The influence of presentation format and viewer training in the visual arts on the perception of pictorial and aesthetic qualities of paintings

The comparability of viewers' responses to slide-projected and computer-gen erated images of nine paintings by renowned artists to those obtained from individuals experiencing the originals in the galleries of the New York Met ropolitan Museum of Art was investigated. The influence of training in the visual arts upon evaluative judgments made under the three presentation for mats was also assessed. Specifically, art-trained and untrained participant s in each format condition rated each artwork on sixteen measures of physic al and structural characteristics, novelty of content, and aesthetic qualit ies. Analyses revealed significant differences in the judged hedonic value of the originals as contrasted with the two types of reproduction, whereas trained and untrained participants' evaluations of the pictorial qualities of the artworks were comparable across presentation formats. Findings are d iscussed in terms of a facsimile-accommodation hypothesis proposed by the a uthors.