Aesthetic Preference: Anomalous Findings for Berlyne's Psychobiological Theory

Seven experiments were conducted to test predictions derived from Berlyne's theory of aesthetic preference. According to this theory, preference is an inverted-U function of arousal potential; the determinants of arousal potential are summed, with the consequence that an increase in the amount of one determinant leads to a decrease in the maximally preferred level of other determinants; and collative properties, such as complexity, are the most important predictors of preference