Evaluation index of novelty of curved surface shapes using KL divergence and its influence on aesthetic preference

Abstract

It is said that the relationship between “novelty” and “aesthetic liking” is expressed as an inverted U-shape. The latest studies about perception emphasize “novelty” as a factor of emotion and quantify “novelty” by assessing the difference in amount of information using Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence. The previous research quantified “novelty” of curved surface shapes using KL divergence and carried out the sensory evaluation using shapes of an automobile. This research incorporated the concept of location information into KL divergence. The result indicates the correspondence of KL divergence to perceived “novelty” (the determination coefficient is 0.53). However, an inverted U-shape relation was not observed between “aesthetic liking” and KL divergence. This seems to be caused by the mere exposure effect occurs about the shapes with low KL divergence. Furthermore, the small range of KL divergence seems to result in less tendency of the theory in aesthetics.