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A pair of psychologists in Chicago found that most people tend to remember the same artworks when shown a collection. Trent Davis and Wilma Bainbridge ran three kinds of experiments to learn what makes some artworks memorable — and the results surprised them.
Logic suggests viewing art is a personal experience. Most people looking at a painting or statue have their own thoughts or feelings about the piece. That’s tied to our tendency to bring personal experiences to how we interpret art.
However, the reality is that this experience may not be as individual as some might expect. Davis and Bainbridge’s research revealed that, more often than not, different people leave an art gallery remembering nearly the same paintings.
How Was the Art Study Conducted?
To uncover what makes an artwork unforgettable, the researchers ran three types of experiments. In the first, more than 3,000 online volunteers viewed a series of paintings, then saw that same set mixed in with other works.
After viewing, participants were asked to identify the paintings they remembered from the first series. The researchers found that most volunteers recalled the same artworks.
In the second experiment, the psychologists had a group of 19 participants stroll through an art museum, making sure they looked at all the paintings on display. After the visit, each participant took a test on the artworks they had just seen. Like the first experiment, volunteers tended to remember the same paintings.
In the third experiment, the team took a different approach. They asked online volunteers to rate the beauty, emotional tone, familiarity, and interest level of the paintings. The only factor that influenced memorability was how interesting the participants found the artworks.
AI Identifies the Same Popular Paintings as People
As an additional tool, the psychologists used a deep learning program called ResMem. According to Medicalxpress, it was designed to predict how memorable paintings would be when viewed by people.
The researchers found the program picked largely the same paintings participants remembered in all three experiments. So AI can predict which artworks people are likely to remember.
