Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts This is an RSS file. You can use it to subscribe to this data in your favourite RSS reader or to display this data on your own website or blog.

Editors’ introduction.
This editorial provides a brief overview of specific articles selected for a journal; topics range from daydreaming and streams of thought to creative behavior, etc. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts)
Source: Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts - December 9, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Development and validation of the Aesthetic Processing Preference Scale (APPS).
Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, Vol 17(5), Oct 2023, 645-659; doi:10.1037/aca0000449Numerous theoretical frameworks argue that engaging in controlled cognitive processing of artwork is an important aspect of the aesthetic experience. However, most research on controlled processing has examined controlled processing based on situational factors that can be experimentally manipulated. While this is a valuable endeavor, it does not capture important differences that naturally exist between art viewers. To rectify this, the current study developed a measure of individual differences in controlled processing...
Source: Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts - November 11, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

The model of failed foregrounding.
Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, Vol 16(4), Nov 2022, 594-609; doi:10.1037/aca0000419This paper points to a blind spot in the field of empirical study of literature, which is ignoring failures in reading processes. It investigates several kinds of failures based on the foregrounding theory, the most systematic attempt hitherto to empirically examine a model of literature reading. While some of the classical experiments usually considered supportive of foregrounding theory have actually reported mixed findings, these were not seriously considered as indications of failure, or as theoretically interesting....
Source: Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts - October 28, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Creative achievement and individual differences: Associations across and within the domains of creativity.
Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, Vol 16(4), Nov 2022, 618-636; doi:10.1037/aca0000439We investigated the relationships between creative achievement, cognitive ability, temperament, and vocational interests using a large and diverse Internet-based sample. Ten creative domains (visual arts, music, creative writing, dance, drama, architecture, humor, scientific discovery, inventions, culinary arts) were positively associated with higher cognitive ability, intellect, and extraversion and lower agreeableness. Regarding cognitive ability, there was no evidence for the threshold effect on achievements. Regardin...
Source: Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts - October 25, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Creative adaptability and emotional well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic: An international study.
Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, Vol 18(2), Apr 2024, 245-255; doi:10.1037/aca0000445The putative associations between creative adaptability and the experience of emotional well-being (i.e., a positivity ratio of more positive than negative emotions) was investigated during the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak with a sample of 1,432 adults from four countries: Israel (n = 310), United States (n = 312), Italy (n = 378), and China (n = 569). Country differences and a mediation model for creative adaptability predicting emotional well-being through creative self-efficacy, resilient coping, and emotion regulation ...
Source: Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts - October 14, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Awe is associated with creative personality, convergent creativity, and everyday creativity.
Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, Vol 18(2), Apr 2024, 209-221; doi:10.1037/aca0000442Creativity has many benefits, such as workplace performance and life satisfaction. Three studies extended a small body of work to examine whether awe was associated with creative personality, convergent creativity, and everyday creative behaviors (N = 1,844). Study 1 demonstrated that trait awe was associated with a more creative personality among adolescents and adults in the U.S., Iran, and Malaysia. Study 2 showed that trait awe was associated with an increased likelihood of solving the Duncker’s Candle Problem. Fin...
Source: Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts - October 7, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Why Boulder Springs has no boulders and no springs: Evolved landscape preferences and naming conventions.
Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, Vol 18(2), Apr 2024, 160-173; doi:10.1037/aca0000414Landscapes varied throughout human history, some offering more fitness benefits than others. Therefore, natural selection has likely designed in us landscape preferences that motivated us to seek some environments over others (Orians, 1980). These evolved landscape preferences may influence several aspects of modern-day society, including how we manipulate our urban environment. In Study 1, we conducted a content analysis of the naming conventions of apartment buildings and residential neighborhoods. We hypothesized that...
Source: Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts - October 7, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Facial reactions to face representations in art: An electromyography study.
Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, Vol 17(6), Dec 2023, 793-805; doi:10.1037/aca0000423Facial mimicry is a reaction to facial expressions. It plays a role in social interaction. Indeed, scholars associated facial mimicry with emotional contagion and understanding others' mental states such as intentions. This is the case for facial mimicry toward human facial expressions, but we know that facial expressions are widely depicted in art through face representations (visual creations that depict facial expressions). However, despite face representation involvement in social interactions, facial reactions towar...
Source: Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts - October 7, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Smooth as glass and hard as stone? On the conceptual structure of the aesthetics of materials.
Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, Vol 17(5), Oct 2023, 632-644; doi:10.1037/aca0000437Following Fechner’s (1876) “aesthetics from below,” this study examines the conceptual structure of the aesthetics of various materials (Werkstoffe)—for instance, leather, metal, and wood. Adopting a technique used by Jacobsen et al. (2004), we asked 1,956 students to write down adjectives that could be used to describe the aesthetics of materials within a given time limit. A second subsample of a broader cross-section of the population (n = 496) replicated the findings obtained with the first subsample. A joint ...
Source: Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts - October 7, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Creative idea forecasting: The effect of task exposure on idea evaluation.
This study therefore examines the effect of task exposure on creative idea evaluation using 1864 German students who evaluated ideas on their creativity, originality and feasibility. Their ratings were compared to ratings by content and creativity experts. The students were randomly assigned to 1 of the following conditions: task exposure (i.e., they had to generate and evaluate ideas for the same task) or no task exposure (i.e., they had to generate ideas for a different task than the idea evaluation task). The results show that task exposure improves students’ ability to accurately recognize creative and original ideas...
Source: Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts - October 7, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Creative idea forecasting: The effect of task exposure on idea evaluation.
This study therefore examines the effect of task exposure on creative idea evaluation using 1864 German students who evaluated ideas on their creativity, originality and feasibility. Their ratings were compared to ratings by content and creativity experts. The students were randomly assigned to 1 of the following conditions: task exposure (i.e., they had to generate and evaluate ideas for the same task) or no task exposure (i.e., they had to generate ideas for a different task than the idea evaluation task). The results show that task exposure improves students’ ability to accurately recognize creative and original ideas...
Source: Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts - October 7, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Explaining standardized educational test scores: The role of creativity above and beyond GPA and personality.
Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, Vol 17(6), Dec 2023, 725-734; doi:10.1037/aca0000433Most standardized educational tests are not intended to assess creativity. Past research in this domain has been largely correlational, examining the associations between creative beliefs or performance and scores on such tests. Hence, the primary aim of the current investigation was to determine the degree to which different metrics of creativity account for performance on standardized academic tests. Specifically, measures of creative performance, potential, self-reports, and beliefs were collected along with personali...
Source: Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts - September 30, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Vigilance and social chills with music: Evidence for two types of musical chills.
This study aimed to distinguish two types of musical chills: vigilance chills, linked to awe, expectancy, and auditory looming; and social chills, linked to being moved, empathy, and social bonding. Participants listened to four music excerpts containing moments of contrast (sudden dynamic changes). Two excerpts were paired with extramusical information provided before listening, with the other two accompanied by visual animations; the information and animations emphasized either vigilance (i.e., musical structure) or social (i.e., bittersweet moving narrative) aspects, forming vigilance and social conditions for each stim...
Source: Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts - September 30, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research

Figuring out what they feel: Exposure to eudaimonic narrative fiction is related to mentalizing ability.
This study focuses on this relationship in children and adolescents, because they are still developing their social abilities. Exposure to narrative fiction may thus be particularly important in providing input on how to interpret other people’s mental states for this age group. In our study, we find no evidence for a simple relationship between overall frequency of narrative fiction exposure and mentalizing ability in this age group. However, exposure to eudaimonic narrative fiction is consistently positively related to mentalizing and, for some media types and aspects of mentalizing, more strongly so than exposure to h...
Source: Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts - September 30, 2021 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research