In this paper aesthetic experience is defined as an experience qualitatively
different from everyday experience and similar to other exceptional states of
mind. Three crucial characteristics of aesthetic experience are discussed:
fascination with an aesthetic object (high arousal and attention), appraisal of
the symbolic reality of an object (high cognitive engagement), and a strong
feeling of unity with the object of aesthetic fascination and aesthetic
appraisal. In a proposed model, two parallel levels of aesthetic information
processing are proposed. On the first level two sub-levels of narrative are
processed, story (theme) and symbolism (deeper meanings). The second level
includes two sub-levels, perceptual associations (implicit meanings of object's
physical features) and detection of compositional regularities. Two sub-levels
are defined as crucial for aesthetic experience, appraisal of symbolism and
compositional regularities. These sub-levels require some specific cognitive and
personality dispositions, such as expertise, creative thinking, and openness to
experience. Finally, feedback of emotional processing is included in our model:
appraisals of everyday emotions are specified as a matter of narrative content
(eg, empathy with characters), whereas the aesthetic emotion is defined as an
affective evaluation in the process of symbolism appraisal or the detection of
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