Beyond beauty: Does visual art facilitate social cognitive skills?

Engaging with art can move individuals through a myriad of emotions, provoke reflective thoughts, and lead to new ideas. Could art also influence interpersonal outcomes pertaining to the ways we interact with others and navigate the social world, that is, our suite of social cognitive skills? Here, we focus on visual art to explore the effect of art engagement on personal aesthetic experience and social cognitive skills. Across two studies, using veridical paintings and matched non-art photos, we examined the effect of art engagement on emotional (e.g., awe, being moved) and eudaimonic experiences (e.g., reflective thoughts), as well as social cognitive skills pertaining to Theory of Mind (ToM) and recognition of other's emotions. Further, we varied the depth with which participants engaged with the experiences of the characters in the artworks, to assess whether deep social information processing could boost the effect of art engagement on social cognitive skills. Our findings showed that art engagement altered personal aesthetic experience through changes in emotional and eudaimonic outcomes. However, we did not find any support for the effect of art engagement on social cognitive skills: Neither engaging with art, nor art in combination with deep social information processing, influenced performance on social cognitive skills of ToM and emotion recognition. The effect of art engagement on personal aesthetic experience and the absence of effect on social cognitive skills highlight the nuanced nature of individuals' interactions with art. We discuss these results considering the varied ways of engagement with different artforms and in relation to different operationalizations of social cognitive skills.

The effect of social factors on eye movements made when judging the aesthetic merit of figurative paintings.

In the present study we explore how social factors (group contact, individuating experience, implicit racial bias) influence the eye movements made during the visual exploration when judging their aesthetic merit of figurative paintings depicting White and Black sitters. An opportunity sample of participants visiting a gallery in Liverpool viewed ten artworks while their eye movements were recorded and completed a set of individual difference measures. The individual difference measures indicated self-report of art interest, social contact and individuating experience with both Black and White communities, and implicitly held racial bias. The results showed that, despite viewing the paintings for less time, the majority of participants reported paintings showing Black sitters as more interesting, emotionally moving, and pleasurable then those depicting White sitters. However, if a participant reported limited social contact with Black community, and a negative implicit racial bias against them, their rating of aesthetic merit of paintings showing Black sitters was reduced, viewing time increased, and fixations became more focused on faces. The influence of social factors on the viewing of paintings showing White sitters was limited to aesthetic rating. The results are discussed in terms of how social factors influence eye movements when viewing paintings in a real-world setting.

Using painting to disclose the inner worlds of women subjected to intimate partner violence.

Intimate partner violence has become an increasingly serious social problem in Türkiye in recent years. It causes social, physical, and psychosocial health problems that impact mortality and morbidity in women. This study aimed to determine the inner worlds of female IPV victims who sought safety from their abusers in women's shelters. The sample consisted of ten women staying in a women's shelter affiliated with the Violence Prevention and Monitoring Center in Ankara. The study used a qualitative research design (phenomenology) and the drawing technique. An art therapist and a psychotherapist interpreted the symbols in pictures drawn by participants. Moreover, in-depth interviews were conducted with participants to disclose their repressed feelings and thoughts. Both in-depth interviews and drawings helped us elaborate on participants' inner worlds. The results showed that all types of violence left deep emotional scars. Some participants stated that legal sanctions should also apply to psychological violence. Participants were highly motivated to change their lives around but had financial concerns. Some participants were concerned that legal procedures, such as housing and economic support, were short-termed. The results indicate that all parties, such as governments, civil society organizations, media, and the private sector, should adopt a holistic approach to combating all types of violence.

Nature experiences affect the aesthetic reception of art: The case of paintings depicting aquatic animals.

Art is a promising pathway to raise emotional engagement with nature, while enabling an indirect exposure to nature through aesthetic experience. However, the precise relationships between aesthetic experiences of art and experiences of nature remain unclear. The aim of this observational study is to highlight the effect of nature experiences on the aesthetic reception art, based on Early Modern paintings (16th-18th century). By focusing on marine ecosystems, that are difficult to directly interact with, the results presented are intended to explore whether marine activities and fish consumption affect the aesthetic reception of artworks depicting marine biodiversity. A photo-questionnaire survey based on four paintings has been conducted with 332 French participants with a diverse range of marine practices, fish consumption and artistic sensitivity. Fish consumption and value attributed to fish as food had a significant positive impact on the aesthetic reception, suggesting that taste and food consumption could be considered as a relevant nature aesthetic experience that elicits affective and emotional responses. Results also showed an indirect effect of fishing and diving on the aesthetic reception of paintings whose iconography relates with the observers' experiences. These findings are of particular interest in both environmental psychology and ecological mediation through art. This study brings evidences of the connection between art and nature experiences, and that art could be an innovative way of experiencing nature. Finally, this study also highlights the need to broaden the scope of nature experiences, for instance by including food.

Users' continuance intention towards an AI painting application: An extended expectation confirmation model.

With the rapid advancement of technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI) painting has emerged as a leading intelligence service. This study aims to empirically investigate users' continuance intention toward AI painting applications by utilizing and expanding the Expectation Confirmation Model (ECM), Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), and the Flow Theory. A comprehensive research model is proposed. A total of 443 questionnaires were distributed to users with AI painting experiences for data collection. The hypotheses were tested through structural equation modeling. The primary conclusions drawn from this research include: 1) Confirmation plays a crucial role, significantly and positively predicting satisfaction and social impact. 2) Personal innovativeness has a significant effect on confirmation. 3) Satisfaction, flow experience, and social influence directly and positively predict intention, with social influence showing the most significant impact, while perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment, and performance expectancy show no significant impact on intention. 4) Habit plays a negative moderating role in the association between social influence and continued intention to use. These findings offer valuable insights and inspiration for users seeking to understand the appropriate utilization of AI painting and provide actionable directions for the development of AI painting.

Statistical image properties and aesthetic judgments on abstract paintings by Robert Pepperell.

In this exploratory study, we asked whether objective statistical image properties can predict subjective aesthetic ratings for a set of 48 abstract paintings created by the artist Robert Pepperell. Ruta and colleagues (2021) used the artworks previously to study the effect of curved/angular contour on liking and wanting decisions. We related a predefined set of statistical image properties to the eight different dimensions of aesthetic judgments from their study. Our results show that the statistical image properties can predict a large portion of the variance in the different aesthetic judgments by Ruta and colleagues. For example, adjusted R2 values for liking, attractiveness, visual comfort, and approachability range between 0.52 and 0.60 in multiple linear regression models with four predictors each. For wanting judgments in an (imagined) gallery context, the explained variance is even higher (adjusted R2 of 0.78). To explain these findings, we hypothesize that differences in cognitive processing of Pepperell's abstract paintings are minimized because this set of stimuli has no apparent content and is of uniform artistic style and cultural context. Under this condition, the aesthetic ratings by Ruta and colleagues are largely based on perceptual processing that systematically varies along a relatively small set of objective image properties.

Gaze patterns reveal aesthetic distance while viewing art.

For centuries, Western philosophers have argued that aesthetic experiences differ from common, everyday pleasing sensations, and further, that mental states, such as disinterested contemplation and aesthetic distance, underlie these complex experiences. We empirically tested whether basic perceptual processes of information intake reveal evidence for aesthetic distance, specifically toward visual art. We conducted two eye tracking experiments using appropriately matched visual stimuli (environmental scenes and representational paintings) with 59 participants using two different presentation durations (25 and 6 s). Linear mixed-effects models considering individual differences showed that affective content (pleasantness and arousal), but not stimulus composition (complexity), leads to differential effects when viewing representational paintings in comparison to environmental scenes. We demonstrate that an increase in aesthetic pleasantness induced by representational paintings during a free-viewing task leads to a slower and deeper processing mode than when viewing environmental scenes of motivational relevance, for which we observed the opposite effect. In addition, long presentation durations led to an increase in scanning behavior during visual art perception. These empirical findings inform the debate about how aesthetic experiences differ from everyday perceptual processes by showing that the notion of aesthetic distance may be better understood by examining different modes of viewing.

Abertura à experiência e preferência em obras de arte figurativas e não figurativas / Opening to experience and preference for figurative and non-figurative works of art / Apertura a la experiencia y preferencia por obras de arte figurativas y no figurativas

A arte não representacional é outra maneira de aludir à arte abstrata, sendo um estilo no qual os objetos não se parecem com aqueles que se apresentam na natureza física concreta. No último século, foram realizadas investigações experimentais sobre estética e personalidade objetivando revelar fatores contribuintes para as diferenças quanto às preferências artísticas. Este estudo explorou as associações entre abertura à experiência e preferência por arte visual. Os participantes completaram a Escala Fatorial de Abertura e classificaram a preferência por quatro imagens diferentes correspondentes à arte representativa e não representativa. A análise estatística dos dados revelou uma correlação positiva entre o fator Fantasia e a apreciação pelas pinturas abstratas (r =.20). Não foi verificada uma correlação estatisticamente significativa entre essa dimensão e a apreciação de pinturas figurativas. Embora esses achados sejam exploratórios, outras medidas mais completas relacionadas às diferenças individuais e preferências artísticas poderão ser utilizadas em novos estudos no Brasil.

Nonrepresentational art is another way to refer to abstract art elating to a style in which objects do not resemble those known in physical nature. In the last hundred years some experimental investigations of aesthetics and personality have been conducted to reveal fundamental factors which contribute to differences in artistic preference. This study explored associations among openness to experience and preference for visual art. Participants completed an Openess Fatorial Scale and provided preference ratings for different paintings corresponding to representational and nonrepresentational art. The statistical analysis of the data showed a positive correlation between the fantasy factor and appreciation for abstract paintings (r =.20). Here was no statistically significant correlation between this same dimension and the appreciation for figurative paintings. Although these findings are somewhat exploratory and more comprehensive measures of individual differences and art preferences could be employed in new studies in Brazil.

El arte no representacional es otra forma de referirse al arte abstracto que se adapta a un estilo en el que los objetos no se parecen a los que se conocen en la naturaleza física concrecta. En el siglo se han llevado a cabo investigaciones experimentales sobre estética y personalidad para revelar los factores contribuintes a las diferencias en preferencias artísticas. Los participantes completaron una Escala Fatorial de Abertura a experiencia y otorgaron calificaciones de preferencia para 4 diferentes images correspondientes al arte representativa y no representativa. El análisis estadístico de los datos mostró correlación entre el factor fantasía y y la apreciación de pinturas abstractas (r =.20). No fue verificada una correlación estadísticamente significativa entre esta dimension y la apreciación de las pinturas figurativas. Aunque estos hallazgos son exploratorios y podrían emplear medidas más completas de diferencias individuales y preferencias artísticas en nuevos estudios en Brasil.

The effect of exchanging drawings with peers on the happiness of children with cancer, aged 7-11 years: A clinical trial.

INTRODUCTION: Improving the mental status of children with cancer is part of nurses' duties in planning nursing care and is achieved in different ways. This study attempts to combine drawing with peer interaction to improve the mental status of sick children and investigate the effect of exchanging drawings with peers on these children's happiness. METHOD: This clinical trial was conducted on a sample of 66 children with cancer, ages 7-11 years, who were randomly assigned to two groups. The intervention was carried out over five weeks by the exchange of drawings between healthy children at school and children with cancer. Both groups of children drew one drawing each week. The children's happiness was measured by the researcher before and after the intervention (i.e., week five) using a questionnaire. RESULTS: The results showed no significant differences between the two groups in terms of happiness after the intervention. The happiness score was 3.15 ±0.34 in the control group and 3.02 ±0.3 in the intervention group before the intervention; afterwards, this score was 3.022± 0.22 among the controls and 3.11± 0.25 among the patients. The comparison of the two groups using the t-test showed P = 0.075 before the intervention and P = 0.11 after the intervention. CONCLUSION: Given the results obtained, future studies are recommended to administer lengthier interventions and enable the physical presence of healthy peers along sick children or to use the exchange of drawings with peers in combination with other psychological interventions so as to promote happiness in children with cancer.

Hedonic Preferences to Audio and Visual Stimulation in Seniors with Cognitive Impairments.

BACKGROUND: Hedonic (or aesthetic) preferences to repeated sensory stimulation can remain stable over time (Island of Stability Effect, ISE) or vary with prior exposures (Mere Exposure Effect, MEE). OBJECTIVE: Here we compared the liking ratings of seniors with cognitive impairments (mostly mild-to-moderate dementia, DPs) and neurotypical senior controls (CNs) to audio and visual stimuli and examined whether those ratings conformed to the ISE or the MEE predictions. METHOD: Participants (n = 212) rated sets of stimuli repeated three times at weekly intervals: images of Picasso's paintings, PANTONE color cards, and avant-garde music clips. RESULTS: The aggregated liking ratings of DPs and CNs were stable over time, in line with the ISE model. However, latent growth modeling indicated that those stable responses might have masked differences at the individual level, since seniors in both cohorts exhibited clusters of different responses over the time evaluated, supporting the predictions of the MEE. Notably, there was a dampening of hedonic experiences in DPs comparatively to CNs. CONCLUSION: The presence of hedonic responses (and individual variations) in DPs is relevant not only to their wellbeing and therapy interventions involving audio and visual stimulation, but also to the design of spaces that offset the downturn in hedonic experiences affecting seniors with cognitive impairments.

Face Tuning in Depression.

The latest COVID-19 pandemic reveals that unexpected changes elevate depression bringing people apart, but also calling for social sharing. Yet the impact of depression on social cognition and functioning is not well understood. Assessment of social cognition is crucial not only for a better understanding of major depressive disorder (MDD), but also for screening, intervention, and remediation. Here by applying a novel experimental tool, a Face-n-Food task comprising a set of images bordering on the Giuseppe Arcimboldo style, we assessed the face tuning in patients with MDD and person-by-person matched controls. The key benefit of these images is that single components do not trigger face processing. Contrary to common beliefs, the outcome indicates that individuals with depression express intact face responsiveness. Yet, while in depression face sensitivity is tied with perceptual organization, in typical development, it is knotted with social cognition capabilities. Face tuning in depression, therefore, may rely upon altered behavioral strategies and underwriting brain mechanisms. To exclude a possible camouflaging effect of female social skills, we examined gender impact. Neither in depression nor in typical individuals had females excelled in face tuning. The outcome sheds light on the origins of the face sensitivity and alterations in social functioning in depression and mental well-being at large. Aberrant social functioning in depression is likely to be the result of deeply-rooted maladaptive strategies rather than of poor sensitivity to social signals. This has implications for mental well-being under the current pandemic conditions.

Pictorial size perception in schizophrenia

In this study, we compared visual pictorial size perception between healthy volunteers (CG) and an experimental group (EG) of people diagnosed with schizophrenia. We have been using paintings by Salvador Dalí and Rorschach plates to estimate visual pictorial size perception. In this transversal, ex post facto, and quasi-experimental study, we observed differences between EG and CG. Schizophrenic in-patients perceived sizes about 1.3-fold greater than healthy volunteers (p=0.006), implying that pictorial size perception is altered in some way in schizophrenia. Considering the present and previous results, this measurement of diameter size of first pictorial perception may be a useful estimate of some aspects of perceptual alterations that may be associated with psychotic symptoms in prodromal and acute schizophrenic episodes and other related mental states. Eventually, this may help in preventing people from evolving to acute episodes.

Experiences of Bereaved Family Members Receiving Commemorative Paintings: A Qualitative Study.

Importance: Although family members of patients who die in the intensive care unit commonly experience long-term psychological distress, end-of-life bereavement support programs for such relatives are uncommon. Whether art influences the grief experience of families is largely unexplored. Objective: To explore the influence of personalized paintings created to honor deceased critically ill patients on family members' bereavement experience. Design, Setting, and Participants: A qualitative descriptive analysis was conducted of semistructured interviews of grieving relatives who received a painting after the death of their loved one. The deceased patients were from a 21-bed medical-surgical intensive care unit. Eleven families were invited to receive a painting, of whom 1 family declined. A total of 22 family members of 10 patients who died in the intensive care unit were interviewed in the study between July 11, 2017, and May 19, 2019. Interventions: Patients were enrolled in an end-of-life care program that elicits and implements wishes of patients and their families to bring peace during the dying process. Selected families of 10 decedents were invited to receive a painting to honor their loved one 1 to 10 months after the patient's death. Using details about the patient's life story, the artist created individualized paintings to commemorate each patient. Main Outcomes and Measures: The experiences of family members receiving a personalized painting and its reported influence on their grieving experience. Results: The family members of 10 decedents (mean [SD] age, 60 [14] years; 5 women [50%]; 8 White patients [80%]) were interviewed. The central theme of art to facilitate healing was illustrated through the following domains: the cocreation process, painting narratives, postmortem connections, and legacy. The process of cocreating the paintings with the artist and family members involved reminiscing, storytelling, and creativity. Family members emphasized the role of art to facilitate healing, exemplified through connections with images portrayed that deeply resonated with memories of their loved one. Participants indicated that the paintings validated that the patient was remembered, helped families feel less alone during a time of grief, honored the loved one's life, and enhanced connections between family members and clinicians. Conclusions and Relevance: This qualitative study's findings suggest that the creation of personalized paintings commemorating the lives of patients may help foster legacy and postmortem connections with clinicians and may help family members in their healing process.

An objective evaluation of the beholder's response to abstract and figurative art based on construal level theory.

Does abstract art evoke a different cognitive state than figurative art? To address this question empirically, we bridged art theory and cognitive research and designed an experiment leveraging construal level theory (CLT). CLT is based on experimental data showing that psychologically distant events (i.e., occurring farther away in space or time) are represented more abstractly than closer events. We measured construal level elicited by abstract vs. representational art and asked subjects to assign abstract/representational paintings by the same artist to a situation that was temporally/spatially near or distant. Across three experiments, we found that abstract paintings were assigned to the distant situation significantly more often than representational paintings, indicating that abstract art was evocative of greater psychological distance. Our data demonstrate that different levels of artistic abstraction evoke different levels of mental abstraction and suggest that CLT provides an empirical approach to the analysis of cognitive states evoked by different levels of artistic abstraction.

Vincent van Gogh and his illness. A reflection on a posthumous diagnostic exercise.

Many attempts have been undertaken in the past to perform a proper diagnosis of the illness of Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890). Van Gogh Museum Amsterdam organized a meeting of experts on this issue in 2016. Publication of a final conclusion in a medical journal is still in progress. This article will first outline the meeting and then reflect on pathobiographical issues offering possibilities and limitations in this posthumous attempt at diagnosis. This will give us a summary of the symptomatology without the intention to label them to a diagnosis. In terms of examples of problematic issues, special attention is given to the role of alcohol abuse and disturbances of consciousness. The essay will try to answer questions on the importance of determining a diagnosis for art historians and visitors of exhibitions. A hypothesis on the possible influence of visual perception on triggering neuromodulation will be discussed and illustrated by considering four paintings. The hypothesis might be that forced activation of the "wrong" neural pathways that do not meet Van Gogh's preferential personal emotional system in moments of increased stress, and influenced by other factors like alcohol abuse and sleep deprivation, can trigger disturbances in functioning of this system. Though it is clear that Van Gogh was an excellent painter in spite of and not thanks to his illness and that he was unable to paint during episodes of brain dysfunction, a few exceptions are known of paintings and drawings that were created during these episodes; his self-portrait from the Oslo museum, which was most recently identified as such, will be shown.

[Improved instrumental activities of daily living in acquired savant syndrome patient after developing interest in drawing].

We performed examinations of a 73-year-old, right-handed man who developed herpes simplex encephalitis, with cognitive dysfunction including severe Wernicke's aphasia. Although he had never previously been interested in arts, use of a coloring book, recommended by his wife, led him to start drawing. A few years after the onset of brain disease, the patient began to copy pictures of landscapes. The lesion was in the left hemisphere and his work showed a strongly realistic tendency, thus we think that this case demonstrated characteristics of acquired savant syndrome. Along with the increase in drawing ability, instrumental activities of daily living (IADL), such as shopping and use of public transport, were also considerably improved in this patient. On the other hand, results of neuropsychological tests, such as the Standard Language Test of Aphasia, were not improved. We concluded that a sense of accomplishment from the drawing activity and communication with supporters might have led to improvement of IADL in this case.