Scholarlink

<p>Human aesthetic preferences are dynamic and evolve over time. In the contemporary era of rapidly advancing media technologies, media multitasking has become increasingly prevalent, exerting profound influences on cognitive functioning. Since aesthetic experience arises from underlying cognitive processes, this study investigates how media multitasking affects individuals’ aesthetic processing. Participants classified as heavy (HMM), intermediate (IMM), and light media multitaskers (LMM) assessed the beauty of representational and abstract images. The three groups exhibited distinct neural dynamics during aesthetic processing. Specifically, HMM exhibited a larger P2 amplitude and a smaller N400 amplitude for abstract compared to representational images, indicating heightened sensory processing for abstract images and more semantic retrieval for representational images. Furthermore, HMM showed a larger LPP amplitude for abstract images during both early and middle stages. For IMM, this effect was limited to the early stage, while LMM showed no significant differences across stages. These findings indicate that media multitasking may enhance the aesthetic processing of complex or ambiguous stimuli by facilitating the extraction and evaluation of relevant information. This research contributes to the neurobiological understanding of aesthetics in the media multitasking age and underscores the importance of considering evolving cognitive styles in anticipating future artistic trends.</p>

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

Media multitasking and the aesthetic brain: neural sensitivity to abstraction in the digital age

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月27日

查看全文
  • Jie Zhang,
  • Yiran Deng,
  • Chenyu Guo,
  • Ziyi Cao,
  • Shiwei Liu,
  • Zhijie Zhang

摘要

Human aesthetic preferences are dynamic and evolve over time. In the contemporary era of rapidly advancing media technologies, media multitasking has become increasingly prevalent, exerting profound influences on cognitive functioning. Since aesthetic experience arises from underlying cognitive processes, this study investigates how media multitasking affects individuals’ aesthetic processing. Participants classified as heavy (HMM), intermediate (IMM), and light media multitaskers (LMM) assessed the beauty of representational and abstract images. The three groups exhibited distinct neural dynamics during aesthetic processing. Specifically, HMM exhibited a larger P2 amplitude and a smaller N400 amplitude for abstract compared to representational images, indicating heightened sensory processing for abstract images and more semantic retrieval for representational images. Furthermore, HMM showed a larger LPP amplitude for abstract images during both early and middle stages. For IMM, this effect was limited to the early stage, while LMM showed no significant differences across stages. These findings indicate that media multitasking may enhance the aesthetic processing of complex or ambiguous stimuli by facilitating the extraction and evaluation of relevant information. This research contributes to the neurobiological understanding of aesthetics in the media multitasking age and underscores the importance of considering evolving cognitive styles in anticipating future artistic trends.