Effects of presentation duration on measures of complexity in affective environmental scenes and representational paintings.

Complexity constitutes an integral part of humans' environment and is inherent to information processing. However, little is known about the dynamics of visual complexity perception of affective environmental scenes (IAPS pictures) and artworks, such as affective representational paintings. In three experiments, we studied the time course of visual complexity perception by varying presentation duration and comparing subjective ratings with objective measures of complexity. In Experiment 1, 60 females rated 96 IAPS pictures, presented either for 1, 5, or 25s, for familiarity, complexity, pleasantness and arousal. In Experiment 2, another 60 females rated 96 representational paintings. Mean ratings of complexity and pleasantness changed according to presentation duration in a similar vein in both experiments, suggesting an inverted U-shape. No common pattern of results was observed for arousal and familiarity ratings across the two picture sets. The correlations between subjective and objective measures of complexity increased with longer exposure durations for IAPS pictures, but results were more ambiguous for paintings. Experiment 3 explored the time course of the multidimensionality of visual complexity perception. Another 109 females rated the number of objects, their disorganization and the differentiation between a figure-ground vs. complex scene composition of pictures presented for 1 and 5s. The multidimensionality of visual complexity only clearly emerged in the 5-s condition. In both picture sets, the strength of the correlations with objective measures depended on the type of subdimension of complexity and was less affected by presentation duration than correlations with general complexity in Experiments 1 and 2. These results have clear implications for perceptual and cognitive theories, especially for those of esthetic experiences, in which the dynamical changes of complexity perception need to be integrated.