Component and relational processing in aesthetics

Abstract Schema-based and constructive theories of literary reception are described as complementary rather than incompatible. Both share an emphasis on mental representation and this is constrasted with contextualized experience. While mental representations involve logically connected components, the meaning of experience is shaped by external (worldly) and internal (self-relevant) contexts. Spontaneous experience is given priority over component analysis. This difference is related historically to the Content and Act approaches to psychology. In addition, different modes of information processing (external versus internal constraint), of artistic production (rule-guided versus image-guided), of neural self-regulation (activation versus arousal), and of emotional activity (reactive versus reflective), are examined in relation to the distinction between mental representation and contextualized experience.

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