Humans have engaged in artistic and aesthetic activities since the appearance of our species. Our ancestors have decorated their bodies, tools, and utensils for over 100,000 years. The expression of meaning using color, line, sound, rhythm, or movement, among other means, constitutes a fundamental aspect of our species' biological and cultural heritage. Art and aesthetics, therefore, contribute to our species identity and distinguish it from its living and extinct relatives. Science is faced with the challenge of explaining the natural foundations of such a unique trait, and the way cultural processes nurture it into magnificent expressions, historically and ethnically unique. How do the human mind and brain bring about these sorts of behaviors? What psychological and neural processes underlie the appreciation of painting, music, and dance? How does training modulate these processes? Are humans the only species capable of aesthetic appreciation, or are other species endowed with
the rudiments of this capacity? Empirical examinations of such questions have a long and rich history in the discipline of psychology, the genesis of which can be traced back to the publication of Gustav Theodor Fechner's Vorschule der Aesthetik in 1876, making it the second oldest branch in experimental psychology.
The Oxford Handbook of Empirical Aesthetics brings together leading experts in psychology, neuroimaging, art history, and philosophy to answer these questions. It provides the most comprehensive coverage of the domain of empirical aesthetics to date. With sections on visual art, dance, music, and many other art forms and aesthetic phenomena, the breadth of this volume's scope reflects the richness and variety of topics and methods currently used today by scientists to understand the way our mind and brain endow us with the faculty to produce and appreciate art and aesthetics.
Author(s): Marcos Nadal, Oshin Vartanian
Series: Oxford Library of Psychology
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 1098
City: Oxford
Cover
Series
The Oxford Handbook of Empirical Aesthetics
Copyright
Contents
List of Contributors
Section 1. Foundations
1. Empirical Aesthetics: An Overview
2. One Hundred Years of Empirical Aesthetics: Fechner to Berlyne (1876–1976)
3. Revisiting Fechner’s Methods
4. The Link Between Empirical Aesthetics and Philosophy
5. Appreciation Modes in Empirical Aesthetics
6. Exploring the Landscape of Emotion in Aesthetic Experience
7. The Neurobiology of Sensory Valuation
8. The Evolution of Aesthetics and Beauty
Section 2. Methods
9. Historiometric Methods
10. Observation Method in Empirical Aesthetics
11. Observational Drawing Research Methods
12. Implicit Measures in the Aesthetic Domain
13. The Study of Eye Movements in Empirical Aesthetics
14. Electrophysiology
15. Functional Neuroimaging in Empirical Aesthetics and Neuroaesthetics
16. Noninvasive Brain Stimulation: Contribution to Research in Neuroaesthetics
17. Integrated Methods: A Call for Integrative and Interdisciplinary Aesthetics Research
Section 3. Object Features
18. The Role of Collative Variables in Aesthetic Experiences
19. Processing Fluency
20. The Use of Visual Statistical Features in Empirical Aesthetics
21. Color
22. The Study of Symmetry in Empirical Aesthetics
23. The Curvature Effect
24. Facial Attractiveness
Section 4. Artforms
25. The Empirical Aesthetics of Music
26. The Aesthetics of Action and Movement
27. Aesthetics of Dance
28. The Audio-Visual Aesthetics of Music and Dance
29. Aesthetic Responses to Architecture
30. Aesthetics, Technology, and Popular Movies
31. Empirical Aesthetics of Poetry
32. Aesthetic Responses to the Characters, Plots, Worlds, and Style of Stories
Section 5. The Person
33. The Role of Attention, Executive Processes, and Memory in Aesthetic Experience
34. Children’s Appreciation of Art
35. The Influence of Expertise on Aesthetics
36. The Influence of Personality on Aesthetic Preferences
37. Aesthetic Sensitivity
38. Cross-Cultural Empirical Aesthetics
Section 6. The Context
39. The General Impact of Context on Aesthetic Experience
40. Empirical Aesthetics: Context, Extra Information, and Framing
41. Studying Empirical Aesthetics in Museum Contexts
42. Aesthetic Experience in Everyday Environments
43. The Impact of the Social Context on Aesthetic Experience
Section 7. Applications
44. Design and Aesthetics
45. The Role of Empirical Aesthetics in Consumer Behavior
46. On the Empirical Aesthetics of Plating
Index
