The Role of Working Memory and Task Instructions in Evaluative Judgments of Liking and Beauty

[eng] Introduction One of the main aims of empirical aesthetics is to understand aesthetic evaluative judgments, such as judgments of beauty, liking, elegance, or grace. Traditionally, this research area has focused on formal properties like symmetry, complexity, or novelty, while social context and individual differences have received less attention. Content of the research This thesis explores the roles of culture, working memory, and task instructions in aesthetic evaluative judgments. First, it reviews cross-cultural research showing convergence in the use of features such as symmetry, complexity, proportion, and contrast, suggesting shared perceptual origins. The empirical section investigates how working memory load and capacity affect aesthetic judgments. Participants evaluated artworks while remembering dot positions in a matrix. Results show that beauty judgments take longer and require more cognitive resources than liking judgments. The final study tests whether participants treat beauty and liking as equivalent when no task definitions are provided. Findings show that while ratings are more similar without instructions, the two judgments still reflect distinct cognitive processes. Conclusion This thesis provides empirical evidence on the influence of working memory and task framing in aesthetic experience. The findings demonstrate that different evaluative judgments rely on distinct cognitive mechanisms and can be shaped by task demands.