The European Association of Psychological Assessment (EAPA) invited Ulf-Dietrich Reips to present a keynote speech to the audience at the 2013 European Conference on Psychological Assessment that will be held in San Sebastian in July 2013. The invitation follows up on a successful symposium talk on Internet-based research methodologies in Riga in 2011.

Dr. Aaron Meskin (University of Leeds, UK) & Dr. Shen-yi Liao (Kansas State University, USA) will hold a talk on “A Web-Based Investigation of Aesthetic Adjectives”.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012, 12.00 – 13.30
Sala de Videoconferencia (E211), ESIDE, Deusto University

Abstract: The nature of ordinary and expert aesthetic discourse is of central concern to philosophical aesthetics. In a series of studies, we investigate one crucial component of aesthetic discourse: the use of aesthetic adjectives, such as ‘beautiful’. The vast majority of aesthetic terms (e.g., ‘beautiful’, ‘ugly’, ‘pretty’, ‘dainty’) are gradable adjectives. That is, they admit of comparative constructions and degree modifiers such as ‘very’ and ‘extremely’. Linguist Chris Kennedy has argued that there are two distinct categories of gradable adjectives: relative gradable adjectives such as ‘tall’, ‘long’ and ‘fat’ which are context sensitive and absolute gradable adjectives such as ‘straight’, ‘bent’ and ‘full’ which “are demonstrably gradable but do not have context dependent interpretations”. Semantic data (i.e., patterns of entailment) suggest that many positive aesthetic adjectives such as ‘beautiful’ are relative gradable adjectives and, hence, context-sensitive. Our experimental results complicate this picture. Building on a paradigm developed by linguist Kristen Syrett, we tested the linguistic properties of aesthetic adjectives. We began by replicating Syrett’s experimental methods in an online setting. We then found that ‘beautiful’ functions neither like paradigmatic relative gradable adjectives nor paradigmatic absolute gradable adjectives. What explains this phenomenon? We explore various hypotheses by examining the behaviour of a range of aesthetic terms (e.g., ‘ugly’ as well as ‘beautiful’) and by using a wide range of stimuli from different domains, such as faces, artifacts, and natural objects.

“How exciting that iScience has been created! In the future, a huge amount of social science research will be done via the Internet, so researchers need guidance on best practices and resources to help them do their work. iScience is staffed by an outstanding group of scholars who will no doubt make a big positive difference around the globe.”
Jon Krosnick, PhD, the Frederic O. Glover Professor in Humanities and Social Sciences and professor of communication, political science, and psychology at Stanford University

In a new collaboration between iScience and partners from several countries we will research intercultural competencies. Part of this project is trait d’union (Journal Scolaire Multimédia International). The project is coordinated by the German School in Bilbao, Universidad de Deusto is an official partner.