Abstract

This study is concerned with the effects of context on aesthetic judgments. There were 131 participants in this study who responded to four works by Vincent Van Gogh. This study was unlike previous studies done by Shortess, et al. , as there were 4 different conditions in which the images were presented. Each participant was asked to make judgments about the works' familiarity, typicality, realism, and preference. The results confirmed a strong effect for context on aesthetic judgment. There was an overall effect for context on judgments of typicality, realism, and preference. Furthermore, there was a significant, positive relationship between rating images for typicality and ratings of preference. Supplemental analyses also showed indirect evidence for the effects of context on this relationship