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Related Experiment Video

Updated: May 25, 2026

Investigating the 'Uncatchable Smile' in Leonardo da Vinci's La Bella Principessa: A Comparison with the Mona Lisa and Pollaiuolo's Portrait of a Girl
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Published on: October 4, 2016

Musings about beauty.

Walter Kintsch1

  • 1Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309, USA. walter.kintsch@colorado.edu

Cognitive Science
|February 7, 2012
PubMed
Summary

Cognitive science offers new insights into beauty by defining "perfect form" through complexity theory. This model shows beauty arises from object features and observer perception, impacting mental representations.

Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Science
  • Aesthetics
  • Psychology

Background:

  • The term "beauty" is broadly applied, necessitating a focused approach.
  • Aesthetic theory provides criteria for "perfect form."

Purpose of the Study:

  • To explore how cognitive science can elucidate the concept of beauty.
  • To define "perfect form" using principles from complexity theory and mental representations.

Main Methods:

  • Utilizing complexity theory to model mental representations as vectors in high-dimensional space.
  • Analyzing the interplay between object features and observer encoding strategies.

Main Results:

  • Perfect form is contingent on both external stimuli and internal cognitive processes.

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  • A novel model is proposed that mathematically defines the perception of perfect form.

    • Conclusions:

    • Reframing beauty through "perfect form" and cognitive modeling offers new perspectives.
    • The proposed model has implications for understanding aesthetic experiences and perception.