TY - JOUR

T1 - A Generalised Semantic Cognition Account of Aesthetic Experience

AU - Bara, Ionela

AU - Binney, Richard J

AU - Ward, Robert

AU - Ramsey, Richard

PY - 2022/8/13

Y1 - 2022/8/13

N2 - Given that aesthetic experiences typically involve extracting meaning from environment, we believe that semantic cognition research has much to offer the field of neuroaesthetics. In the current paper, we propose a generalised framework that is inspired by the semantic cognition literature and that treats aesthetic experience as just one example of how meaning accumulates. According to our framework, aesthetic experiences are underpinned by the same cognitive and brain systems that are involved in deriving meaning from the environment in general, such as modality-specific conceptual representations and controlled processes for retrieving the appropriate type of information. Our generalised semantic cognition view of aesthetic experience has substantial implications for theory development: it leads to novel, falsifiable predictions and it reconfigures foundational assumptions regarding the structure of the cognitive and brain systems that may be involved in aesthetic experiences.

AB - Given that aesthetic experiences typically involve extracting meaning from environment, we believe that semantic cognition research has much to offer the field of neuroaesthetics. In the current paper, we propose a generalised framework that is inspired by the semantic cognition literature and that treats aesthetic experience as just one example of how meaning accumulates. According to our framework, aesthetic experiences are underpinned by the same cognitive and brain systems that are involved in deriving meaning from the environment in general, such as modality-specific conceptual representations and controlled processes for retrieving the appropriate type of information. Our generalised semantic cognition view of aesthetic experience has substantial implications for theory development: it leads to novel, falsifiable predictions and it reconfigures foundational assumptions regarding the structure of the cognitive and brain systems that may be involved in aesthetic experiences.

KW - Aesthetic appreciation

KW - Neuroaesthetics

KW - Semantic cognition

U2 - 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108288

DO - 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2022.108288

M3 - Article

VL - 173

JO - Neuropsychologia

JF - Neuropsychologia

SN - 0028-3932

M1 - 108288

ER -