Asian-Caucasian condition. Rhesus macaques directed more attention towards non-human primate faces when they were paired with human faces, regardless of the species. When rhesus faces were paired with faces from Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) or chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), the novel species' faces attracted more attention. These results indicate that monkeys' viewing preferences, as assessed by a visual preference task, are modulated by several factors, species and dominance being the most influential.

Micro-valences: perceiving affective valence in everyday objects

Perceiving the affective valence of objects influences how we think about and react to the world around us. Conversely, the speed and quality with which we visually recognize objects in a visual scene can vary dramatically depending on that scene’s affective content. Although typical visual scenes contain mostly “everyday” objects, the affect perception in visual objects has been studied using somewhat atypical stimuli with strong affective valences (e.g., guns or roses). Here we explore whether affective valence must be strong or overt to exert an effect on our visual perception. We conclude that everyday objects carry subtle affective valences – “micro-valences” – which are intrinsic to their perceptual representation.

Neuroaesthetics: a coming of age story

Neuroaesthetics is gaining momentum. At this early juncture, it is worth taking stock of where the field is and what lies ahead. Here, I review writings that fall under the rubric of neuroaesthetics. These writings include discussions of the parallel organizational principles of the brain and the intent and practices of artists, the description of informative anecdotes, and the emergence of experimental neuroaesthetics. I then suggest a few areas within neuroaesthetics that might be pursued profitably. Finally, I raise some challenges for the field. These challenges are not unique to neuroaesthetics. As neuroaesthetics comes of age, it might take advantage of the lessons learned from more mature domains of inquiry within cognitive neuroscience.

Beauty and the beholder: highly individual taste for abstract, but not real-world images

How individual are visual preferences? For real-world scenes, there is high agreement in observer's preference ratings. This could be driven by visual attributes of the images but also by non-visual associations, since those are common to most individuals. To investigate this, we developed a set of novel abstract, visually diverse images. At the individual observer level both abstract and real-world images yielded robust and consistent visual preferences, and yet abstract images yielded much lower across observer agreement in preferences than did real-world images. This suggests that visual preferences are typically driven by the semantic content of stimuli, and that shared semantic interpretations then lead to shared preferences. Further experiments showed that highly individual preferences can nevertheless emerge also for real-world scenes, in contexts which de-emphasize their semantic associations.

What makes some species of milk snakes more attractive to humans than others?

Animals are ancestrally important stimuli for humans who pay disproportional attention to animal objects and exhibit an outstanding ability to categorize animal species, especially those most relevant to them. Humans as well as other primates perceive snakes as ambivalent stimuli that elicit unspecific arousal and attention. We assessed human aesthetic preferences toward milk snakes, the traditional model for studies of Batesian mimicry. The genus is fairly uniform in size and shape, but includes a great variety of color forms; some possessing aposematic patterns while others being rather cryptic. This provides an opportunity to test which features are responsible for positive aesthetic evaluation of the species. We asked the respondents to rank 34 pictures of milk snakes according to perceived beauty. The sets (whole bodies, heads, and skin fragments) covered most of naturally occurring variation in milk snake appearance. While ranking the beauty, the respondents spontaneously classified the species according to two dimensions. In each set, one of the dimensions corresponds to perceived beauty. The respondents' ranking revealed several distinct clusters of species instead of a continuous gradient. The species clustered in a similar way irrespective of evaluated set. One dimension of the ranking associated with the relative representation of red color and the number of transversal stripes, the other corresponded to a low proportion of red and a high proportion of black color. When the whole body of the snake is evaluated, aposematic coloration contributes to its perceived beauty. In conclusion, humans showed a surprising ability to classify milk snake patterns; they repeatedly formed the same distinct groups of species, thus completing a process that resembles unsupervised categorization.

Aesthetic value of paintings affects pain thresholds

Pain is modulated by cognitive factors, including attention and emotions. In this study we evaluated the distractive effect of aesthetic appreciation on subjectively rated pain (visual analogue scale;VAS) and multi-channel evoked potentials induced by CO(2) laser stimulation of the left hand in twelve healthy volunteers. Subjects were stimulated by laser in the absence of other external stimulation (baseline condition) and while looking at different paintings they had previously rated as beautiful, neutral or ugly. The view of paintings previously appreciated as beautiful produced lower pain scores and a clear inhibition of the P2 wave amplitude, localized in the anterior cingulate cortex; the inhibition of P2 wave amplitude was lesser or not significant during the presentation of the ugly or neutral paintings, respectively. Dipole source localization analysis of the LEP peaks showed significant changes during different conditions, with a shift from the posterior to the anterior right cingulated cortex while looking at paintings previously rated as beautiful. Our results provide evidence that pain may be modulated at cortical level by the aesthetic content of the distracting stimuli.

Influence of aesthetic perception on visual event-related potentials

The aim of the study was to assess the effects of visual aesthetic perception on event-related potentials (ERPs). Eight subjects assigned an aesthetic judgment (beautiful, neutral, or ugly) and a 10-step beauty estimation to the target stimuli, consisting of famous artistic pictures and geometric shapes. In a further task, the subjects performed a motor response to the previously judged pictures and geometric shapes. ERPs were recorded through 54 scalp electrodes during both tasks. The P3b amplitude was increased during the categorization of the geometric shapes compared to the artistic figures and during the vision of the beautiful targets preceding the motor response. The categorization of the aesthetic qualities of geometrical shapes seems to induce a higher level of attention, while a higher arousal variation was elicited by the recognition of beauty, in any form that was presented.

Enhanced creativity in bipolar disorder patients: a controlled study

OBJECTIVE

Associations between eminent creativity and bipolar disorders have been reported, but there are few data relating non-eminent creativity to bipolar disorders in clinical samples. We assessed non-eminent creativity in euthymic bipolar (BP) and unipolar major depressive disorder (MDD) patients, creative discipline controls (CC), and healthy controls (HC).

METHODS

49 BP, 25 MDD, 32 CC, and 47 HC (all euthymic) completed four creativity measures yielding six parameters: the Barron-Welsh Art Scale (BWAS-Total, and two subscales, BWAS-Dislike and BWAS-Like), the Adjective Check List Creative Personality Scale (ACL-CPS), and the Torrance Tests of Creative Thinking--Figural (TTCT-F) and Verbal (TTCT-V) versions. Mean scores on these instruments were compared across groups.

RESULTS

BP and CC (but not MDD) compared to HC scored significantly higher on BWAS-Total (45% and 48% higher, respectively) and BWAS-Dislike (90% and 88% higher, respectively), but not on BWAS-Like. CC compared to MDD scored significantly higher (12% higher) on TTCT-F. For all other comparisons, creativity scores did not differ significantly between groups.

CONCLUSIONS

We found BP and CC (but not MDD) had similarly enhanced creativity on the BWAS-Total (driven by an increase on the BWAS-Dislike) compared to HC. Further studies are needed to determine the mechanisms of enhanced creativity and how it relates to clinical (e.g. temperament, mood, and medication status) and preclinical (e.g. visual and affective processing substrates) parameters.

Learning to tell apples from oranges

Recognizing images requires sorting them into the correct perceptual categories. Without categories, apples could not be discriminated from oranges. A fundamental question is whether categories are innate or learned, and if learned, how well such discriminations generalize. A recent finding by Notman et al. demonstrates that certain categorical discriminations are learned fast but vanish for slightly rotated stimuli. Rather than higher "cognitive" learning, this indicates involvement of "early" mechanisms, which cannot generalize across different stimulus orientations.

The nature of learned categorical perception effects: a psychophysical approach

Categorical perception is often cited as a striking example of cognitive influences on perception. However, some evidence suggests the term is a misnomer, with effects based on cognitive not perceptual processing. Here, using a psychophysical approach, we provide evidence consistent with a learned categorical perception effect that is dependent on analysis within the visual processing stream. An improvement in participants' discrimination between grating patterns that they had learned to place in different categories was 'tuned' around the orientation of the patterns experienced during category learning. Thus, here, categorical perception may result from attentionally modulated perceptual learning about diagnostic category features, based upon orientation-selective stages of analysis. This argues strongly that category learning can alter our perception of the world.