On the perceptual aesthetics of interactive objects

Measures of angularity in digital images

In light of the growing interest in studying the affective and aesthetic attributes of curvature, the present paper describes four digital image processing techniques that can be used to objectively discriminate between angular and curvilinear stimuli. MATLAB scripts for each of the techniques accompany the paper. Three studies are then reported that evaluate the efficacy of five metrics, derived from the four techniques, at quantifying the degree of angularity depicted in an image. Images of simple polygons (Study 1), artistic drawings of everyday objects (Study 2), and real-world objects, typefaces, and abstract patterns (Study 3) were analyzed. Logistic regression models were used to determine the relative importance of the metrics at distinguishing between angular and curvilinear items. With one exception, all of the metrics were capable of distinguishing between angular and curvilinear items at a level above chance, but some metrics were better at doing so than others, and their discriminative capacity was influenced by the characteristics of the image. The strengths and limitations of the metrics are discussed, as well as some practical recommendations.

Affordances and curvature preference: The case of real objects and spaces

Chuquichambi and colleagues recently questioned the prevailing belief that a universal human visual preference exists for curved shapes and lines. Their comprehensive meta-analysis demonstrated that while curvature preference is widespread, it is not universally constant or invariant. By revisiting their dataset, we made an intriguing discovery: a negative relationship between curvature preference and an object's "affordances." Taking an embodiment perspective into account, we propose an explanation for this phenomenon, suggesting that the diminished curvature preference in objects with abundant affordances can be understood through the lens of embodied cognition.

How universal is preference for visual curvature? A systematic review and meta-analysis

Evidence dating back a century shows that humans are sensitive to and exhibit a preference for visual curvature. This effect has been observed in different age groups, human cultures, and primate species, suggesting that a preference for curvature could be universal. At the same time, several studies have found that preference for curvature is modulated by contextual and individual factors, casting doubt on this hypothesis. To resolve these conflicting findings, we conducted a systematic meta-analysis of studies that have investigated the preference for visual curvature. Our meta-analysis included 61 studies which provided 106 independent samples and 309 effect sizes. The results of a three-level random effects model revealed a Hedges' g of 0.39-consistent with a medium effect size. Further analyses revealed that preference for curvature is moderated by four factors: presentation time, stimulus type, expertise, and task. Together, our results suggest that preference for visual curvature is a reliable but not universal phenomenon and is influenced by factors other than perceptual information.

Proprioceptive art: How should it be defined, and why has it become so popular?

In recent years, there has been something of an explosion of interest in those artworks and installations that directly foreground the bodily senses. Often referred to as proprioceptive (or prop.) art, the question to be addressed in this narrative historical review is how it should be defined, and why has it become so popular? A contrast is drawn with examples of sculpture and/or tactile art. The entertainment/experiential element of such works cannot be denied, especially in an era where funding in the arts sector is so often linked to footfall. At the same time, however, a number of the works appear to be about little more than entertainment/amusement. One might wonder why such "edutainment" should be placed in the art gallery rather than, say, in a museum of science or illusion. Nevertheless, in the best cases, the foregrounding, or removal, of bodily sensations that proprioceptive artworks deliver can potentially help to connect people in an increasingly digital, online, mostly audiovisual, and hence in some sense disembodied contemporary existence. These issues are discussed in the context of the works of Carsten Höller, a prolific German installation and object artist.

Applying Q-Methodology to Investigate People' Preferences for Multivariate Stimuli

This article serves as a step-by-step guide of a new application of Q-methodology to investigate people’s preferences for multivariate stimuli. Q-methodology has been widely applied in fields such as sociology, education and political sciences but, despite its numerous advantages, it has not yet gained much attention from experimental psychologists. This may be due to the fact that psychologists examining preferences, often adopt stimuli resulting from a combination of characteristics from multiple variables, and in repeated measure designs. At present, Q methodology has not been adapted to accommodate. We therefore developed a novel analysis procedure allowing Q-methodology to handle these conditions. We propose a protocol requiring five analyses of a decision process to estimate: (1) the preference of stimuli, (2) the dominance of variables, (3) the individual differences, (4) the interaction between individual differences and preference, and (5) the interaction between individual differences and dominance. The guide comes with a script developed in R (R Core Team, 2020) to run the five analyses; furthermore, we provide a case study with a detailed description of the procedure and corresponding results. This guide is particularly beneficial to conduct and analyze experiments in any research on people’s preferences, such as experimental aesthetics, prototype testing, visual perception (e.g., judgments of similarity/dissimilarity to a model), etc.

Nonverbal communication in selfies posted on Instagram: Another look at the effect of gender on vertical camera angle

Background

Selfies are a novel social phenomenon that is gradually beginning to receive attention within the cognitive sciences. Several studies have documented biases that may be related to nonverbal communicative intentions. For instance, in selfies posted on the dating platform Tinder males but not females prefer camera views from below (Sedgewick, Flath & Elias, 2017). We re-examined this study to assess whether this bias is confined to dating selection contexts and to compare variability between individuals and between genders.

Methods

Three raters evaluated vertical camera position in 2000 selfies– 1000 by males and 1000 by females—posted in Instagram.

Results

We found that the choices of camera angle do seem to vary depending on the context under which the selfies were uploaded. On Tinder, females appear more likely to choose neutral, frontal presentations than they do on Instagram, whereas males on Tinder appear more likely to opt for camera angles from below than on Instagram.

Conclusions

This result confirms that the composition of selfies is constrained by factors affecting nonverbal communicative intentions.

Seeing Suppresses Haptic Pleasure While Perceiving Contemporary Art

To date, haptic aesthetic processing has been tested outside the field of real works of art. By providing the context of a contemporary art exhibition designed to be touched, we studied haptic pleasure towards artworks. In line with our hypothesis, seeing affected the evaluation of haptic pleasure which was higher in the blindfolded-tactile than visuo-tactile condition. Thus, seeing seems to impede the tactile processing of artworks.

Effects of content and viewing distance on the preferred size of moving images

While visual size preferences regarding still objects have been investigated and linked to the “canonical size” effect—where preferred on-screen size was significantly related to objects’ real-world size—the visual size preferences related to moving images of natural scenes has not been researched. In this study, we measured the preferred size of moving images of natural scenes and short duration and investigated the effect of viewing distance on size preferences. Our results showed that the preferred size varied strongly depending on content, and we found moving images’ canonical size effect. The preferred size in images of scenery was significantly larger than in images of persons, and there was a positive correlation between the preferred size and the real-world physical size of the main subjects in the images. When the viewing distance was doubled, the preferred size increased about 10% as a ratio to screen size—in contrast to the findings of a previous study. While the rationale for these findings is not yet clear, our analysis suggests that neither the motion component in the images nor the nature of their background area are contributing factors. We suggest that environment, viewing distance, and screen size may contribute to this effect.

Individual Differences in Aesthetic Preferences for Multi-Sensorial Stimulation

The aim of the current project was to investigate aesthetics in multi-sensorial stimulation and to explore individual differences in the process. We measured the aesthetics of interactive objects (IOs) which are three-dimensional objects with electronic components that exhibit an autonomous behaviour when handled, e.g., vibrating, playing a sound, or lighting-up. The Q-sorting procedure of Q-methodology was applied. Data were analysed by following the Qmulti protocol. The results suggested that overall participants preferred IOs that (i) vibrate, (ii) have rough surface texture, and (iii) are round. No particular preference emerged about the size of the IOs. When making an aesthetic judgment, participants paid more attention to the behaviour variable of the IOs than the size, contour or surface texture. In addition, three clusters of participants were identified, suggesting that individual differences existed in the aesthetics of IOs. Without proper consideration of potential individual differences, aesthetic scholars may face the risk of having significant effects masked by individual differences. Only by paying attention to this issue can more meaningful findings be generated to contribute to the field of aesthetics.

Tactile aesthetics: Textures that we like or hate to touch

Considering object identification and recognition as well as human interaction with objects, texture as a surface property plays a crucial role. A deeper understanding of tactile aesthetics can be useful in the applied field such as in product designs that appeal more to our senses and that are more effective in eliciting certain emotional responses from a potential consumer. In the present study, behavioral experiments were performed using unfamiliar custom-made dot pattern stimuli under two complementary questionings. The first question focused on the tactile perceptive attributes related to topographical characteristics of the textures exhibited by the material surfaces. The second question focused on the texture pleasantness related both to the perceptive attributes and to the topographical characteristics of the textures. The perspective of this work opens on complementary fields of research such as neurosciences to determine the brain mechanisms in the processing of the pleasantness of tactile stimuli.