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Article Excerpt
The question of why works of art have a pervasive and enduring appeal is a complex one, implicating processes operating at neuropsychological, psychological, social, and cultural levels (Gupchik, 1992; Russell, Deregowski, & Kinnear, 1997). At the psychological level, interest in the perceptual and affective processes underlying response to works of art has centred particularly on the stimulus correlates of the hedonic properties of artworks. Berlyne's influential analysis (Berlyne, 1971, 1974) linked hedonic value to three main classes of stimulus variable: collative variables (particularly novelty and complexity), psychophysical variables (such as intensity and brightness) and ecological variables (meaningfulness and associative value).
In recent years, experimental studies of the hedonic value of paintings have emphasized the importance of ecological variables. Preference for representational or semi-abstract paintings has been found to be a positive function of their perceived meaningfulness, defined in terms of meaningfulness ratings (Martindale, Moore, & Borkum, 1990) or their degree of photographic likeness (Hekkert & van Wieringen, 1990). This association between hedonic value and meaningfulness is consistent with the general theory that part of the pleasure derived from looking at a painting stems from having grasped its meaning and 'understood' it. Berlyne's interest in the determinants of the hedonic value of stimuli was rooted in Bartlett's (1932) concept of effort after meaning, the tendency to make sense of perceptions by setting them in the context of past experience (Cupchik, 1992). More recently, Martindale (1984) proposed that the hedonic value of stimuli is associated with the activation of cognitive representations involved in the interpretation of their meaning. Effort after meaning also ties in with evolutionary theories of mind that emphasize the adaptive, functional capacity of the brain for classifying sensory input by assimilating it into existing schemata, and the reinforcing consequences of this classificatory process (Humphrey, 1973, 1983; Pinker, 1997). Both Humphrey and Pinker suggest that artworks tap into perceptual and affective mechanisms that evolved originally to serve this classificatory capacity in other contexts. Effort after meaning also links with the concept of an artwork as a message from the artist that can be received and understood by its audience (Konecni, 1984).
As a general working hypothesis, then, effort after meaning suggests that some of the pleasure derived from looking at a painting stems from successfully interpreting it and 'picking up the artist's message'. One way of testing this hypothesis is to manipulate the information available to the viewer. Information that helps in the interpretation of a painting should make the painting more meaningful and enhance its hedonic value. It is reasonable to assume that this effect will be most marked for paintings where prima fade meaningfulness is relatively low, and the information can make a significant contribution to helping the viewer towards a satisfactory interpretation. This condition may be met particularly by abstract or semi-abstract paintings, where the representational element is low and the interpretational challenge high. In a test of these predictions, Russell and Milne (1997) found that abstract and semi-abstract paintings were rated as more meaningful when they were accompanied by their titles, as o pposed to without titles. This finding is consistent with the assumption that titles carry information and that this information aids meaningful interpretation of the paintings. Contrary to the effort after meaning hypothesis, however, the titles effect was not accompanied by an increase in the hedonic value of the paintings.
Arguably, however, Russell and Milne's failure to find support for the effort after meaning hypothesis is not critical, for several reasons. One is that the hedonic value of a painting is likely to be influenced by a number of other factors, in addition to any pleasure deriving from having grasped its meaning. These factors could include collative and psychophysical variables, the painting's subject matter, style, and colour, and the skill with which it has been painted. Particularly if the increment in hedonic value produced by titles is relatively small, this effect may be swamped by these other influences. Another consideration is that the title effect may vary between paintings. If the meaning of a painting is relatively obvious to begin with, any small increase in meaningfulness produced by its title may not significantly increase hedonic value. In other cases, the clarification of meaning by a title might actually be associated with a decrease in hedonic value, if the title gives a clue that fails to ta lly with the viewer's initial impression of what the painting is about or indicates that the painting is unpleasant or distasteful in some way.
The present experiments attempted to clarify the status of the effort after meaning hypothesis by examining the effects of providing information about paintings over and above that provided by their titles. Paintings displayed in galleries or reproduced in books and catalogues are often accompanied not just by the artist's name and the painting's title but also by information aimed at increasing the viewer's understanding of the painting. This information may, for example, draw attention to specific aspects of the painting or explain the artist's...
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