Multisensory Imagery Enhances the Aesthetic Evaluation of Paintings: A Virtual Reality Study

Abstract

Some forms of art provide information through a single sensory modality, whereas multisensory information usually enhances aesthetic experience. When external information is unavailable, mental imagery can function as “weak perception”, supplying additional sensory details. A preregistered virtual reality study was conducted in an immersive virtual museum to examine how multisensory imagery, professional background, and sensory imagery ability relate to imagery vividness, emotional arousal, valence, and the aesthetic appeal of paintings. The results demonstrated that multisensory imagery significantly influenced aesthetic evaluations, and that individuals’ imagery abilities were associated with these evaluations. Further analyses indicated that vividness and emotional arousal statistically accounted for the association between multisensory imagery and aesthetic appeal, and that vividness accounted for the association between sensory imagery ability and aesthetic evaluations. These findings link multisensory imagery to vividness and aesthetic appeal, offering implications for aesthetic cognition. They also suggest that intentional multisensory imagery training may improve art appreciation.

Welcome to the Aphantasia Research Network! Today, we’re looking at how your "mind’s eye"—the ability to picture things in your head—changes how you experience art.

While most people can visualize, about 1-3% of the population has aphantasia, meaning they have a "blind mind’s eye" and cannot create mental images at all.

What This Study Is About

Researchers wanted to know if intentionally imagining sounds, smells, and textures while looking at a painting makes the art more enjoyable. They also looked at whether people with naturally "vivid" mental imagery have a different experience than those who don't.

How They Studied It

The team recruited 45 college students and split them into "experts" (art students) and "non-experts." They put everyone into a Virtual Reality (VR) museum where they viewed 36 different paintings.

Participants did two things:

1. Just Look: Simply appreciate the painting as it is.

2. Multisensory Imagery: Imagine being *inside* the painting—smelling the flowers, hearing the wind, or feeling the grass.

What They Found

The researchers discovered that "turning on" your imagination makes art much more powerful. When participants used multisensory imagery, they rated the paintings as more beautiful and emotionally moving.

They also found that people with high imagery vividness (the "HD" version of mental picturing) enjoyed the art significantly more than those with lower imagery ability. It’s like mental imagery acts as a volume knob for emotions; the clearer the mental picture, the louder the emotional impact.

What This Might Mean

This suggests that art appreciation isn't just about what our eyes see, but what our brains "add" to the experience. For people with aphantasia, this might explain why some feel less of an "emotional spark" from visual art—they may be missing that internal "amplifier."

However, this was a small study of 45 students in a VR setting. We can't be certain yet if these results would be the same in a real-world museum or for people with total aphantasia, as the study mostly compared "high" vs "low" imagery rather than "zero" imagery.

One Interesting Detail

The researchers found that imagining a "ship in a storm" allowed people to mentally simulate the sound of thunder and the cold sting of raindrops, which directly made the painting feel more "masterful" to them!

Multisensory Imagery Enhances the Aesthetic Evaluation of Paintings: A Virtual Reality Study

Abstract

Authors

What This Study Is About

How They Studied It

What They Found

What This Might Mean

One Interesting Detail

Joel Pearson

Merlin Monzel

Adam Zeman

Rebecca Keogh

Martin Reuter

Juha Silvanto

Carla Dance

Paolo Bartolomeo

Jianghao Liu

Julia Simner