Artistic Training and Interest in Visual Art: Applying the Appraisal Model of Aesthetic Emotions

Art experts find art more interesting, particularly when it is abstract or complex. These findings are explored in light of a model of aesthetic emotions rooted in appraisal theories (Silvia, 2005b, 2005d). This model attributes emotional responses to art to cognitive appraisal processes (as opposed to collative motivation, prototypicality, or processing fluency). Two experiments examined whether art experts and novices differed in the appraisals that make art interesting. In Experiment 1, people with art training found complex pictures more interesting, and they appraised them as easier to understand. Using multilevel modeling, Experiment 2 explored whether art training involved a qualitative shift in the appraisals that cause interest. Within-person effects of appraisals on emotions were essentially independent of between-person differences in training. People high and low in training make the same emotional appraisals of art, but they reach different answers to the appraisal questions.