중국 전통 건축 장식 문양의 긍정적 의미가 미적 선호에 미치는 연구

초록

Chinese traditional architectural decorative patterns embody rich cultural symbolism and aesthetic value. Their images often express expectations for auspiciousness, longevity, celebration, and prosperity through homophony, symbolism, analogy, and other forms of visual meaning construction. However, existing studies have mainly focused on the formal characteristics and symbolic interpretation of these patterns, while the ways in which their positive meanings influence aesthetic evaluation and the formation of aesthetic preference remain insufficiently examined. This study takes Chinese traditional architectural decorative patterns as its research object and uses neuroaesthetics as its theoretical foundation, integrating findings from cognitive neuroscience and psychology to examine the mechanism through which positive meanings influence aesthetic preference. The study combines theoretical analysis with experimental comparison. On the one hand, it reviews relevant theories concerning object recognition, semantic activation, top down cognitive modulation, and reward processing. On the other hand, it compares participants’ aesthetic ratings of decorative pattern images under two conditions, namely a “no explanation” condition and a “positive meaning explanation” condition, in order to investigate the effect of positive meaning explanations on aesthetic evaluation. The results show that the mean rating under the positive meaning explanation condition was higher than that under the no explanation condition, and the difference reached statistical significance. All eight pattern groups showed a consistent direction of rating change under the explanation condition, indicating that positive meaning explanations produced a relatively consistent positive tendency across different decorative patterns. The subjective feedback also showed that most participants believed that understanding the positive meanings behind the patterns enhanced their liking for traditional decorative pattern images. The findings indicate that the aesthetic experience of traditional architectural decorative patterns is not determined solely by their formal features. The positive meanings embedded in these patterns may also influence aesthetic evaluation and the formation of preference through processes such as semantic understanding, emotional association, and value attribution. From the perspectives of neuroaesthetics and cognitive processing, this study expands the analytical approach to traditional architectural decorative pattern research and provides a new research perspective for understanding the relationship between symbolic semantics and aesthetic psychology in decorative patterns. At the same time, the findings suggest that in modern visual communication, cultural heritage display, digital dissemination, and spatial experience design, the positive meanings of traditional patterns should not be regarded merely as supplementary cultural explanations. Instead, they can serve as important design resources for enhancing viewers’ understanding, emotional identification, and aesthetic acceptance.

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