IAEA - International Association of Empirical Aesthetics

Home

Organisation

Congresses

Awards

Membership

Benefits

Scholarly
Contributions

Abstracts

Proceedings

Interview

Contact

Links

Home > Scholarly Contributions > Abstracts > Volume 13 Issue 1
Volume 13 Issue 1
Prototype formation among professional dancers.
Robert L. Solso & Pam Dallob, 1995, 13:1, 3-16.
Abstract: Professional dancers were asked to learn a series of dance steps which were derived from a base geometric pattern considered to be a prototypic pattern. Exemplar steps varied in terms of their similarity to the base pattern. Following training, subjects were given a recognition task in which previously experienced dance steps were performed along with new steps and the prototype dance. The subjects were asked to judge if each of a second set of dance steps were "old" or "new" and to give confidence ratings. The results showed that professional cancers falsely recognized the prototype dance as an old dance. The judged familiarity of test dances was directly related to the mathematically determined similarity of test items to the prototype. A second group of non-professional subjects were presented with identical conditions. Non-professional dancers also falsely recognize the prototype dance as an old dance. The results suggest that experts in dance, as well as non-experts, store frequently experienced features of a complex motor task and manifest such memory by giving false alarms to a prototypical pattern of a learning set. It is suggested that similar traits may be found in other forms of artistic expression.

Buy the whole article at baywood.com - online shop now. To let you know: As member of the IAEA you receive the Empirical Studies of the Arts twice a year *for free* and are able to purchase all back issues since 1983 at discounted rates. See more benefits!
Fechner redux: A comparison of the Holbein Madonnas.
Philip H. Marshall, James Worthen, Linda Brant, James Shrader, Del Kahlstorf, & Charles Pickeral, 1995, 13:1, 17-24.
Abstract: Gustaf Theodor Fechner's studies, in the latter part of the 1800s, constituted the beginning of empirical psychological perspectives on art and aesthetics. Fechner devoted much of his attention to the controversy concerning the apparent beauty, and hence authenticity, of two very similar Madonna paintings attributed to Holbein the Younger. Fechner's particularly noteworthy study on this topic involved a direct comparison of the two paintings by visitors to an exhibition, but, according to Boring, that experiment was a failure. Given the historical importance of Fechner's research overall, and yielding to an urge for resolution of an unanswered question, we report a contemporary comparison of these paintings. Our subjects showed no obvious preference for either of the paintings, but there were differences in terms of emotional and artistic impressions.

Buy the whole article at baywood.com - online shop now. To let you know: As member of the IAEA you receive the Empirical Studies of the Arts twice a year *for free* and are able to purchase all back issues since 1983 at discounted rates. See more benefits!
The role of affective processes in reading time and time experience during literary reception.
János László & Gerald C. Cupchik, 1995, 13:1, 25-37.
Abstract: The present study was aimed at the study of affective and emotional processes in reading action-oriented and experience-oriented literary narratives using reading time and time estimation measures. The study was designed to test hypotheses about the story types mentioned above and about the relation between the emotional appeal of each story-type and the time measures. Structural affects, which are predominant in action-oriented stories, accelerated reading; whereas empathy and identification with characters' emotions as well as the presence of the self-related emotions that are characteristic of experience-oriented stories slowed reading time. Action-oriented texts lead to a shorter duration of both reading time and episode time, whereas experience-oriented texts result in an expansion of time experience.

Buy the whole article at baywood.com - online shop now. To let you know: As member of the IAEA you receive the Empirical Studies of the Arts twice a year *for free* and are able to purchase all back issues since 1983 at discounted rates. See more benefits!
The creativity and job satisfaction of artists in organizations.
Mark A. Runco, 1995, 13:1, 39-45.
Abstract: Although the creativity of artists is often studied, typically these artists work alone. The primary objective of this investigation was to examine artists employed in a large organization. Collaboration is required in organizations, and it may be that only particular artists succeeded in those settings. With this in mind, the Adjective Check List (ACL) was administered to 35 artists from a large organization specializing in creative products. Background data (e.g., birth order and education) were also collected. Seven scales extracted from each ACL and both personality and background were tested as predictors of the job satisfaction of the organizational artists. Another objective of this investigation was to assess the artists' views about the organization, using a measure of the Climate for Creative Productivity. The final objective was to compare artists' views of "an ideally or maximally creative visual artist" (based on a second administration of the ACL). Results indicated that job satisfaction could be predicted from the ACL, with the more original artists the least satisfied. Also important was the discrepancy between artists' self-descriptions and their descriptions of the ideal artists, the latter being indicative of higher creative potential.

Buy the whole article at baywood.com - online shop now. To let you know: As member of the IAEA you receive the Empirical Studies of the Arts twice a year *for free* and are able to purchase all back issues since 1983 at discounted rates. See more benefits!
The cognitive psychodynamics of acting: Character invasion and director influence.
Charles Neuringer & Ronald A. Willis, 1995, 13:1, 47-53.
Abstract: In order to evaluate the presence and extent of 1) Character Invasion (the effect of the character on the actor) and 2) Director Influence (the effect of the director on actors' conceptualizations of their characters), measures of semantic meaning were administered to the actors participating in a production of Macbeth. The actors were asked to assess 1) how they perceived their characters and 2) how they perceived themselves at four crucial times during the rehearsal to performance process (first read-through, first run-through, first dress rehearsal, and fourth performance). The director was also asked to assess his conceptualizations of the play's characters at each of the aforementioned four occasions using the same semantic meaning measurement device. An analysis of the ratings casts doubt on both the character invasion and director influence hypotheses. However, there does seem to be an indirect director effect on the actors' stage behaviors.

Buy the whole article at baywood.com - online shop now. To let you know: As member of the IAEA you receive the Empirical Studies of the Arts twice a year *for free* and are able to purchase all back issues since 1983 at discounted rates. See more benefits!
An empirical approach to representing patterns of consumer tastes, nostalgia, and hierarchy in the market for cultural products.
Morris B. Holbrook, 1995, 13:1, 55-71.
Abstract: Previous empirical research on consumer tastes for cultural products has investigated the structures of markets for art, entertainment, and popular culture by examining how customer characteristics affect preferences among cultural categories (e.g., films versus television) or within a category (e.g., television soap operas versus TV sports programs). The present study explores preferences both among and within cultural categories. It hypothesizes and finds taste patterns that reflect age-related nostalgia and that indicate a hierarchy from highbrow to lowbrow cultural products. Further, in answer to a research question concerning the market segments defined by ethnic group, gender, and religion, it appears that whites, men, and Christians tend relatively to favor the more popular or lowbrow aspects of the consumer culture.

Buy the whole article at baywood.com - online shop now. To let you know: As member of the IAEA you receive the Empirical Studies of the Arts twice a year *for free* and are able to purchase all back issues since 1983 at discounted rates. See more benefits!
Compositional geometry in pictures.
I. C. McManus & Catherine M. Kitson, 1995, 13:1, 73-94.
Abstract: The aesthetic effect of pictures has been suggested to depend in part upon the existence of an implicit or explicit geometrical basis to their composition. In Experiment 1, subjects identified the significant points which might form the basis for such a geometry. In Experiment 2, a different group of subjects expressed preferences either for intact or cut versions of the pictures used in Experiment 1, and for sets of dots based upon the significant points within those cut and uncut pictures. Although subjects showed an overall preference for uncut rather than cut stimuli (in which it was presumed that cutting would have destroyed much of the compositional geometry), both for pictures and for dot stimuli, there was no correlation between the judgments of pictures and dot patterns, either between picture or between subjects, suggesting that compositional geometry was not of aesthetic significance in preference judgments. That conclusion was reinforced by Experiment 3, in which subjects showed no evidence of a preference for synthetic stimuli which were produced so that they had significant geometrical structure.

Buy the whole article at baywood.com - online shop now. To let you know: As member of the IAEA you receive the Empirical Studies of the Arts twice a year *for free* and are able to purchase all back issues since 1983 at discounted rates. See more benefits!
back to abstracts