Multisensory Imagery Enhances the Aesthetic Evaluation of Paintings: A Virtual Reality Study

Some forms of art provide information through a single sensory modality, whereas multisensory information usually enhances aesthetic experience. When external information is unavailable, mental imagery can function as “weak perception”, supplying additional sensory details. A preregistered virtual reality study was conducted in an immersive virtual museum to examine how multisensory imagery, professional background, and sensory imagery ability relate to imagery vividness, emotional arousal, valence, and the aesthetic appeal of paintings. The results demonstrated that multisensory imagery significantly influenced aesthetic evaluations, and that individuals’ imagery abilities were associated with these evaluations. Further analyses indicated that vividness and emotional arousal statistically accounted for the association between multisensory imagery and aesthetic appeal, and that vividness accounted for the association between sensory imagery ability and aesthetic evaluations. These findings link multisensory imagery to vividness and aesthetic appeal, offering implications for aesthetic cognition. They also suggest that intentional multisensory imagery training may improve art appreciation.