The sensory valuation account of aesthetic experience

Abstract

Aesthetic experience has traditionally been considered to be uniquely human, characterized by distinctive features, and to occur when people engage with sensory objects with a specific attitude. However, contemporary research demonstrates that aesthetic experiences are rooted in neurobiological mechanisms common to hedonic evaluations of objects and are shared by other animals. These results require a reconceptualization of the traditional view of aesthetic experience. In this Perspective, we first synthesize relevant findings from psychological aesthetics and neuroaesthetics. On this basis, we then propose a different conceptualization of aesthetic experience. Sensory valuation is the transfer of sensory information to the reward system, which prompts the anticipation and production of positive or negative hedonic values and motivational dispositions. This process is modulated by executive, semantic and physiological regulation systems. Consequently, evaluative outcomes are not solely determined by stimulus properties, but are substantially shaped by the agent’s learned experience, physiological state and ongoing behavioural circumstances. Aesthetic experience has traditionally been considered a unique kind of experience that occurs when people view specific objects such as artwork. In this Perspective, Nadal and Skov posit an account of aesthetic experience that emphasizes its similarities to other types of experience.