Oxford Handbook of Empirical Aesthetics

The Oxford Handbook of Empirical Aesthetics provides the most comprehensive coverage of the domain of empirical aesthetics to date. With sections on visual art, dance, music, and other art forms, the breadth of this volume reflects the richness and variety of topics and methods used by scientists to understand the way human beings appreciate art.

List of contents

• Preface


• SECTION 1. FOUNDATIONS


• 1: Marcos Nadal and Oshin Vartanian: Empirical Aesthetics: An overview


• 2: Marcos Nadal and Esther Ureña: 100 years of Empirical Aesthetics: 1876 - 1976


• 3: Gesche Westphal-Fitch: Revisiting Fechner's methods


• 4: William P. Seeley: The link between Empirical Aesthetics and philosophy


• 5: Rolf Reber: Appreciation modes in Empirical Aesthetics


• 6: Gerald C. Cupchik: Exploring the landscape of emotion in aesthetic experience


• 7: Martin Skov: The neurobiology of sensory valuation


• 8: Dahlia W. Zaidel: The evolution of aesthetics and beauty


• SECTION 2. METHODS


• 9: Dean Keith Simonton: Historiometric methods


• 10: Pablo P. L. Tinio and Eva Specker: Observation method in Empirical Aesthetics


• 11: Justin Ostrofsky: Observational drawing research methods


• 12: Letizia Palumbo: Implicit measures in the aesthetic domain


• 13: Paul Locher: The study of eye movements in Empirical Aesthetics


• 14: Thomas Jacobsen and Stina Klein: Electrophysiology


• 15: Tomohiro Ishizu: Functional neuroimaging in Empirical Aesthetics and Neuroaesthetics


• 16: Zaira Cattaneo: Noninvasive brain stimulation. Contribution to research in Neuroaesthetics


• 17: Martin Tröndle, Steven Greenwood, Chandrasekhar Ramakrishnan, Folkert Uhde, Hauke Egermann, and Wolfgang Tschacher: Integrated methods: A call for integrative and interdisciplinary aesthetics research


• SECTION 3. OBJECT FEATURES


• 18: Daniel Graham: The use of visual statistical features in Empirical Aesthetics


• 19: Oshin Vartanian: Color


• 20: Manuela Marin: The role of collative variables in aesthetic experience


• 21: Michael Forster: Processing fluency


• 22: Marco Bertamini and Giulia Rampone: The study of symmetry in Empirical Aesthetics


• 23: Guido Corradi and Enric Munar: The curvature effect


• 24: Aleksandra Mitrovic and Jürgen Goller: Facial attractiveness


• SECTION 4. ARTFORMS


• 25: Elvira Brattico: The empirical aesthetics of music


• 26: Emily S. Cross and Andrea Orlandi: The aesthetics of action and movement


• 27: Beatriz Calvo-Merino: The aesthetics of dance


• 28: Guido Orgs and Claire Howlin: The audio-visual aesthetics of music and dance


• 29: Alexander Coburn and Anjan Chatterjee: Aesthetic responses to architecture


• 30: James E. Cutting: Aesthetics, technology, and popular movies


• 31: Winfried Menninghaus and Stefan Blohm: Empirical Aesthetics of poetry


• 32: Marta M. Maslej, Joshua A. Quinlan, and Raymond A. Mar: Aesthetic responses to the characters, plots, worlds, and style of stories


• SECTION 5. THE PERSON


• 33: John W. Mullennix: The role of attention, executive processes, and memory in aesthetic experience


• 34: Thalia R. Goldstein: Children's appreciation of art


• 35: Aaron Kozbelt: The influence of expertise on aesthetics


• 36: Viren Swami and Adrian Furnham: The influence of personality on aesthetic preferences


• 37: Nils Myszkowski: Aesthetic sensitivity


• 38: Jiajia Che and Xiaolei Sun: Cross-cultural empirical aesthetics


• SECTION 6. THE CONTEXT


• 39: Matthew Pelowski and Eva Specker: The general impact of context on aesthetic experience


• 40: Helmut Leder and Matthew Pelowski: Empirical Aesthetics - Context, extra information and framing


• 41: Jeffrey K. Smith and Lisa F. Smith: Studying Empirical Aesthetics in museum contexts


• 42: Paul J. Silvia and Katherine N. Cotter: Aesthetic experience in everyday environments


• 43: Stefano Mastandrea: The impact of the social context on aesthetic experience


• SECTION 7. APPLICATIONS


• 44: Paul Hekkert: Design and aesthetics


• 45: Vanessa M. Patrick and Henrik Hagtvedt: The role of Empirical Aesthetics in consumer behavior


• 46: Charles Spence: On the Empirical Aesthetics of plating

About the author

Marcos Nadal received his B.Sc. in Psychology from the University of the Balearic Islands (Spain) in 2000, and his Ph.D. in Psychology: Human Evolution and Cognition from the same university in 2007. From 2012 to 2015 he enjoyed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Department of Basic Psychology and Research Methods of the University of Vienna. He is Professor at the Department of Psychology at the University of the University of the Balearic Islands. He is the Executive Editor of Empirical Studies of the Arts, and serves on the editorial board of Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. He is the co-editor of Art, Aesthetics, and the Brain (OUP Press). His research is devoted to characterizing the psychological, neural, and evolutionary foundations of humans' capacity for aesthetic appreciation and creation.

Oshin Vartanian received his PhD in experimental psychology from the University of Maine under the supervision of Colin Martindale. He is the Co-Editor of Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, and past Editor of Empirical Studies of the Arts. He is the recipient of the American Psychological Association's (APA) Division 10 Daniel E. Berlyne Award in recognition of outstanding research by a junior scholar. His co-edited volumes include “Neuroaesthetics” (Baywood Publishing Company), “Neuroscience of creativity” (The MIT Press), “Neuroscience of decision making” (Psychology Press), and most recently “The Cambridge handbook of the neuroscience of creativity” (Cambridge University Press). His main areas of interest include the cognitive and neural bases of aesthetics and creativity.

Summary

Humans have engaged in artistic and aesthetic activities since the appearance of our species. Our ancestors have decorated their bodies, tools, and utensils for over 100,000 years. The expression of meaning using color, line, sound, rhythm, or movement, among other means, constitutes a fundamental aspect of our species' biological and cultural heritage. Art and aesthetics, therefore, contribute to our species identity and distinguish it from its living and extinct relatives. Science is faced with the challenge of explaining the natural foundations of such a unique trait, and the way cultural processes nurture it into magnificent expressions, historically and ethnically unique. How do the human mind and brain bring about these sorts of behaviors? What psychological and neural processes underlie the appreciation of painting, music, and dance? How does training modulate these processes? Are humans the only species capable of aesthetic appreciation, or are other species endowed with the rudiments of this capacity? Empirical examinations of such questions have a long and rich history in the discipline of psychology, the genesis of which can be traced back to the publication of Gustav Theodor Fechner's Vorschule der Aesthetik in 1876, making it the second oldest branch in experimental psychology.

The Oxford Handbook of Empirical Aesthetics brings together leading experts in psychology, neuroimaging, art history, and philosophy to answer these questions. It provides the most comprehensive coverage of the domain of empirical aesthetics to date. With sections on visual art, dance, music, and many other art forms and aesthetic phenomena, the breadth of this volume's scope reflects the richness and variety of topics and methods currently used today by scientists to understand the way our mind and brain endow us with the faculty to produce and appreciate art and aesthetics.

Additional text

Filled to the brim with chapters on every imaginable aspect of the exciting and expanding field of empirical aesthetics. Overseen by masterful editors, this book is required reading for any scholar of the arts.

Product details

• Authors: Marcos Nadal, Marcos (University of the Balearic Islands) Nadal, Nadal Marcos, Oshin Vartanian, Vartanian Oshin
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 20.10.2022
• EAN: 9780198824350
• ISBN: 978-0-19-882435-0
• No. of pages: 1104
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Psychology > Theoretical psychology; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: general, reference works; Theory of art, SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Neuroscience, PHILOSOPHY / Aesthetics, ART / Criticism & Theory, PSYCHOLOGY / Cognitive Psychology & Cognition, PSYCHOLOGY / Neuropsychology, SCIENCE / Cognitive Science, PSYCHOLOGY / Physiological Psychology, Physiological & neuro-psychology, biopsychology, Cognition & cognitive psychology, Neurosciences, Philosophy: aesthetics, Physiological and neuro-psychology, biopsychology, Cognition and cognitive psychology, Cognitive studies, Cognitive Science