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Home > Scholarly Contributions > Abstracts > Volume 17 Issue 2
Volume 17 Issue 2
Evolution, The Invisible Artist
Bruse F. Katz, 1999, 17:2, 101-120.
Abstract: In recent times Darwin s original ideas have gathered strength, threatening less robust theories in many areas of human and animal behavior with extinction. In particular, they appear to reduce the perception of beauty of the opposite sex to just one more instance of adaptive behavior. This article argues, however, that there is an alternative reading of the Darwinian program that is both consistent with evolutionary theory and preserves the autonomy of aesthetic reasoning. This is that species evolve so as to attract the opposite sex by generating cognitive arousal, causing attention to be redirected to themselves. The methods for generating arousal are consistent with such aesthetic devices as prototypicality, harmony, and salience. A neural network model of face recognition is presented in which higher network activity results when these aesthetic goals are met. Data is then presented showing that arousal in this model when exposed to female faces is strongly correlated with male judgments of the same female faces. Furthermore, the proposed theory is consistent with the fact that women use a variety of makeup and adornment techniques to highlight their features. The article concludes by arguing that to be beautiful is a valid evolutionary goal in itself, because more beautiful organisms are more likely to attract the attention of the opposite sex and therefore mate.

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Original Paintings Versus Slide and Computer Reproductions: A Comparison of Viewer Responses
Paul Locher, Lisa Smith, and Jeffrey Smith, 1999, 17:2, 121-129.
Abstract: The issue of whether viewing works of art by computer or slide is comparable to viewing original paintings was investigated by having visitors to The Metropolitan Museum of Art view works in these three formats and having them rate the works on measures of physical and structural characteristics, novelty of content, and aesthetic qualities. Only four of the sixteen evaluative ratings showed statistically significant results among groups, typically with viewers of the original works differing from viewers in the slide and computer formats. Correlational and factor analyses provided additional support for a notion of "pictorial sameness" for artworks viewed in the three formats. The results are examined in light of Currie s (1985) transferability thesis and the concept of "facsimile accommodation" developed by the authors.

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Contrasting Aesthetic Evaluations of "Graffiti" Images as a Function of Incongruity Intolerance Responses
Anna Maria Giannini and Paolo Bonaiuto, 1999, 17:2, 131-154.
Abstract: This investigation develops a line of research aimed at examining the influence of incongruity intolerance level on subjects aesthetic evaluations of relatively harmonious or very conflictual images. Sixty young adults were selected from a larger population and divided into two extreme subgroups: thirty very incongruity intolerant persons and thirty very incongruity tolerant ones. Both genders were equally represented in each category. Selection was based on a specific quick visual procedure, the Building Inclination Test (BIT: Bonaiuto, Giannini, & Bonaiuto, 1987, 1989; Bonaiuto, Biasi, Giannini, & Bartoli, 1996), providing a numerical index of incongruity intolerance, which has also been proved to be positively related to behavioral rigidity and negatively to ambiguity tolerance. Twelve full-color A4 reproductions of American "graffiti" paintings (made from 1981 to 1990 by artists such as Basquiat, Brown, Cutrone, Haring, Scharf, or others) were shown one at a time on a lectern and individually submitted to each subject for evaluating aesthetic and emotional properties using eleven-point scales. Systematic rotation of scales and pictures and double-blind experimental conditions were used. The images were selected corresponding to three categories: a) figurative playful and relaxing representations, b) semiabstract, emotionally quite neutral representations, and c) figurative disquieting, very conflictual representations. An overall progressive decrease of attributed beauty was found moving from the first to the third group of images. This effect was more intense for the very incongruity intolerant observers, who highly preferred images of the first category and deeply disliked those of the third category. On the other hand, the very incongruity tolerant participants recorded on average a less positive aesthetical appreciation score with the first category and a less negative one for the third category (there was a significant interaction between image category and observer s personality, p < 0.002). The aesthetic rejection of the most disquieting and conflictual images especially by the very incongruity intolerant persons is explained by the authors as an effect of the overloading of psychic conflict in this type of persons.

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Enhancing Novices' Ability to Achieve Percipience of Works of Art
Leslie Conliffe, 1999, 17:2, 155-169.
Abstract: This article reports on research to identify the conditions required to enhance novices percipience of works of art in galleries. The first section relates empirical and philosophical aesthetics to cognitive and cultural processes to determine the theoretical basis of how knowledgeability of works of art is attained. A twofold approach for enhancing novices percipience of works of art is established: first, novices require knowledge of causal explanations related to the context in which the art is made; second, novices have to use appropriate knowledge-seeking strategies for interpreting the art. The second section describes the effect of interventions, structured around the twofold approach outlined above, to enable a group of eight-to-eleven-year-old novices of mixed gender and ability to achieve percipience of a work of art.

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Personological Studies on Dancers: Motivations, Conflicts, and Defense Mechanisms
Valeria Biasi, Paolo Bonaiuto, Anna Maria Giannini, and Elisabetta Chiappero, 1999, 17:2, 171-186.
Abstract: Previous investigations carried out in different countries in the last four decades have demonstrated that intensity of achievement motivation is higher among dancers compared to nondancers. For this reason we hypothesized that the Type A behavior pattern, with some of its implications, should be relatively frequent among dance artists, in comparison with sedentary persons. Because the athletes subculture also constitutes, in our society, a rewarding and promoting environment for personalities oriented toward achievement, competitiveness, control, etc., we also predicted a similar relative prevalence of Type As among athletes. Four hundred young adults (both genders) were examined in double-blind conditions with a booklet containing two different scales of the Type A behavior pattern (AATABS-3 and Framingham Scale) and other tests. Participants were classical ballet or modern dance professionals or amateurs, high-level or amateur athletes practicing different sport specialties for years, and comparable sedentary persons. Type As turned out almost two times more frequent among dancers and three times among athletes while Type Bs were proportionally more frequent among sedentary persons. Athletes did not differ from sedentary persons except on Type A frequency and scores. Dancers differed both from sedentary persons and from athletes, showing less hardiness, a higher tendency to control and deny negative emotions, and to avoid interpersonal conflicts, also at the cost of anger control, intrapunitivity and even self-sacrifice ("need for harmony"). These features look consonant with aesthetic sensitivity, severe continuous discipline and high social coordination that the art of dance and contemporary dance schools demand. Internal comparisons between subcategories (amateur versus professional dancers, or amateur versus high level athletes) showed remarkable homogeneity. This result contributes to proving the dominating influence of recruitment phases and methods, instead of specific training, in determining the typical dancer or athlete personality profile.

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Creativity and Speed of Mental Processing
Jonna Kwiatkowski, Oshin Vartanian, and Colin Martindale, 1999, 17:2, 187-196.
Abstract: It is reasonable to expect a correlation between creativity and speed of mental processing. Faster mental processing would allow one to learn the elements relevant to a domain and to screen more ideas for creative potential more quickly. However, there is evidence that highly creative people exhibit cognitive disinhibition and defocused attention. Thus, for ambiguous tasks, their speed of mental processing may be slow because they are poor at filtering out irrelevant aspects of stimuli. We tested the hypothesis that creative people should show faster reaction times on unambiguous tasks and slower reaction times on ambiguous tasks than less-creative people. The hypothesis was confirmed. There was a negative correlation between creativity and reaction time on an unambiguous Concept Verification Test and a positive correlation between creativity and a negative priming task.

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