Gibson and the Success of Experimental Aesthetics

Leonordo, Vol. 9, pp. 56-57. Pergamon Press 1976. Printed in Great Britain GIBSON AND THE SUCCESS OF EXPERIMENTAL AESTHETICS R. W. Pickford* It is indeed an honour to be given as much attention by James J. Gibson as he has given me in his Note [Leonardo,8,319 (1 975)] on my recent book, Psychology and Visiial Aestlietics (London: Hutchinson Educational , 1972). I am grateful to him for his appreciation and writing this word reminds me that when I was at school I was taught that to write an appreciation of an author, as in an examination, for instance, did not imply that one must praise him. Gibson’s comments are not all praise, by any means, and I find some difficulties with his evaluations. The purpose of mentioning Fechner in my book was essentially historical and, as Gibson says himself, none believe any more that the aesthetic value of a painting is merely the sum of the values of the colours and forms that compose it, for it is a Gestalt, which is more than the sum of its parts. But soon after this Gibson says that ‘He’ (is that Pickford?) never doubts that a painting does consist of colours and forms, which only need to be arranged in a mysterious Gestalt, a sort of superior arrangement (p. 320). ‘That is all there is to it. Perception is an organization of sensations.’ Gibson’s arguments somttimes savour of the ways of certain politicians, who attribute to their opponents what they did not say and then criticise them for having said it. For my part, as a student of psychology in 1925, I thought sensationism/associationism had died before Gibson was born. And it did not take the Gestalt psychologists to kill it, because it was dead before they came to life, mainly, I suppose under the influence of William James and others, whose books, coupled with the teaching of F. C. Bartlett, formed my main psychological background. Perhaps sensationism/associationism lasted longer at Cornell University than at Cambridge University, owing to the influence of Titchener, who, gifted scholar though he was, never affected me, but his influence at Cornell may make Gibson hyper-sensitive in his fears that someone may still hold such views. Later, Gibson thinks that I am impressed by the way people agree in the results of aesthetic experiments , whereas Gibson himself is impressed by how much they disagree. Indeed, their disagreement is very interesting, but are not agreement and disagreement necessarily assessed in one and the same process? Agreements tend to justify the assumption of general principles. Disagreements are valuable as meaningful exceptions that may lead one to see something new. There is a rather difficult point about lines and curves. Gibson mentions that it was found that descending lines or curves often appear to be sad or * Psychologist, 34 Morven Road, Bearsden, Glasgow G61 3BX, Scotland (Received IG July 1975.) lazy in comparison with upward sloping lines. Then he adds the comment: ‘As if a line that slopes downward does not also slope upward.’ I think a more careful study of the research in question would suggest that it is the appearance to the observer o f upward or downward slope that matters. Probably most observers in our culture, except Gibson, perhaps, tend to think of lines and such marks as if taken from left to right rather than right to left, although some do not, and in another culture it might be different. Thus, individuals respond to the ‘behavioral’ environment, as Koffka pointed out, rather than to the physical environment. I should have thought Gibson would agree with this. Indeed, what else is he trying to say later in his Note when he writes about the ‘affordances’ of thingsexcept for his colourless and formless ‘invariants’? What, however, are these ‘invariants’? Are they thoughts in the mind of a god or things in themselves after Kant? An interesting difficulty in Gibson’s critique is his comment on Cyril Burt, who was wise enough to choose ‘bad’ as well as ‘good’ pictures for his picturepostcard test. Burt knew that for a test to be effective one had to have as complete as possible a...