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A RESULT IN VISUAL AESTHETICS
Author(s) -
ALEXANDER CHRISTOPHER
Publication year - 1960
Publication title -
british journal of psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.536
H-Index - 92
eISSN - 2044-8295
pISSN - 0007-1269
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8295.1960.tb00759.x
Subject(s) - categorization , psychology , similarity (geometry) , set (abstract data type) , observer (physics) , perception , preference , linkage (software) , cognitive psychology , hue , natural (archaeology) , sort , social psychology , communication , artificial intelligence , mathematics , computer science , information retrieval , image (mathematics) , history , biochemistry , statistics , physics , chemistry , archaeology , quantum mechanics , neuroscience , gene , programming language
Subjects were given eight forms and asked to sort them in a number of ways on the basis of overall similarity; they were also asked to state the order of their preferences among the forms. From the data generated, four tentative results emerged:1 By giving ourselves an appropriate verbal set, we can make ourselves see (and categorize) a group of forms in many different ways. It appears, however, that there is a natural way of categorizing them which is independent of any verbal set, and which depends on the formation of visual non‐verbal concepts. 2 Preference for the forms is dependent on the way the forms are seen—on the visual similarity dimensions. But the dependence is incomplete. It might perhaps be better called a linkage—comparable to the linkage between hue and brightness. 3 The peculiarly weak nature of this linkage suggests the hypothesis that the beauty of a form cannot be explained in terms of any visible qualities or attributes that it has, but only in terms of the operations performed in the brain of the observer. 4 Aesthetic discrimination is independent of all other kinds of perceptual discrimination.