ABSTRACT
R. Bornstein reviewed the literature on complexity and preference in laboratory experiments on mere exposure. One account for the preference results might be that viewers, when faced with making preference judgments, were comparing images on the basis of what they thought were the most representative Impressionist paintings. A systematic culling of images from the Orsay, which arguably owns one sixth of all Impressionist paintings publicly available, would form the bulk of the core of the canon. Daniel Berlyne found mere exposure effects for abstract paintings, but then research and discussion was dragged in a different direction. Berlyne also found an interaction that complex paintings were preferred over simpler ones, which fit better with his theoretical views.
