Our research group has an interdisciplinary focus, with an emphasis on the collaboration between the cognitive sciences and art research.
In the last decade, research has been growing within new sub-disciplines called experimental art history and neuroaesthetics. These branches incorporates elements from psychology, neuroscience, and art history and aims to broaden knowledge of both human cognition and the neurocognitive mechanisms behind the appreciation of art.
An example of this is how art historians sometimes state how certain elements of a picture guides the eye movement of the spectator, yet this is merely subjective opinion. These opinions are not necessarily wrong, but can be empirically strengthened by incorporated relevant psychological knowledge. For a more objective approach, tools such as eye-tracking can be used. Yarbus (1967) showed, through eye-tracking that humans are extremely biased towards looking at faces, thus making the eye movements of spectators when looking at pictures containing faces quite predictable. Knowledge from cognitive psychology has enabled a more evidence-based approach to art that is useful for both fields (art historians can more reliably say where the eye is looking, while psychologists gain knowledge about human perception and social dynamics).
Art and Cognition will also investigate history to a certain degree, as modern neurocognitive research can reveal how religious art and prayer would maintain belief and motivation in the Middle Ages. This approach is called neuromedievalism and employs modern neurocognitive knowledge to retrospectively understand behaviours of the past. In a broader sense, the research group focus on research of the human cognitive system and how this is applied to various art forms. Previous research has looked at human perceptual mechanisms when viewing art, the evolution of interpretation and false positives, the rate of investigative bias between biology, psychology and art history, and the neurology of emotion involved in devotional acts.
The research group is primarily focused on psychology, but is interdisciplinary in nature in that it will conduct studies with researchers in other fields. The primary collaborative field is art history, but the group will also integrate research from neuroscience and biology, and to a certain degree anthropology and history. However, since the nature of the research prospect is to apply knowledge, it also means that the group will welcome any research that will contribute towards gaining knowledge of human cognitive behaviour, which in turn will be applied to art, neuroscience and cultural systems. As a result, this research group is highly diverse and can accept a wide variety of members and conduct research within a range of topics. For instance, research into decision making, perceptual processes, memory and emotion will all have application within art history and culture. As a result, the group is also highly welcoming of student members and projects.
Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the group, it will also naturally follow that some research will focus on methodology and philosophy of science. This is important, as one of the goals is to gain knowledge across several fields, and these fields often use different methodology, with varying levels of evidence criteria. As a result, while the main focus of this research group is the integration of psychology and art, it has broad applications and can welcome research within a wide area of psychology, art, neuroscience and biology.
Cognition and Art 