Psychology Colloquia

Abstract:: Despite the importance and ubiquity of aesthetic response, its perceptual basis in vision is almost entirely neglected. I will report results from three projects that investigate people's aesthetic responses to color and spatial composition. The spatial studies show strong, consistent preferences in for simple rectangular images containing familiar objects and configurations to be positioned at or near the center of the frame (the "center bias") and to face into the frame (the "inward bias"). Related experiments on people's judgments of the "goodness of fit" for probe shapes (small circles and triangles) at various positions and orientations within a rectangular frame also exhibit the center and inward biases, with striking evidence for the role of symmetry and balance in spatial composition. People's preferences for color combinations are better predicted by their rated "harmony" than by preferences for the individual colors. Moreover, people tend to agree about the degree to which pairs of colors are harmonious, even though they may disagree about how much they like harmonious versus disharmonious colors. Contradicting many color theorists in the art world, color harmony appears to be primarily based on hue similarity ("analogous" colors) with no increase in perceived harmony for complimentary colors. The results demonstrate that aesthetic science is a new and exciting topic within cognitive science that can shed new light on the nature of our appreciation of the visual world.
About the Speaker:: Professor Palmer's research and teaching focus is on visual perception, a topic closely related to his color photography. He is the author of Vision Science: Photons to Phenomenology, an advanced, interdisciplinary textbook on visual perception. He is currently working on a new book about color: Reversing the Rainbow: Reflections on Color and Consciousness.

For More Information About This Speaker:

http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~plab/
The website of Dr. Palmer's visual perception lab.
http://psychology.berkeley.edu/faculty/profiles/spalmer.html
Dr. Palmer's faculty webpage at UC Berkeley.

University of California, San Diego
Homepage Calendar Directions Past Events Psych Homepage UCSD Homepage	The Department of Psychology is Honored to Present a Talk by Stephen Palmer University of California, Berkeley "Aesthetic Science: Understanding Preferences for Color and Spatial Composition" Presented on April 24, 2008 Location: The Crick Conference Room Mandler Hall, room 3545 Abstract: Despite the importance and ubiquity of aesthetic response, its perceptual basis in vision is almost entirely neglected. I will report results from three projects that investigate people's aesthetic responses to color and spatial composition. The spatial studies show strong, consistent preferences in for simple rectangular images containing familiar objects and configurations to be positioned at or near the center of the frame (the "center bias") and to face into the frame (the "inward bias"). Related experiments on people's judgments of the "goodness of fit" for probe shapes (small circles and triangles) at various positions and orientations within a rectangular frame also exhibit the center and inward biases, with striking evidence for the role of symmetry and balance in spatial composition. People's preferences for color combinations are better predicted by their rated "harmony" than by preferences for the individual colors. Moreover, people tend to agree about the degree to which pairs of colors are harmonious, even though they may disagree about how much they like harmonious versus disharmonious colors. Contradicting many color theorists in the art world, color harmony appears to be primarily based on hue similarity ("analogous" colors) with no increase in perceived harmony for complimentary colors. The results demonstrate that aesthetic science is a new and exciting topic within cognitive science that can shed new light on the nature of our appreciation of the visual world. About the Speaker: Professor Palmer's research and teaching focus is on visual perception, a topic closely related to his color photography. He is the author of Vision Science: Photons to Phenomenology, an advanced, interdisciplinary textbook on visual perception. He is currently working on a new book about color: Reversing the Rainbow: Reflections on Color and Consciousness. For More Information About This Speaker: http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~plab/ The website of Dr. Palmer's visual perception lab. http://psychology.berkeley.edu/faculty/profiles/spalmer.html Dr. Palmer's faculty webpage at UC Berkeley.
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