Visual art: The effect of verbal information on judgments of understanding, epistemic and aesthetic emotions

GONZÁLEZ, FEDERICO MARTÍN; BURIN, DEBORA I.

Conferencia; 2022 Annual meeting of the Society for Text and Discourse - Online; 2022

IntroductionMany factors influence how visual artworks are understood (i.e., grasping the artist’s intention or personal meaning), experienced (i.e., aesthetic emotions such as judgments of beauty or linking, and epistemic emotions like interest or feeling mentally engaged), and judged (i.e., judgments of artistic value). One of them, relevant for its prevalence, is verbal information presented alongside artworks as labels or accompanying texts. One frequent distinction in previous studies is descriptive (usually pointing out image features) versus elaborative (providing a possible interpretation or explanation of the artwork) information. Leder et al. (2006) found that, even though there was no effect on liking, elaborative titles led to higher understanding ratings under longer viewing times. Conversely, Millis (2001) found both descriptive and elaborative (metaphorical interpretation) titles were associated with higher understanding. Furthermore, he found a superiority of elaborative titles for aesthetic experience. This “elaboration effect” for aesthetic emotions would require creating a coherent, extended representation based on alternative explanations and concepts related to the art piece. In line with this idea of interrelated emotional and cognitive processing, Russell (2003) suggested that part of the pleasure experienced when viewing art derives from a felt successful interpretation. Providing extended information, he found higher meaningfulness and aesthetic judgement for abstract paintings. Similarly, Swami (2013) observed that information enhanced viewers’ perceived ability to understand abstract artworks which, in turn, increased aesthetic appreciation. However, other studies found conflicting results on understanding and appreciation (e.g., Leder et al. 2006, Thömmes & Hübner, 2014). Additionally, texts usually included both descriptive and interpretive information combined, and not all studies have studied aesthetic and epistemic emotions separately. Consequently, the aim of this study was to explore the effect of different types of information (image only, short label, descriptive text, and interpretive text) on a range of responses to abstract expressionist and conceptual artworks including aesthetic and epistemic emotions, appraised ability to understand, and artistic value judgements.MethodParticipantsSeventy-two first-year psychology students (age: M= 22.4, SD = 5.6; gender: 76.4% female). The project was approved by an ethics committee and all participants filled an Informed consent form.MaterialsImages. Twenty-four images of artworks by artists categorized as either abstract expressionists or conceptual artists (Stangos, 1994).Information. four conditions: Image only, Short label (artwork title, artist, and year), Descriptive text (short label plus a description of features like color, composition, materials, and technique), and Interpretive text (short label plus a possible interpretation based on the artist’s life, its historical context, or a philosophical topic). Text length was of approximately 90 words, based on information obtained from books and museum websites. Response questionnaire: Thirteen Likert-type items representing 4 dimensions: Aesthetic emotions (e.g., “I found it beautiful”), Epistemic emotions (e.g., “Made me curious”), Appraised ability to understand (e.g., “I could get a sense of what the artist wanted to express”), and Artistic value judgement (e.g., “I think this artwork deserves to be exhibited in museums”).ProcedureThe task was programmed using Psychopy v.3.0.2. Individually, all participants viewed 24 images under four conditions (6 images per condition). Image order and image-condition pairings were randomized for every participant. Each trial started with the information condition followed by the image and ended with the questionnaire. The were no restrictions on reading or viewing times.Data analysisIn the R programming language 4.1.1 (R Core Team, 2021), a confirmatory factor analysis was carried out with the lavaan 0.6-4 package (Rosseel, 2012). To test the effects, linear and generalized mixed models were built with the lme4 package (Bates et al., 2015), and post-hoc contrasts were carried with the emmeans package (Length, 2021). Data and code to reproduce analyses are available at Open Science Framework, data: https://osf.io/28kj3/?view_only=504ba2dc20b84fda9b3336842a3b8816, R code (for this report, see study 2): https://osf.io/kxqdt/?view_only=3693d46fb7374d92a1dc0542f31b027a.ResultsThe questionnaire showed acceptable psychometric properties (4-factor model CFA Fit indexes were acceptable, and all dimensions showed good internal consistency with Cronbach’s α ranging from .81 to .91), therefore four factor scores were extractedInformation effect on aesthetic emotions, epistemic emotions, artistic value judgement, and apprised ability to understandFour linear mixed models were conducted, with an interaction of information type and artistic style as fixed factors, and participant and image as random factors, followed by corresponding F statistic for the fixed factors’ effect. A main effect of Information condition on appraised ability to understand was found, F(3, 1629.3) = 8.64, p