Jay Friedenberg

Professor, Psychology

My academic interests broadly speaking are in the areas of visual perception, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence. I have written several books in these areas.

Education

  • PHD, University of Virginia
  • MA, University of Virginia
  • BA, Boston University

Courses Taught

PSYC 203      General Psychology
PSYC 332      Artificial Psychology
PSYC 333      Motivation and Emotion
PSYC 340      Cognition and Learning
PSYC 367      Sensation and Perception
PSYC 435      Neuroscience

  • Research

    My main research focus is in the area of empirical aesthetics. Our lab is actively investigating the properties that affect the judged beauty of simple shapes such as polygons and texture patterns. We have found that factors like complexity, orientation, and symmetry influence perceived beauty. 

  • Publications and Scholarly Activities

    Selected Books:

    • Friedenberg, J. (2020). The Future of the Self: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Personhood and Identity in the Digital Age. University of California Press. Oakland, CA.

    • Friedenberg, J. (2016). Humanity’s future: How technology will change us. Humanity+ Press.
    • Friedenberg, J. & Silverman, G. (2016). Cognitive science. An introduction to the study of mind. 3rd Ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
    • Friedenberg, J. (2013). Visual attention and consciousness. New York: Psychology Press.
    • Friedenberg, J. (2009)  Dynamical psychology.  Complexity, self-organization and mind.  Emergent Publishing.
    • Friedenberg, J. (2008). Artificial psychology:  The quest for what it means to be human. New York: Psychology Press.

    Selected Journal Articles:

    • Friedenberg, J., Lauria, G., Hennig, K., & Gardner, I. (2023). Beauty and the sharp fangs of the beast: Degree of angularity predicts perceived preference and threat. Psychological Research.
    • Friedenberg, J., Martin, P, Uy, N, & Kvapil, M. (2022). The aesthetics of frieze patterns: Effects of symmetry, motif, and element size. i-Perception, 13(5), 1–17. 
    • Friedenberg, J., Martin, P., Khurram, A., & Kvapil, M. (2021). How to lay bricks: Local-global alignment predicts preference for shifted tile patterns. Perception. 50(12), 983-1001. 
    • Friedenberg, J., Martin, P., Uy, Naomi, & Kvapil, M. (2021). Judged beauty of fractal symmetries. Empirical Studies of the Arts. 40(1), 1-21.
    • Friedenberg, J. (2020). What makes textures beautiful? Effects of shared orientation. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. 
    • Friedenberg, J. (2019). The perceived beauty of regular polygon tessellations. Symmetry, 11(8), 984. Special issue on Empirical Aesthetics.
    • Friedenberg, J. (2019). Beauty in the eye of the beholder: Individual differences in preference for randomized visual patterns. Experimental Psychology, 66(3), 1-14.
    • Friedenberg, J. (2018). Geometric regularity, symmetry and the perceived beauty of simple shapes. Empirical Studies of the Arts, 36(1), 71-89.
    • Friedenberg, J. (2017). Perceived beauty of elongated symmetric shapes: Is more better? Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts.
    • Friedenberg, J. & Liby, B. (2016). Perceived beauty of random texture patterns: A preference for complexity. Acta Psychologica, 168, 41-49.
    • Friedenberg, J. & Bertamini, M. (2015). Aesthetic preference for polygon shape. Empirical Studies of the Arts, 33(2), 144-160.
    • Friedenberg, J. Keating, T. & Liby, B. (2012). Judging the center of human figures: Evidence for dynamic perception. International Journal of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, 1(4), 30-38.
    • Friedenberg, J. (2012). Aesthetic judgment of triangular shape: Compactness and not the golden ratio determines perceived attractiveness. i-Perception, 3, 163-176.

     Selected Conference Presentations:

    • Friedenberg, J., Mourani, R., Cameron, I., Pace, M., Coyle, J. & Venkatasami, B. (2023). Symmetric complexity and the perceived beauty of wallpaper patterns. Poster presented at the 94th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association. Boston, MA. March 2-4, 2023.
    •  Friedenberg, J. What makes textures beautiful? The role of common orientation. Talk presented at the 2022 Conference of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics. Philadelphia, PA. August 31-September 2, 2022.
    •  Friedenberg, J. & Uy, N. Aesthetic properties of regular polygon tessellations. Poster presented at the 2022 Conference of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics. Philadelphia, PA. August 31-September 2, 2022.
    • Friedenberg, J., Martin, P., Khurram, A., & Kvapil, M. (2022). How to lay bricks: Local-global alignment predicts preference for shifted tile patterns. Poster presented at the 2022 Conference of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics. Philadelphia, PA. August 31-September 2, 2022.
    •  Friedenberg, J., Gardner, I., Hennig, K. & Lauria, G. (2022). Perceived Beauty of Frieze Patterns: A Preference for Horizontal Symmetry. Paper presented at the 93rd Annual Meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association. New York, NY. March 3-5, 2022.
    •  Aesthetics, Art, Creativity and Technology. Interviewed by Roxana Girju, Professor of Linguistics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign for the Creative Language Technologies Podcast.
    • Friedenberg, J. The Future of the Digital Self. Royal College of Art Conference on the Metahuman and Identity. London (Virtual). January 14, 2022.
    • Friedenberg, J., Kvapil, M., Martin, P., and Uy, N. (2021). Preference for Fractal Symmetries: Seeing the Forest and the Trees. Paper presented at the XXVI Conference of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics. London, UK. September 1-3, 2021.
    •  Friedenberg, J., Martin, P., Uy, N. and Kvapil, M. (2021). The Perceived Beauty of Frieze Patterns: Effects of Emergent Features and Pattern Complexity. Poster presented at the XXVI Conference of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics. London, UK. September 1-3, 2021.
    • Martin, P., Uy, N., Kvapil, M., & Friedenberg, J. (2020).
    • The Aesthetics of Frieze Patterns: A Preference for Emergent Features. Paper presented at the 91st Annual Meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association. Boston, MA. March 12-14, 2020.
    • Pugliese, E., Urban-Klein, C., Correa, D. (2019). Perceived beauty of texture patterns: Beauty does not follow the oblique effect. Paper presented at the Eastern Colleges Science Conference. Riverdale, NY. April 6, 2019. Student-authored poster.
    • Friedenberg, J. (2018). The future of human nature. Paper presented at TransVision 2018. Madrid, Spain. October 19 - 21, 2018.
    • Friedenberg, J., Esposito, J. & Christian, C. (2018). Beauty in the Eye of the Beholder: Individual Differences in the Perception of Randomized Pattern. Hunter College Psychology Convention. New York City, New York. April 29, 2018.
    • Friedenberg, J. Armen, C. & Spiridigliozzi, G. (2018). Individual Differences in the Perception of Randomized Line Patterns. Hunter College Psychology Convention. New York City, New York. April 29, 2018.
    • Friedenberg, J. (2016). Elongation and Perceived Beauty of Simple Shape. Paper presented at the XXIV Conference of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics. Vienna, Austria. August 29 - September 1, 2016.
    • Friedenberg, J., Inzinna, G. & te Riele, M. Perceived beauty of elongated shape: Is there a limit to contour complexity?Paper presented at the 87thAnnual Meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association. New York City, New York. March 3-5, 2016.
    • Friedenberg, J., Bailey, A., Didomizio, K., Mulgrew, C., & Huvane, K. Perceived beauty of elongated shapes. Paper presented at the 86thannual meeting of The Eastern Psychological Association. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. March 4-7, 2015.
    • Friedenberg, J., Tomczyk, J. & D’Aversa, G. Contour variation and perceived beauty of polygon shape. Paper presented at the Twenty-third Biennial Congress of the International Association of Empirical Aesthetics. New York City, New York. August 22-24, 2014.
  • Professional Experience and Memberships

    Societies

    • President of the Haiku Society of America, 2020-2022.
    • The International Association of Empirical Aesthetics, 2011 - present.
    • New York Academy of Sciences, 2002 - 2004.
    • American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2000 - 2004.
    • Sigma Xi, The National Scientific Research Society. 1999 - present.
    • The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology, 1996 - present.
    • The Psychonomic Society. Associate Member, 1996 - present.
    • The Eastern Psychological Association, 1995 - present.
    • Phi Beta Kappa National Honor Society, 1988 - present.
    • Psi Chi, The National Honor Society in Psychology, 1987 - present.
    • Vision Sciences Society, 1999 – present.
  • Other

    Interests:

    • Landscape art
    • Graphic design
    • Haiku
    • Aphorisms