Effects of time and information on perception of art

Abstract

This study examined whether the presence of a label and the length of viewing time affect the perception of art. Participants were 152 undergraduate students at an urban university in central New Jersey. A computer program randomly assigned participants to viewing 4 paintings under a label or no label condition and a 1 sec., 5 sec., 30 sec., or 60 sec. time condition. The paintings were Cezanne’s Still Life With Apples, Mondrian’s Composition with Red, Yellow and Blue, Monet’s Garden at Sainte-Adresse, and Davis’ Report from Rockport. After each painting, participants completed a rating scale of 24 adjective pairs. Multivariate analyses of variance indicated little support for the hypotheses that the label condition will lead to different ratings of the art as compared to the non-label condition and that length of viewing time will affect ratings of the art. The reliability coefficients for the rating scale were fairly strong. Results are discussed in terms of how ratings of art are dependent largely on the work of art itself.