Abstract (eng)
This work is an eye tracking study about the relationship between stimulus complexity and aesthetic appreciation. 23 participants rated in two phases 60 stimuli twice, first in terms of complexity, second in terms of aesthetics. During the ratings, a camera recorded the eye movements. The eye movements regarded to an aesthetic orientation, are compared to the eye movements to a complex orientation. The eye movements are analyzed in the amount of fixations, the duration time of fixations and saccade amplitudes. The stimuli were categorized in terms of complexity, abstraction and artistry, to show inferences of the categories in eye movements and judgements.
Given the exploratory nature of this experiment, the hypotheses are necessarily tentative. They draw mostly on the literature on the impact of complexity on aesthetic appreciation. The results show a significant relation between complexity and aesthetic appraisal and differences in eye movements in the aesthetic orientation from the complex orientation. Although there are similarities between the tasks, the majority of the eye movements differ, hypotheses 2 is therefore also confirmed.