Revista Argentina de Clínica Psicológica 2020, Vol. XXIX, N°1, 824-830
DOI: 10.24205/03276716.2020.112 824
A
ESTHETIC
P
SYCHOLOGY OF THE
A
RTISTIC
C
ONCEPTION OF
C
LASSICAL
T
ANG
P
OEMS
:
A
N
A
NALYSIS
B
ASED ON
C
OGNITIVE
F
LUENCY
Jun Tang
*Abstract
The relationship between aesthetic cognition and emotions has long been a research hotspot in aesthetic psychology of poems. Drawing on theories of aesthetic psychology and the psychology of poetry, this paper aims to explore the relationship between rhyming rules, cognitive fluency and the aesthetics of classical Tang poems. First, several fully rhymed classical Tang poems were selected, and some words were replaced to disrupt the rhyming. Both the original and modified poems were inputted into a program on E-prime 2.0 to test 50 college students, who were selected through a questionnaire survey on the interests in ancient poetry. The test results were analyzed to evaluate the influence of rhyming on the recognition of and response to classical Chinese Tang poems. The results show that rhyming enhances the aesthetic cognitive fluency of the subjects who show better cognitive fluency towards rhymed poems, reducing the mean response time and improving the aesthetic preference evaluation. The research results shed new light on the teaching and appreciation of ancient Chinese poems.
Key words: Cognitive Fluency, Classical Tang Poems, Aesthetic Psychology, Rhyming, Classification Recognition, Aesthetic Preference.
Received: 22-01-19 | Accepted: 14-08-19
INTRODUCTION
As a social phenomenon and a magical ability possessed by human beings, language can be divided into many kinds and poetic language is one of them. Rhythm is the basic feature of human language and a necessary means in language communication. Ancient Chinese poetry boasts a long history, and the classical Tang poems are regarded as the most precious cultural heritage in China. For those poems, rhyming is the most basic writing norm, whose purpose is to make poems more smooth to read and more pleasant to hear. How rhyming affects
readers’ cognitive fluency and aesthetic
preference for poetry is a topic studied in the current researches in the fields of aesthetic psychology and the psychology of poetry.
Yancheng Institute of Technology, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Yancheng 224051, China.
E-Mail: tj2211@ycit.cn
Since the birth of aesthetic psychology in the twentieth century, scholars have tried to explore
the formation mechanism of aesthetic
psychology based on different theories. The studies on cognitive poetics and neuroaesthetics all believe that rhythm plays an important role in it. When reading a Tang poem, which contains fewer words, people can not only understand its meaning easily, but also produce a beautiful experience when reading it because of its rhythm characteristics (Pratt, 1992). Hofek et al. proposed an aesthetic psychological processing model, Leder et al. an aesthetic appreciation judgment model, and Berlyne et al. a physiological and psychological aesthetic model. Among these theoretical models, Reber's cognitive fluency theory is the most explanatory (Lawrence, 2015). In addition, some researchers used EEG analysis to analyze the EEG components of rhyming in the language auditory and visual initiation paradigms (Peltz, 1975).
JUN TANG 825
explanatory to the rhythm of the Chinese classical Tang poems still require further study.
In view of the analysis above and with reference to the previous research results, this study selects the characteristics of rhyming rules in the classical Tang poems and focuses on the aesthetic psychology of the artistic conception of the classical Tang poems from the perspective of cognitive fluency using poetry classification recognition paradigm and aesthetic preference evaluation paradigm and based on the aesthetic psychology and the psychology of poetry, in a bid to explore the relationship between rhyming rules, cognitive fluency and the aesthetics of classical Tang poems.
THEORIES
Related theories on the appreciation of ancient poems
Poetic language, as a kind of language, consists of not only semantic, lexical, grammatical and other elements, but also another important element-rhythm, which is related to the physical properties such as sound intensity, sound length, and pitch and is a component of tone, rhythm and others in language, thus also known as prosody (Bosshardt,2002). Rhythm, in terms of function, usually refers to the phonological properties and pronunciation of a language. Although with fewer words, a Tang poem is easy to understand due to its rhythm features. Moreover, through the long-term appreciation practice, people can recall the rhythm of a poem like humming a song when encountering the poem, thus producing a pleasant experience. It is exactly this pleasant aesthetic experience that enhances our ability to appreciate.
Neuroaesthetics
By conducting the experimental research through a systematic approach, Fechner,
regarded as “the founder of modern scientific aesthetic” and “someone who ushers in second new era of aesthetics” promoted the
development of scientific aesthetics. Many later studies have been carried out on the basis of
Fechner's theory, such as “Aesthetics of Symbolism” and “Aesthetics of Gestalt Psychology” (Mcvearry, Gaillard, Vanmeter et al., 2009). Among them, Neuroaesthetics can be regarded as the latest form of Fechner's scientific aesthetics. Neuroaesthetics attempts
to study the neural processes of a particular type of aesthetic appreciation and experience. At present, the studies of neuroaesthetics involve the neural processes of music, dance and visual art appreciation. However, there are few studies on the poetic features of language (Jones, 1970).
Cognitive poetics
Proposed by Tsur in 1983, cognitive poetics (Kaul, 1964), a new interdisciplinary subject based on cognitive psychology and cognitive linguistics, analyzes how the human information processing process affects the external forms of a poem, such as stress, cross-line, and pause. The theory holds that certain characteristics of poetic language, especially rhyming and tempo, affect the aesthetic appreciation of poems by influencing people's psychological processes, but this theory needs to be confirmed by further research.
Aesthetic appreciation theory
Aesthetic appreciation is an advanced cognitive process. Aesthetic psychology, which integrates aesthetics and psychology, is an inevitable result of the development of the two. Its purpose is to study the factors affecting aesthetics from an objective perspective (Kooy, 1995). At present, although no unified theory has been reached yet, many researchers have conducted studies from different angles. Several popular aesthetic appreciation theories have been summarized in this study, as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1
.
Aesthetic appreciation theory
Aesthetic appreciation theory
Physiological and psychological aesthetic model
Aesthetic prototype theory
Aesthetic appreciation judgment model Cognitive fluency theory
Aesthetic psychology model
(1) Physiological and psychological aesthetic model
Firstly, pioneered by Berlyne, the
physiological and psychological aesthetic model (Luck, 2017), presents a good explanation for the
AESTHETIC PSYCHOLOGY OF THE ARTISTIC CONCEPTION OF CLASSICAL TANG POEMS: AN ANALYSIS BASED ON COGNITIVE FLUENCY 826
reasons for the positive emotions produced during appreciation.
(2) Aesthetic prototype theory
Martindale's aesthetic prototype theory holds that artworks more similar to prototype can lead to more aesthetic preferences. However, this theory only analyzes the aesthetics from a single factor, thus fails to explain people's preference for non-prototype art works, so it has certain limitations.
(3) Cognitive fluency theory
Cognitive fluency theory, proposed by Reber et al. from the perspective of psychology (Jiemo,
2014), assumes that “the more fluently the
perceiver processes his object, the more positive
his aesthetic response will be”. Cognitive fluency
can be shown in two distinct aspects: conceptual fluency (the semantic and stimulating meaning of art works of) and perceptual fluency (the easy identifiability of physical stimuli). Previous studies have shown that the cognitive fluency is determined by the recipient's processing experience and the object's characteristics. Other studies also show that the recipient's processing time and his aesthetic preference are directly proportional to his processing fluency.
(4) Aesthetic appreciation judgment model The aesthetic appreciation judgment model proposed by Leder et al. divides aesthetic processing into four stages, as shown in Figure 2. The model holds that the meaning of the
aesthetic processing lies in the viewer’s
exploration of the artistic value and connotation by appreciating art works, and aesthetic cognitive processing can influence the aesthetics of the viewer, enabling him to create a pleasant aesthetic emotion. But this process still requires further support through relevant experiments. (5) Aesthetic psychological processing model The aesthetic psychology processing model,
proposed by Hofe et al., divides aesthetic processing into three phases from the perspective of information processing, as shown in Figure 3. The model believes that aesthetics has two forms: the contemplative form and the distracting form, which still need to be verified by introspection and experiment.
Rhythm characteristics of the Chinese ancient poems
Rhyming
Rhyming refers to the adoption of similar or the same simple or compound vowel in the last word of some sentences, which can evoke the sense of sonorous harmony during recitation or singing, thus making the works more artistic and smoother. This technique is commonly used in the creation of classical poems in China. For
example, Cui Hao’s poem, The Yellow Crane
Tower, rhymes with the sound ou at the end, and
all words rhyme with level tones, including high and level tone and rising tone, which refer to Tone 1 and Tone 2 respectively.
The Yellow Crane Tower
The immortals of the past have already flown away by the yellow cranes, leaving only
the empty Yellow Crane Tower (lou). The yellow cranes never return leaving only white clouds floating around for thousands of
years (you).
One can clearly see the green trees around the Qingyuan Pavilion in Hanyang, and more clearly the Parrot Island with its luxuriant grass
(zhou).
The evening gradually spreads, but where is my hometown? Looking at the misty river surface, I couldn't help feeling sad (chou).
Figure 2
.
Four stages of aesthetic processing under the aesthetic appreciation judgment model
Perceptual analysis stage
Explicit classification stage
Implicit classification stage
Cognitive mastery and evaluation phase
Figure 3
.
Three stages of aesthetic processing under the aesthetic psychological processing
model
Accept processing stage
Central processing stage
Output processing stage
JUN TANG 827
Tempo
Tempo, a regular mutation in the activities of nature, society and people that goes along with rhythm, is an important technique used in writing poems. By means of repetition and correspondence, the poet organizes all kinds of changing factors to form a coherent and orderly whole (that is, tempo). The ancient pentasyllabic five-syllabled or seven-syllabled poems are exquisite, much due to their tempo. In reading a poem, a pause usually appears every two words, and the last word of the pentasyllabic five-syllabled or seven-five-syllabled poems is a single tempo itself. For instance, in On the Stork Tower,
the first tempos include “the sun”, “the Yellow River”, “you can”, and “greater”, the end tempos include “glow”, “flow”, “sight” and “height”, and
the remaining words constitute the body tempos.
On the Stork Tower
The sun beyond the mountain glows; The Yellow River seawards flows.
You can enjoy a grander sight by climbing to a greater height.
Other rhyme characteristics
In addition to rhyme and tempo, ancient Chinese poems also have other rhyme characteristics, such as level and oblique tones, word number, and sentence number. In Chinese ancient poems, the metrical poem is regarded as the strictest form, with specific requirements such as fixed sentence number, fixed word number, and similar sounds. Poems have level and oblique tones, the former includes high and level tone and rising tone, and the latter means that the tone is not level, including the rising Tone 3. A poem with the interlaced level and oblique tones will have a beautiful sense of tempo, thus avoiding monotony.
STUDY ON AESTHETIC PSYCHOLOGY OF THE ARTISTIC CONCEPTION OF CLASSICAL TANG POEMS BASED ON COGNITIVE FLUENCY ANALYSIS
Preparations
Materials
The fully rhymed pentasyllabic five-syllabled or seven-syllabled poems in the The Complete
Collection of Tang Poems and Three Hundred
Tang Poems were selected as experimental
materials. After modification, they were denoted as experimental condition F, which conformed to
rhyming rules, such as “Looking at the misty river surface, I couldn't help feeling sad (chou)”. Then
the words similar to the original ones in tone, semantics, structure and other aspects were used to replace the rhyming word that ends a line of verse in the original poem. Those poems were denoted as experimental condition B, which did not conform to rhyming rules, such as Looking at the misty river surface, I couldn't help feeling miserable (bei). Then the study on the artistic conception of classical Tang poems from the perspective of cognitive fluency was carried out. A total of 100 verses were selected as experimental materials and 10 as exercise materials. After the experimental materials were selected, their difficulty and familiarity were evaluated, which showed that the selected
materials could meet the experimental
requirements.
Subjects
In order to guarantee the smooth progress of the experiment of the aesthetic psychology on the classical Tang poems, this study evaluated 50 students from a university in Tianjin through
Questionnaire on the Interests in Ancient Poetry.
Finally, 32 eligible participants were selected to participate in the experiment, including 15 males and 17 females.
Influence of rhyming on the recognition of and response to classical Chinese Tang poems
Experimental procedures
E-prime2.0 psychology programming
software was employed for programming so that the same verse would be presented to the subject only once in a random manner.
The subject, who sat comfortably at a computer, was first shown the task instructions
on the screen. Then the sign “+” appeared on the
screen with the purpose of attracting the attention of the subject. The duration was 1000ms. Then blank screen followed randomly, with duration of 1000-1500ms. Once again, the whole verses were shown in pieces and the punctuation marks of the verse shown separately from the verses. Then a blank screen
followed randomly, and finally the question “Do you understand” was presented to the subject, who could choose “Y” meaning he understood
AESTHETIC PSYCHOLOGY OF THE ARTISTIC CONCEPTION OF CLASSICAL TANG POEMS: AN ANALYSIS BASED ON COGNITIVE FLUENCY 828
the meaning of the verse, otherwise “N”. The
formal experiment was divided into 2 rounds, with 5 minutes of rest after each round. Each round consisted of 50 different verses that appeared only once. The specific process is shown in Figure 4.
Analysis of experimental results
Table 1 shows the statistical results of the average response time used by the subjects
when they can or can’t understand the verses. It
can be seen from the table that the average response time (1137.74 ms) for understanding the gist of a verse is slightly longer than that (988.59 ms) for not understanding. An independent t-test on the two sets of data reveals significant marginal differences between the two.
According to the theory of cognitive fluency, the aesthetic response of the perceiver is directly proportional to the cognitive fluency and inversely proportional to the response time. This is not consistent with the conclusion that the response time for understanding the gist of a verse is slightly longer than the time used when the gist of a verse is not understood. But it is not difficult to understand in that the aesthetic appreciation judgment model proposed by Leder can be adopted to explain that. That is, when a subject reads the verse, he will first conduct classification based on aesthetic processing. If the subject does not understand the verses, he will not think about the meaning of the work. Only when he understands the poem will he continue the aesthetic processing. By so doing, the response time will be longer.
Table 2 shows the statistical results of the average response time for the rhymed and the
unrhymed ones when the gist of the verse can be understood. It can be seen from the table that the average response time for unrhymed verses is significantly longer than that for the rhymed ones, which are 1475.56ms and 858.14ms, respectively. An independent t-test on the two sets of data revealed significant differences between them.
This result indicates that the rhyming of the verse will affect the aesthetic fluency of the subject. For rhymed verses, cognitive fluency is better, so the average response time required is shorter.
Table 1.
Can you understand the statistical
results of the average response time under the
conditions of the verse?
Item Understanding Can't understand
N 2564 536
M 1137.74 988.59
SE 37.78 76.53
t 1.76
df p SD
844 0.06 85.25
Table 2.
Whether the statistical results of the
average reaction time of rhyming
Item Rhyme No rhyme
N 1382 1178
M 858.14 1475.56
SE 60.28 44.83
t -8.22
df p
SD
2455 0.000 75.22
Figure 4
.
Schematic diagram of the experimental flow of rhyme on the response of Chinese
ancient poetry recognition
Guidance
+ (1000ms)
Random empty screen (1000-1500ms)
Yan bo (600ms) Jiang shang
(600ms) Shi ren (600ms)
Chou (600ms)
。
(600ms)
Random empty screen (1000ms) (400ms)
(400ms)
(400ms)
(600ms)
Do you understand
JUN TANG 829
Figure 5
.
The experimental process of rhyming on the aesthetic appreciation of Chinese classical
tang poetry
Guidance
+ (1000ms)
Random empty screen (1000-1500ms)
Yan bo (600ms) Jiang shang
(600ms) Shi ren (600ms)
Chou (600ms)
。
(600ms)
Random empty screen (1000ms) (400ms)
(400ms)
(400ms)
(600ms)
Aesthetic preference judgment Press 1-5
Influence of rhyming on aesthetic preference for classical Chinese Tang poems
Experimental procedure
Figure 5 shows the procedure of the experiment on the influence of rhyming on aesthetic preference for classical Chinese Tang poems, which is similar to the procedure of experiment I. The difference lies in that after the presentation of the experimental materials, the subjects need to judge the aesthetic preferences for the verses by pressing the buttons 1-5, which stands for extremely not beautiful, not beautiful, beautiful, very beautiful and extremely beautiful.
Analysis of the experimental results
The results of Pearson correlation analysis under the conditions of aesthetic preference and poem recognition response are shown in Table 3, from where we can see there is a significant negative correlation between the two, indicating that the aesthetic preference of the subjects for poems is inversely proportional to their recognition response time. It is consistent with the previous studies on the cognitive fluency theory, that is, the better the cognitive fluency of poems, the higher their aesthetic preference evaluation.
Table 3
. Pearson correlation analysis under the
condition of poetry recognition reaction and
aesthetic preference
Item r p N Poetry aesthetic preference
evaluation score 1 .00 3200 Reaction time .11** .01 3200
The statistics of compliance or non-compliance with rhyming rules and the evaluation scores of poem aesthetic preference
are shown in Table 4, from where it can be seen that the evaluation score of aesthetic preference for rhymed poems is obviously higher than that of unrhymed ones, which is 4.12 and 2.34 respectively.
Table 4.
Whether it meets the rhyming rules
and poetry aesthetic preference scores
independent sample t test
Item Rhyme No rhyme
N 1660 1660
M 4.12 2.34
SE 0.03 0.03
t 46.77
df p
SD
3042 0.000 0.04
Table 5 shows the statistical results of the response time under the conditions of compliance or non-compliance with the rhyming rules. It can be seen from the table that the average response time for the rhymed poems is significantly longer than that for the rhymed poems, which is 1057.55ms and 845.58ms respectively, and the results of the independent t-test show that there are significant differences between them, indicating that poems meeting the rhyming rules has better cognitive fluency and shorter recognition time.
Table 5.
Whether it meets the statistical
results of the reaction under the rhyme rule
Item Rhyme No rhyme
N 1660 1660
M 845.58 1057.55
SE 35.48 25.89
t -4.39
df p
SD
2857 0.000 45.39
AESTHETIC PSYCHOLOGY OF THE ARTISTIC CONCEPTION OF CLASSICAL TANG POEMS: AN ANALYSIS BASED ON COGNITIVE FLUENCY 830
CONCLUSIONS
On the basis of previous studies on ancient Chinese poems, aesthetic appreciation and modern language rhythm, this study explores the aesthetic psychology of the artistic conception of classical Tang poems from the perspective of cognitive fluency, leading to the following conclusions.
(1) Through the adoption of E-prime2.0 psychological programming software, this study designs the experimental processes of the influences of rhyming on the recognition response to Chinese classical Tang poems and those on the aesthetic appreciation of Chinese classical Tang poems, and makes a detailed introduction to them.
(2) The experimental results of poetry classification and recognition paradigm show that rhyming or not have an influence on the subjects' aesthetic cognitive fluency. The cognitive fluency for rhymed verses is better, thus the corresponding average response time required is shorter.
(3) The experimental results of the aesthetic preference evaluation paradigm show that the aesthetic preference for poems is inversely proportional to the recognition response time. That is, the cognitive fluency for poems complying with rhyming rules is better, thus the average response time required is shorter and
the corresponding aesthetic preference
evaluation is higher.
Acknowledgment
This paper is supported by Jiangsu Provincial Fund for Social Sciences Projects (Grant No.: 2016ZWD002). It reports the preliminary results
of the program “Ecological Awareness and Chinese Aesthetic Spirit in Tang Poems” hosted
by Jun Tang.
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