Developing a comprehensive model of aesthetic choice

• Applicant: Dr. Aenne Brielmann, Ph.D.
• Subject Area: General, Cognitive and Mathematical Psychology
• Term: from 2021 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 461354985

People undoubtedly spend enormous time and resources on aesthetic experiences like watching movies, listening to music, and many other experiences. Still, we know very little about how people make aesthetic decisions like: “Which painting do I want to look at in this exhibition?”. We propose to study these aesthetic choices of individuals: What they choose to consume, for how long, and at what cost. These questions are questions about people’s decision-making. Researchers have developed sophisticated models that the describe the goals, psychological processes, and the neural representations of decisions about goods like food and money. However, we lack such a comprehensive model for aesthetic choices. What we do have are two broad theories about aesthetic preferences. One posits that we like those objects most that inspire an optimal level of neural stimulation of the sensory system and/or psychological stimulation of the cognitive system. The other states that people like those objects most that best afford learning about the statistics of the sensory environment. Neither theory can account for all aspects of people's aesthetic choices.We propose to consolidate these two broader theories and use them to develop a comprehensive model of aesthetic choice whose architecture is based on successful models of decision-making in different modalities. We propose to design an experimental paradigm that overcomes the shortcomings of previous approaches of studying aesthetic choice. In the simplest version of the paradigm, observers will visit a “virtual gallery” where they are free to move from one image to another while we measure the time they look at each image and manipulate the characteristics of the images and their sequence. We will assess explicit liking of the images independent from looking time and collaborate with neuro-imaging experts to measure brain responses. Our paradigm will provide compelling data on individual aesthetic choices over time. With this new paradigm at hand, we will be able to build a comprehensive theory of what individuals choose to consume, for how long, and at what cost.

• DFG Programme: WBP Position