How to Lay Bricks: Local-Global Alignment Predicts Preference for Shifted Tile Patterns

We examine the aesthetic characteristics of row tile patterns defined by repeating strips of polygons. In experiment 1 participants rated the perceived beauty of equilateral triangle, square and rectangular tilings presented at vertical and horizontal orientations. The tiles were shifted by one-fourth increments of a complete row cycle. Shifts that preserved global symmetry were liked the most. Local symmetry by itself did not predict ratings but tilings with a greater number of emergent features did. In a second experiment we presented row tiles using all types of three- and four-sided geometric figures: acute, obtuse, isosceles and right triangles, kites, parallelograms, a rhombus, trapezoid, and trapezium. Once again, local polygon symmetry did not predict responding but measures of correspondence between local and global levels did. In particular, number of aligned polygon symmetry axes and number of aligned polygon sides were significantly and positively correlated with beauty ratings. Preference was greater for more integrated tilings, possibly because they encourage the formation of gestalts and exploration within and across levels of spatial scale.