The Factor of Visual Symmetry Perception in Aesthetic Experience

Abstract

The article deals with the formation of aesthetic experience in connection with the perception of physical symmetry of objects and their images. An overview of modern works on the psychology of aesthetic perception in the context of the problem of the perception of symmetry is presented. The phenomenon of symmetry preference in visual perception is illustrated by arguments in its favor and data on its situationality. The ecological context of symmetry in animals and plants is touched in connection with the phenomenon of fluctuating asymmetry as an undirected deviation in the symmetry of a two-sided structure normally distributed in the population. Mathematical models of symmetry of forms and their multiscale representation are discussed. The analysis of the study of the Zen stone garden perceptual peculiarities from the position of the medial axes’ model is carried out.On the basis of the provisions of the transcendental psychology of perception, a hypothesis is advanced about the meta-sensory origin of the aesthetic sense, based on the process of interrelation of the internal symmetrical mechanisms of visual perception and the cognitive processes of creating figurative representations. The relation to the principle of symmetry in the context of the transcendental psychology of perception is shown.