Pupil dilation is driven by perceptions of naturalness of color composition in paintings

What is it about?

Pupil diameter is known to reflect not just the physical luminance of the environment but various cognitive states derived from the stimuli. This article investigated the relationship between pupil response and preference/naturalness of color composition of art paintings.

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Photo by Marc Schulte on Unsplash

Photo by Marc Schulte on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Greater pupil response (dilation) was observed for the original art paintings compared with “fake” hue-rotated paintings, not only in representational paintings but also in abstract paintings, with a significant positive correlation with the perceptions of naturalness for color composition, implying that the color composition is judged for its naturalness not only by semantic processing such as memory color, but also by a relatively rapid and automatic process.