Spee Blanca T M, Arato Jozsef, Mikuni Jan, Tran Ulrich S, Pelowski Matthew, Leder Helmut
Vienna Cognitive Science Hub, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Front Psychol. 2024 Mar 13;15:1192565. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1192565. eCollection 2024.
Gestalt perception refers to the cognitive ability to perceive various elements as a unified whole. In our study, we delve deeper into the phenomenon of Gestalt recognition in visual cubist art, a transformative process culminating in what is often described as an Aha moment. This Aha moment signifies a sudden understanding of what is seen, merging seemingly disparate elements into a coherent meaningful picture. The onset of this Aha moment can vary, either appearing almost instantaneously, which is in line with theories of hedonic fluency, or manifesting after a period of time, supporting the concept of delayed but more in-depth meaningful insight.
We employed pupillometry to measure cognitive and affective shifts during art interaction, analyzing both maximum pupil dilation and average dilation across the trial. The study consisted of two parts: in the first, 84 participants identified faces in cubist paintings under various conditions, with Aha moments and pupil dilation measured. In part 2, the same 84 participants assessed the artworks through ratings in a no-task free-viewing condition.
Results of part 1 indicate a distinctive pattern of pupil dilation, with maximum dilation occurring at both trial onset and end. Longer response times were observed for high-fluent, face-present stimuli, aligning with a delayed but accurate Aha-moment through recognition. Additionally, the time of maximum pupil dilation, rather than average dilation, exhibited significant associations, being later for high-fluent, face-present stimuli and correct detections. In part 2, average, not the time of maximum pupil dilation emerged as the significant factor. Face-stimuli and highly accessible art evoked stronger dilations, also reflecting high clearness and negative valence ratings.
The study underscores a complex relationship between the timing of recognition and the Aha moment, suggesting nuanced differences in emotional and cognitive responses during art viewing. Pupil dilation measures offer insight into these processes especially for moments of recognition, though their application in evaluating emotional responses through artwork ratings warrants further exploration.
格式塔感知是指将各种元素视为一个统一整体的认知能力。在我们的研究中，我们更深入地探究了视觉立体派艺术中的格式塔识别现象，这是一个转变过程，最终往往会出现所谓的“顿悟时刻”。这个顿悟时刻意味着对所看到的事物突然理解，将看似 disparate 的元素融合成一幅连贯且有意义的画面。这个顿悟时刻的出现时间可能各不相同，要么几乎瞬间出现，这与享乐流畅性理论相符，要么在一段时间后显现，这支持了延迟但更深入的有意义洞察的概念。
我们采用瞳孔测量法来测量艺术互动过程中的认知和情感变化，分析整个试验过程中的最大瞳孔扩张和平均扩张情况。该研究包括两个部分：第一部分，84 名参与者在各种条件下识别立体派绘画中的面孔，同时测量顿悟时刻和瞳孔扩张情况。在第二部分，同样的 84 名参与者在无任务自由观看条件下通过评分来评估这些艺术品。
第一部分的结果表明瞳孔扩张呈现出一种独特的模式，最大扩张出现在试验开始和结束时。对于高流畅性、有面孔呈现的刺激，观察到更长的反应时间，这与通过识别产生的延迟但准确的顿悟时刻一致。此外，最大瞳孔扩张的时间，而非平均扩张时间，表现出显著的相关性，对于高流畅性、有面孔呈现的刺激和正确检测，其出现时间更晚。在第二部分，平均扩张，而非最大瞳孔扩张时间成为显著因素。面孔刺激和极易理解的艺术引发了更强的扩张，这也反映在高清晰度和负面效价评分上。
该研究强调了识别时间与顿悟时刻之间的复杂关系，表明在观看艺术作品时情感和认知反应存在细微差异。瞳孔扩张测量为这些过程提供了洞察，特别是对于识别时刻，尽管其在通过艺术品评分评估情感反应方面的应用值得进一步探索。
