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Updated: Aug 25, 2025
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Published on: March 8, 2019
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Aesthetic experience enhances first-person spatial representation
Mariana Babo-Rebelo1,2, Marie Chatel3, Serena Tabacchi3
1Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London, London, WC1N 3AZ, United Kingdom.
Summary
Positive aesthetic experiences, like artwork liking, enhance spatial memory for where objects are located. This suggests affect influences our ability to remember spatial contexts, impacting subjective experiences and potentially museum design.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Art History
Background:
- Episodic autobiographical memories integrate spatial context and affective components.
- The interaction between affect and spatial memory encoding remains an area of active research.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how aesthetic liking influences memory for the spatial location of artworks.
- To determine if affect modulates the encoding of spatial context within episodic memories.
Main Methods:
- Three online experiments were conducted with participants viewing a virtual art exhibition.
- Participants relocated artworks on a map and rated their aesthetic liking.
- Memory recall and recognition speed for artwork locations were assessed.
Main Results:
- Liking an artwork significantly improved recall of the wall it was hung on.
- This liking-wall memory effect persisted across different experimental conditions and after 24 hours.
- Positive affect enhanced spatial representations in a subject-centered reference frame.
Conclusions:
- Positive aesthetic experiences enhance first-person spatial representations and memory for location.
- Affect and spatial representations are interconnected elements of sentience and subjectivity.
- Findings have implications for understanding subjective experiences and museum environment design.
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