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Visual cortex activation predicts visual preference: Evidence from Britain and Egypt
Alexis Dj Makin1, Mai Helmy2, Marco Bertamini1
11 Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK.
Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology (2006)
|July 13, 2017
Summary
Visual patterns with high perceptual goodness, indicating strong salience, are preferred aesthetically. This finding on visual appeal and symmetry holds true across different cultures, suggesting universal human preferences.
Area of Science:
- Visual perception
- Aesthetics
- Cognitive psychology
Background:
- Perceptual goodness quantifies the salience of visual configurations.
- Previous research shows agreement between theoretical, neural, and behavioral measures of perceptual goodness for symmetrical patterns.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between perceptual goodness and aesthetic preference.
- To determine if this relationship is universal across cultures.
Main Methods:
- Utilized symmetrical visual patterns previously studied for perceptual goodness.
- Collected aesthetic preference ratings from 50 participants in the U.K. on a 0-100 scale.
- Replicated findings in Egypt with the same stimulus set and a different set.
Main Results:
- Aesthetic preference ratings positively correlated with four measures of perceptual goodness.
- Replication in Egypt confirmed the positive correlation, indicating universal appeal.
- A third experiment with a different stimulus set yielded consistent results.
Conclusions:
- Symmetry acts as an aesthetic primitive, inherently attractive due to visual system processing.
- The link between perceptual goodness and aesthetic preference appears to be a universal aspect of human psychology.