Aesthetic Sensitivity and Perceived Affect

"Aesthetic Sensitivity and Perceived Affect"

Abstract: Sensory valuation is a fundamental aspect of human psychology, involving the assignment of hedonic value to a stimulus based on its sensory properties combined with personal and contextual factors.
Hedonic values are, thus, affective states that motivate behavior according to the pleasure involved. To investigate the computation of hedonic value, we introduced a new conception of aesthetic sensitivity,
defined as the degree to which a specific feature influences someone’s aesthetic appreciation. In a series of studies, we examined the impact of structural and informational object properties and individual traits
on the aesthetic appreciation of images and music varying in balance, contour, symmetry, or complexity. In the current study at KTH, we inspect the role of perceived valence and arousal in aesthetic appreciation. The results unveil modality-specific effects and support the direct link between valence and liking, the inverted-U model of arousal and liking, and the aesthetic sensitivity profiles we found in previous studies.