The Esthetics of Clarity
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perceptual systems reward the brain
for coherently parsing stimuli
(reward: endorphins released)
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the magnitude of the reward is proportional
to the complexity of the visual or auditory
scene
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in random dot stereograms, scenes are especially
complex, but careful visual cues are added to
facilitate parsing
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in multipart (polyphonic) music, auditory scenes
are especially complex, but careful voice-leading
cues help to facilitate parsing of streams
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implies that voice-leading takes advantage
of existing evolutionary adaptations and
limbic reward systems
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not everyone is able to successfully parse
random dot stereograms;
these people don't like them
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not everyone has the same abilities to
segregate auditory streams;
perhaps this explains why some people
don't like polyphonic music
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clarity is not the whole story;
there are other phenomena involved in
the esthetics of part-writing
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some of these phenomena relate to
enculturation
Copyright © 2000 David Huron