ECVP 2026 · What can visual perceptual sensitivity tell us about individual differences in appreciation?

Eline Van Geert
European Conference on Visual Perception 2026 · Bournemouth, UK

To what extent can differences in how we visually perceive images and patterns explain differences in how we appreciate them? In this study, we assessed individuals’ pairwise preferences for image pairs within five different sets (images of paintings, abstract patterns, natural scenes, photographs of neatly organized compositions, and natural textures) at two timepoints (two months apart). For 253 participants, we also measured threshold-level sensitivity for differences in lightness, chroma, hue, shape, orientation, and size using interleaved staircases, for two reference values per feature dimension. Moreover, participants completed several questionnaires to characterize their perceptual and aesthetic processing abilities and experience (incl. VAIAK, VAST-R). Preliminary analyses indicate that individual differences in perceptual sensitivity were positively correlated across features (r = .01–.44), and that perceptual sensitivity was positively correlated with aesthetic sensitivity as measured with the VAST-R (r = .17–.30). Furthermore, especially orientation and shape sensitivity correlated positively with preferences for order (except for paintings; r = .04–.34) and with preferences for complexity in natural scenes (r = .19–.30). Further analyses will dive deeper into modeling the perceptual sensitivity data and explore how different person characteristics, like individual differences in perceptual sensitivity, personality, and art expertise, interconnect in predicting individual differences in aesthetic appreciation across different stimulus sets.