Tracing the epistemic arc: Distinct physiological signatures for curiosity, insight, understanding and liking during interactions with visual art

Recent work on insight and information processing suggests that feelings of aha may serve as a metacognitive feedback signal. A series of processes, from curiosity (drive state) to insight (uncertainty reduction) to pleasure (reward and reinforcement), might represent a fundamental epistemic arc for motivated learning. Here, we present a paradigm that combines measurement of curiosity, insight ( aha ), understanding and liking to outline the contours of this epistemic arc and study their neuronal mechanisms. In two preregistered experiments we employ the “title effect” – the fact that additional semantic information accompanying an artwork (such as titles) can change how an observer understands and enjoys a piece of visual art. Participants viewed paintings (5s trials) and rated their curiosity for seeing the title. This was followed either by the original title or a dummy title lacking additional information (untitled), and a second presentation of the painting, after which participants rated strength of aha , aesthetic liking, and feeling of understanding the artwork.

In a behavioral online study (N=55 participants) we replicate a set of previous findings and establish that visual art together with their titles can prompt strong feelings of aha . The association between the collected ratings is complex, partly nonlinear, and shaped by the type and amount of information provided by the stimulus material. In an EEG, ECG and eye tracking study with the same paradigm (N=49 participants) we aimed to characterize the temporal sequence of processing. Our findings show a primacy of (felt) understanding among the (neuro)physiological correlates of meaning making. Robust decoding of curiosity both before and after the titles substantiates its relevance within the epistemic arc. Aha could be decoded from pupil size after seeing the title, but not from the EEG. Lastly, though more difficult, a fast initial EEG response related to aesthetic liking could be decoded. In this study we traced and characterized the epistemic process of meaning making and its role in aesthetic evaluation of visual art. Our multi-modal data approach can lead to a more mechanistic understanding, opening new angles to further investigate the topic in the future.