Rankings of Curved and Sharp-Angled Drawings: Frames and Evaluation Criteria

Abstract This research investigates how rankings of curved versus sharp-angled line drawings are influenced by surrounding frames and evaluation criteria. We predicted that congruence among the curvature of a drawing, the curvature of its frame, and the evaluation criterion might increase participants’ rankings of that stimulus. Participants ranked 26 sets of six stimuli (curved and sharp-angled versions of line drawings, presented unframed, within square frames, or within round frames) according to their curvature (Study 1), or their pleasantness and interestingness (Study 2). Framed stimuli were ranked as more pleasant, and more interesting, than unframed stimuli. Beyond this, rankings seemed to be somewhat sensitive to congruencies among the curvature of the drawing, the curvature of its frame, and the evaluation criterion. These effects also differed between different types of drawing. For contained drawings, which did not reach the boundaries of their frame area, curved stimuli tended to be ranked as more pleasant than sharp-angled stimuli, except when they were presented in a sharp-angled, and therefore incongruent, square frame. For truncated drawings, which did touch the boundaries of their frame area, sharp-angled stimuli were ranked as more pleasant than curved stimuli, except when they were presented in an incongruent round frame; sharp-angled stimuli were also ranked as more interesting than curved stimuli, and this did not seem to be moderated by framing. Overall, judgments were influenced by stimulus- and task-related factors, and by congruence among those factors.