When Art Moves the Eyes: A Behavioral and Eye-Tracking Study

Citation: Massaro D, Savazzi F, Di Dio C, Freedberg D, Gallese V, et al. ( When Art Moves the Eyes: A Behavioral and Eye-Tracking Study Davide Massaro 0 Federica Savazzi 0 Cinzia Di Dio 0 David Freedberg 0 Vittorio Gallese 0 Gabriella Gilli 0 Antonella Marchetti 0 Manos Tsakiris, Royal Holloway, University of London, United Kingdom 0 1 Research Unit on Theory of Mind, Department of Psychology, Universita` Cattolica del Sacro Cuore , Milan , Italy , 2 Research Unit on Psychology of the Art, Department of Psychology, Universita` Cattolica del Sacro Cuore , Milan , Italy , 3 Department of Neuroscience, University of Parma , Parma , Italy , 4 Department of Art History and Archaeology, Columbia University , New York , New York, United States of America, 5 The Italian Academy for Advanced Studies in America, Columbia University , New York , New York, United States of America, 6 IIT (Italian Institute of Technology) Brain Center for Social and Motor Cognition , Parma , Italy The aim of this study was to investigate, using eye-tracking technique, the influence of bottom-up and top-down processes on visual behavior while subjects, nave to art criticism, were presented with representational paintings. Forty-two subjects viewed color and black and white paintings (Color) categorized as dynamic or static (Dynamism) (bottom-up processes). Half of the images represented natural environments and half human subjects (Content); all stimuli were displayed under aesthetic and movement judgment conditions (Task) (top-down processes). Results on gazing behavior showed that content-related top-down processes prevailed over low-level visually-driven bottom-up processes when a human subject is represented in the painting. On the contrary, bottom-up processes, mediated by low-level visual features, particularly affected gazing behavior when looking at nature-content images. We discuss our results proposing a reconsideration of the definition of content-related top-down processes in accordance with the concept of embodied simulation in art perception. - The debate on the definition of processes that contribute to the surfacing of an aesthetic experience is very controversial, partly because of the different weights assigned to the elements in the competition between bottom-up and top-down processes. Different theoretical frames emphasize one or the other process in the building up of an aesthetic experience. However it is most likely that, in looking at an artwork, an observer enters into a dialogue in which aesthetic experience emerges from the interaction between the two processes that operate at different levels of the viewers experience [13]. In particular, top-down processes, classically recognized in factors such as content, cultural background and education, may interact and therefore affect bottom-up processes, generated by sensory-driven coding of external stimuli. Given that aesthetic experience begins with a visual scan of the artwork, the multi-level interaction between sensory-driven bottom-up and top-down processes in aesthetic experience has been also studied exploring eye movement behavior [4,5]. Pioneering investigations into visual exploratory behavior of paintings [6,7] and subsequent studies on the informative details of an image [8,9] revealed that observers focus their gaze on specific areas of the image, rather than in a random fashion. The areas receiving high densities of fixations were interpreted as cueing the observers interest in informative elements of the image [10]. In fact, attention studies revealed that eye movements are an index of overt selection and, as a consequence, they are the expression of the relation between what is observed and its relevance to the viewers interest [11]. In this respect, the analysis of the viewers exploratory pattern and selection of salient visual aspects of the artwork can help shed light on the respective contribution of bottom-up and top-down processes in the first stages of aesthetic experience in the beholder. The study of bottom-up processes involved in aesthetic experience has mainly focused on the analysis of image composition, i.e. the relation among visual features of an artwork [12]. In this respect, aesthetic experience appears to be influenced by factors such as contrast [13], balance [14,15], maximum effects with a minimum of means [14] and symmetry [1618]. Computational bottom-up models of visual exploration, using eye-tracking technique, have further identified the low-level properties responsible for drawing attention to specific areas of interest (salient regions of an image) [19]. Thus far, the identified contributors to visual saliency are contrast of luminance, curves, corners and occlusions as well as color, edges, lines and orientation [20]. There is evidence that low-level saliency measures, derived from a computational model (information theory), are also effective in capturing attention during aesthetic experience [21,22]. For example, it has been shown that color may contribute to ones aesthetic experience [23] by enhancing the number of perceived elements within a composition, ultimately increasing image complexity. In fact, there is evidence that a moderate degree of complexity increases the aesthetic appeal of visual stimuli [24,25]. Another factor that may contribute to visual saliency within a painting is dynamism. According to Arnheim [26] the recognition of some dynamic qualities of the image is one of the most important elements of the aesthetic experience. The way in which motion in art is represented was explored by a study showing that one of the few graphic invariants in Western visual art is that representing motion in garments. In these examples, motion perception is evoked by the adoption of specific features such as orientation, curvature and convergence of lines, which represent robust graphic elements that have survived, in the Western culture, across countries and centuries. The same effect can be gained also independently of contextual cues [27]. While the visual features that make up the structural composition of a representational artwork enhance the perceptual weight of the key elements within it (bottom-up processes), the goal of the visual exploration (task) may determine their informativeness for the viewer (top-down processes). As indicated above, top-down processes are influenced by a persons cultural background, education, degree of training in the arts, familiarity to and interest in a specific work of art [16], as well as by inter-individual differences [28]. Eye-movement studies have also indicated motivation and task requirement as top-down factors affecting aesthetic experience when viewing a painting [7,29]. Platt and Glimcher [30] have shown that the reward macaque monkeys can expect from eye-movement responses modulates the activity of neurons within the oculomotor parietal area LIP. Rothkopf, Ballard, and Hayhoe [31] claimed that task requirements may be (...truncated)