title: Describing Art - An Interdisciplinary Approach to the Effects of Speaking on Gaze Movements during the Beholding of Paintings.
abstract: Ever since the Renaissance speaking about paintings has been a fundamental approach for beholders, especially experts. However, it is unclear whether and how speaking about art modifies the way we look at it and this was not yet empirically tested. The present study investigated to the best of our knowledge for the first time in what way speaking modifies the patterns of fixations and gaze movements while looking at paintings. Ninety nine university students looked at four paintings selected to cover different art historical typologies for periods of 15 minutes each while gaze movement data were recorded. After 10 minutes, the participants of the experimental group were asked open questions about the painting. Speaking dramatically reduced the duration of fixations and painting area covered by fixations while at the same time increasing the frequencies of fixations, gaze length and the amount of repeated transitions between fixation clusters. These results suggest that the production of texts as well-organised sequences of information, structures the gazes of art beholders by making them quicker, more focused and better connected.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Bangor University, Bangor, United Kingdom; Department for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Christoph
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Klein
authors.affiliation: Institute for European Art History, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Juliane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Betz
authors.affiliation: Institute for European Art History, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany; Department of Art History and Cognitive Research Platform, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hirschbuehl
authors.affiliation: Department of Art History and Cognitive Research Platform, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Caroline
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fuchs
authors.affiliation: Institute for German as a Foreign Language Philology, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Schmiedtová
authors.affiliation: Institute for European Art History, University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany.
authors.forename: Martina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Engelbrecht
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, Bangor University, Bangor, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mueller-Paul
authors.affiliation: Department of Art History and Cognitive Research Platform, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Raphael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Rosenberg
mesh_terms: D053483:Eye Movement Measurements; D005133:Eye Movements; D006801:Humans; D010151:Paintings; D011361:Professional Competence; D011581:Psychological Tests; D013060:Speech; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013850:Thinking; D013997:Time Factors; D014495:Universities; D014796:Visual Perception; D055815:Young Adult