Keywords

• In an attempt to explain the perception of expressive &ndash
• or physiognomic &ndash
• qualities
• the Gestalt tradition attributed utmost importance to configuration and to the principle of structural isomorphism (Arnheim
• 1949)
• while it underestimated the role of personality traits and affective states. Our experimental study has instead focused on the latter components by applying the "drawn recall" technique to experiences of stress and comfort
• in order to trigger specific emotions and needs that are assessed via Self-Appraisal Scales. The participants are young adults of both genders who are examined individually
• applying the appropriate methodological precautions such as providing for a control group
• double-blind conditions
• test sequence rotation ecc. Twenty boards were used in order to evaluate expressive sensibility
• and they were selected from the black and white configurations with the most widely shared meanings
• from the set Linear Shapes and Coloured Bands (Bonaiuto
• 1978). Before each treatment and then at its zenith
• each participant was presented with ten Linear Shapes
• each with five written meanings
• only one of which being the appropriate one
• statistically shared by normal observers. After stress
• the ability to grasp appropriate meanings is significantly reduced
• while a comfort situation improves this type of perceptual performance. The effect is more marked for the "positive" type qualities ("goodness"
• "protection"
• "comicality")
• rather than with the "negative" type ones ("pain"
• "hate"
• "malignity" and the like). The result may be explained as a manifestation of relative closure and psychological defence against emotional meanings in general
• after conflict overload and unpleasant experiences. Moreover
• the analysis of mistaken attributions of meanings reveals that their number is greater after stress treatment
• and that these mistaken attributions contain
• above all
• negative meanings after stress and positive ones after comfort
• thus showing the intervention of the "projection" mechanism ("egomorphic perception"). The study offers much food for thought
• given the role of expressiveness and meanings
• particularly in interpersonal relations
• as well as in understanding works of art and in the dynamics of aesthetic experience