Neuroaesthetics là gì
NEUROAESTHETICS An emerging discipline called neuroaesthetics is seeking to bring scientific objectivity to the study of art, and has already given us a better understanding of many masterpieces. The blurred imagery of Impressionist paintings seems to stimulate the brain's amygdala, for instance. Since the amygdala plays a crucial role in our feelings, that finding might explain why many people find these pieces so moving. Could the same approach also shed light on abstract twentieth-century pieces, from Mondrian's geometrical blocks of colour, to Pollock's seemingly haphazard arrangements of splashed paint on canvas? Sceptics believe that people claim to like such works simply because they are famous. We certainly do have an inclination to follow the crowd. When asked to make simple perceptual decisions such as matching a shape to its rotated image, for example, people often choose a definitively wrong answer if they see others doing the same. It is easy to imagine that this mentality would have even more impact on a fuzzy concept like art appreciation, where there is no right or wrong answer. Angelina Hawley-Dolan, of Boston College, Massachusetts, responded to this debate by asking volunteers to view pairs of paintings - either the creations of famous abstract artists or the doodles of infants, chimps and elephants. They then had to judge which they preferred. A third of the paintings were given no captions, while many were labelled incorrectly -volunteers might think they were viewing a chimp's messy brushstrokes when they were actually seeing an acclaimed masterpiece. In each set of trials, volunteers generally preferred the work of renowned artists, even when they believed it was by an animal or a child. It seems that the viewer can sense the artist's vision in paintings, even if they can't explain why. Robert Pepperell, an artist based at Cardiff University, creates ambiguous works that are neither entirely abstract nor clearly representational. In one study, Pepperell and his collaborators asked volunteers to decide how 'powerful' they considered an artwork to be, and whether they saw anything familiar in the piece. The longer they took to answer these questions, the more highly they rated the piece under scrutiny, and the greater their neural activity. It would seem that the brain sees these images as puzzles, and the harder it is to decipher the meaning, the more rewarding is the moment of recognition. And what about artists such as Mondrian, whose paintings consist exclusively of horizontal and vertical lines encasing blocks of colour? Mondrian's works are deceptively simple, but eye-tracking studies confirm that they are meticulously composed, and that simply rotating a piece radically changes the way we view it. With the originals, volunteers'eyes tended to stay longer on certain places in the image, but with the altered versions, they would flit across a piece more rapidly. As a result, the volunteers considered the altered versions less pleasurable when they later rated the work. In a similar study, Oshin Vartanian of Toronto University asked volunteers to compare original paintings with ones which he had altered by moving objects around within the frame. He found that almost everyone preferred the original, whether it was a Van Gogh still life or an abstract by Miro. Vartanian also found that changing the composition of the paintings reduced activation in those brain areas linked with meaning and interpretation. In another experiment, Alex Forsythe of the University of Liverpool analysed the visual intricacy of different pieces of art, and her results suggest that many artists use a key level of detail to please the brain. Too little and the work is boring, but too much results in a kind of 'perceptual overload', according to Forsythe. What's more, appealing pieces both abstract and representational, show signs of 'fractals' - repeated motifs recurring in different scales, fractals are common throughout nature, for example in the shapes of mountain peaks or the branches of trees. It is possible that our visual system, which evolved in the great outdoors, finds it easier to process such patterns. It is also intriguing that the brain appears to process movement when we see a handwritten letter, as if we are replaying the writer's moment of creation. This has led some to wonder whether Pollock's works feel so dynamic because the brain reconstructs the energetic actions the artist used as he painted. This may be down to our brain's 'mirror neurons', which are known to mimic others' actions. The hypothesis will need to be thoroughly tested, however. It might even be the case that we could use neuroaesthetic studies to understand the longevity of some pieces of artwork. While the fashions of the time might shape what is currently popular, works that are best adapted to our visual system may be the most likely to linger once the trends of previous generations have been forgotten. It's still early days for the field of neuroaesthetics - and these studies are probably only a taste of what is to come. It would, however, be foolish to reduce art appreciation to a set of scientific laws. We shouldn't underestimate the importance of the style of a particular artist, their place in history and the artistic environment of their time. Abstract art offers both a challenge and the freedom to play with different interpretations. In some ways, it's not so different to science, where we are constantly looking for systems and decoding meaning so that we can view and appreciate the world in a new way. Questions 27-30 27. In the second paragraph, the writer refers to a shape- matching test in order to
illustrate 28. Angelina Hawley-Dolan’s findings indicate that people 29. Results of studies involving Robert Pepperell’s pieces suggest that people 30. What do the experiments described in the fifth paragraph
suggest about the paintings of Mondrian? Questions 31-33 Art and the Brain The discipline of neuroaesthetics aims to bring scientific objectivity to the study of art. Neurological studies of the brain, for example, demonstrate the impact which Impressionist paintings have on our 31 .................... Alex Forsythe of the University of Liverpool believes many artists give their works the precise degree of 32 .................... which most appeals to the viewer’s brain. She also observes that pleasing works
of art often contain certain repeated 33 .................... which occur frequently in the natural world.
YES if the statement agrees with the views of the writer 34.
Forsythe’s findings contradicted previous beliefs on the function of ‘fractals’ in art. Question 40 40. What would be the most appropriate subtitle for the article? 27.
...people often choose a definitively wrong answer if they see others
doing the same. It is easy to imagine that this mentality would have even more impact on a fuzzy concept like art appreciation, where there is no right or wrong answer. 28.
In each set of trials, volunteers generally preferred the work of
renowned artists, even when they believed it was by an animal or a child. It seems that the viewer can sense the artist’s vision in paintings, even if they can’t explain why. 29. It would seem
that the brain sees these images as puzzles, and the harder it is to decipher the meaning, the more rewarding is the moment of recognition. 30.
Mondrian’s works are deceptively simple, but eye-tracking studies
confirm that they are meticulously composed, and that simply rotating a piece radically changes the way we view it. 31.
Đọc vào câu đầu tiên của summary: "The discipline of neuroaesthetics aims to.....Impressionist paintings have on our ____" bạn sẽ thấy nó mang tính chất của câu giới thiệu khái quát chung chung nên khả năng cao là nó nằm ở đoạn đầu tiên của bài đọc. Bạn sẽ đọc thử đoạn đấy. Và thật sự là nó chính là đoạn đấy mà câu đầu tiên trong đề & câu đầu tiên trong bài đều có: "to bring scientific objectivity to the study of art". Chúng ta đọc tiếp đoạn này sẽ thấy: "...Impressionist paintings seems to stimulate the brain’s amygdala, for instance.
Since the amygdala plays a crucial role in our feelings, that finding might explain why many people find these pieces so moving/Những bức tranh thuộc trường phái Ấn tượng có vẻ sẽ kích thích hạch hạnh nhân (amygdala) trong não bộ. Bởi vì hạch hạnh nhân đóng một vai trò quan trọng đối với cảm xúc (feelings) của chúng ta, điều này có thể lý giải nguyên nhân tại sao rất nhiều người cảm thấy các bức tranh thât lay động." 32.
Đáp án là B-complexity do nó đồng nghĩa với từ 'detail' 33. Đến câu 33 thì bạn sẽ thấy từ 'repeated' được dùng cả trong bài lẫn trong đề và đi chung với nó chính là từ 'motifs", synomym với từ này là 'images'
Đáp án và lời giải chính xác là: 34. NG. Câu trong bài đọc có nghĩa là: "Có thể hệ thống thị giác của chúng ta đã phát triển trong môi trường tự nhiên nên sẽ tiếp nhận những hình ảnh này dễ dàng hơn." Cái này chẳng liên quan gì với câu trong đề vì không hề đề cập đến sự trái ngược. 35. Y. Câu trong bài và câu trong đề có ý giống nhau được paraphrase lại. further verification = thoroughly tested; mirror neurons thì cả đề thi lẫn bài đọc đều dùng; art appreciation = some to wonder whether Pollock’s works feel so dynamic; 36. N. Câu trong bài đọc: "...để hiểu được sự trường tồn của nhiều tác phẩm nghệ thuật. Trong khi thời trang chỉ định hình những gì hiện đang phổ biến ở thời đại của nó thì những tác phẩm nghệ thuật vừa mắt nhất đối với chúng ta rất có thể vẫn sẽ tồn tại mãi cho dù xu hướng thời trang của những thế hệ đi trước có bị lãng quên đi rồi hay chăng nữa". Trái ngược với câu trong đề và ta có thể correct lại cho đúng thành 'does not depend entirely on the current artistic trends of the period'. 37. N. Câu trong bài đọc: "Tuy vậy, sẽ thật ngu ngốc khi giới hạn sự đánh giá nghệ thuật bởi những quy luật khoa học". Trái ngược với câu trong đề và ta có thể correct lại cho đúng thành 'should not seek to define the precise rules...'. 38. Y. Câu trong bài và câu trong đề có ý giống nhau được paraphrase lại. the artistic environment of their time = cultural context; 39. NG. Câu trong bài đọc có nghĩa là: "Trong một số khía cạnh, nó cũng chẳng khác biệt mấy so với khoa học, lĩnh vực mà chúng ta đang liên tục tìm kiếm những hệ thống, những phương pháp giải mã để có thể quan sát và khám phá thế giới theo một cách hoàn toàn mới". Ý là nói nghiên cứu khoa học & nghệ thuật ở mức độ nào đó tương tự nhau. Còn việc nghiên cứu ý nghĩa của khoa học dễ hơn nghệ thuật thì không được nhắc tới.
Đáp án B sai do too specific. Bài đọc này không nói cụ thể về neural
activities. Xem thêm:
THE STORY OF SILK |