Pleasing and Interesting Visual Complexity: Support for Berlyne

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Abstract
Berlyne has stated that there are two kinds of exploratory behavior, specific and diversive, and has cited data relating to “pleasingness” and “interestingness” of complex visual patterns in support of his position. In order to test Berlyne's views, 28 Ss rank ordered nine polygons, of varying degrees of complexity, in terms of “pleasingness” and “interestingness.” Highly complex polygons were found to be more interesting, in support of Berlyne. No significant differences emerged for the “pleasingness” category. Birth order data showed a nonsignificant tendency for first borns to choose less complex polygons as more pleasing than higher complexity shapes.

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