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Amount of stimulus exploration and preference as differential functions of stimulus complexity

1968; Springer Science+Business Media; Volume: 4; Issue: 5 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3758/bf03210521

1532-5962

Joachim F. Wohlwill,

Creativity in Education and Neuroscience

Two sets of photographic slides, one made up of scenes from the geographic environment, the other of works of non-representational modern art, were scaled for complexity by obtaining judges' ratings of amount of variation present on several specified stimulus attributes. Fourteen slides defining a sevenpoint scale of complexity were selected from each set and given to college students to obtain measures of (a) amount of exploratory behavior (number of times S chose to expose each slide briefly), and (b) preference (evaluative ratings on a seven-point scale). In accordance with prediction, the former measure emerged as a linearly increasing function of complexity, while the relationship between complexity and preference was curvilinear, reaching a maximum at an intermediate level of complexity. The results are related to Berlyne's distinction between specific and diversive stimulus exploration, and implications for the study of aesthetics are discussed.