Perceiving Hierarchical Structures in Nonrepresentational Paintings

A series of four experiments were conducted to examine viewer perceptions of three sets of five nonrepresentational paintings. Increased complexity was embedded in the hierarchical structure of each set by carefully selecting colors and ordering them in each successive painting according to certain rules of transformation which created hierarchies. Experiment 1 supported the hypothesis that subjects would discern the hierarchical complexity underlying the sets of paintings. In Experiment 2 viewers rated the paintings on collative (complexity, disorder) and affective (pleasing, interesting, tension, and power) scales, and a factor analysis revealed that affective ratings were tied to complexity (Factor 1) but not to disorder (Factor 2). In Experiment 3, a measure of exploratory activity (free looking time) was correlated with complexity (Factor 1) but not with disorder (Factor 2). Multidimensional scaling was used in Experiment 4 to examine perceptions of the paintings seen in pairs. Dimension 1 contrasted Soft with Hard-Edged paintings, while Dimension 2 reflected the relative separation of figure from ground in these paintings. Together these results show that untrained viewers can discern hierarchical complexity in paintings and that this quality stimulates affective responses and exploratory activity.

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