Lateral Organization, Perceived Depth and Title Preference in Pictures

Abstract

29 naive Ss compared 15 regular photographs of paintings with mirror image photos of the same scenes. Ss were given titles for each of the 15 stimulus pairs and asked to select the member of the pair to which the title was better suited. They consistently (Z = 3.31, p < .01) selected photographs for which titles referred specifically to the left rather than right foreground ( Z = 3.31, p < .01). These results confirm observations of Woelfflin and Gaffron, that lateral organization is important for aesthetic appreciation of two-dimensional art forms. Perceived depth is greater in the left sides of pictures than the right as shown by Bartley and colleagues, but attempts to relate left-side title preference to depth per se were not successful.