Prof. Dr. Helmut Leder – Vortragsexposé – Wintersemester 2011/2012

FORSCHUNGSKOLLOQUIUM DES PSYCHOLOGISCHEN INSTITUTS Das Psychologische Institut und das Studium generale laden zu folgendem Vortrag ein:


Prof. Dr. Helmut Leder
(Faculty of Psychology, Department of Psychological Basic Research, University of Vienna)

New Findings in Psychology of Aesthetics and the Arts

Vortrag in englischer Sprache

Mittwoch, 14. Dezember 2011, 16:15 Uhr, Hörsaal 01-231, Psychologisches Institut, Binger Straße 14–16, 55122 Mainz

Humans have an aesthetic sense that is shown in human proclivity for the creation and consumption of art. Art is a unique feature of human experience and several approaches aim to understand what the psychological aspects of this uniqueness are. Art appreciation involves the complex interplay among stimuli, perceiver and contexts, which have been discussed as eliciting a special combination of aesthetic judgments and aesthetic emotions. Based on our model of aesthetic appreciation (Leder et al., 2004), we conducted studies to understand the nature of stylistic processing (Augustin et al., 2008), the dependence of art appreciation of the class of artworks (Belke et al., 2010) as well as the complex interplay of the variables involved between these factors. For the latter, we conducted a study in which we measured differences in preferences for classical, abstract, and modern artworks (Leder et al., in press). Using structural equation modeling, we assessed the contribution of emotion, arousal, and comprehension as determining factors of art appreciation. The implications of these studies are discussed in respect to underlying theoretical foundations. Moreover, I will discuss the implications for the nature of the aesthetic sense in light of recent findings that support the hypothesis that aesthetic responses are sensitive to situational demands (Leder et al., 2010).

Helmut Leder, is Professor of Cognitive Psychology and Head of the Department of Psychological Basic Research at the University of Vienna, Head of the Research Focus "Perceptual Aesthetics" and Deputy Head of the Cognitive Sciences research Platform. His main fields of research are aesthetics, psychology of the arts, design – and face perception. His PhD is from the University of Fribourg. He was a visiting Researcher at the University of Stirling, ATR Japan, USC and UCSD, and at the Languages of Emotion-Cluster, FU Berlin. He is the author or co-author of many scholarly publications and was awarded the Berlyne Award for career contributions to the psychology of aesthetics from the American Psychological Association.

Augustin, M. D., Leder, H., Hutzler, F., & Carbon, C. C. (2008). Style follows content. On the microgenesis of art perception. Acta Psychologica, 128(1), 127–138. Belke, B., Leder, H., Strobach, T., & Carbon, C. C. (2010). Cognitive fluency: High-level processing dynamics in art appreciation. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. 4(4), 214–222. Leder, H., Belke, B., Oeberst, A. & Augustin, D. (2004). A model of aesthetic appreciation and aesthetic judgements. British Journal of Psychology, 95, 489–508. Leder, Gerger, Dressler & Schabmann, (in press). How art is appreciated. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. Leder, H., Tinio, P.T., Fuchs, I. & Bohrn, I. (2010). Attractive Faces Demand Longer Looks. The effects of situation and gender. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 63 (9), 1858–1871.