Quantifying the extraction of art meaning: No laterality effect

Introduction: The present study investigates the differential evaluation, motivational preference and ideomotor action (decision making) of Psychology students over pieces of graphical art. Material and methods: Abstract and figurative art pictures were presented in two different visual hemifields in a decision task to 31 Psychology students. There were 90 trials in which participants had to make this decision/preference. Results: The findings indicate that there is no laterality effect in the two dependent variables used: count of preferences and response times (RTs). This statement is based on the fact that there is no interaction effect of more preferences or longer RTs depending on the side where the decision task was presented. On the other hand, there is a preference effect in the sense that the participants chose significantly more times the figurative art than the abstract one. In this sense, when preferring abstract art, participants spend significantly longer RTs than when they preferred figurative art. Conclusions: The results suggest that, for high level cognitive processes (such as paying attention and making decisions with art; in comparison to the plain perception and evaluation of it), there is no laterality effect. This conclusion is based on the lack of interaction effect depending on the side/hemifield where the decision task was presented. Moreover, Psychology students make a more analytical analysis of art since they prefer figurative art over abstract art. Finally, we can quantify the time that participants spent in extracting abstract art meaning, since they spent (as a mean) 231.78 ms longer when preferring abstract art than when they preferred figurative art.