Researchers at the University of Oregon recently reported that children, before their third birthday, already gave a preference akin to that of adults for visual fractal patterns typically seen in nature.
According to the Department of Psychology Doctoral student, Kelly Robles, this discovery occurred in children raised in a so-called "world of Euclidean geometry" like in homes that have rooms built with straight lines in a simple "nonrepeating manner."
Different from humans living outside on savannahs, Robles explained, modern-day people spend most of their early lives inside these human-made constructions.
Therefore, since kids are not greatly exposed to these natural, low-to-moderate complication fractal patterns, such a preference needs to come from something previous in progress, or probably, are innate.
The study which Robles led was published online in late November, in the Nature journal Humanities and Social Sciences Communication.
According to research, children, before their third birthday, already gave a preference akin to that of adults for visual fractal patterns typically seen in nature.
Study Participants Exposed to Fractal Patterns
In their research, the team explored the manner individual differences in processing styles may be accountable for patterns in fractal fluency.
Previous research proposed that such a preference is developed by both environmental and developmental factors throughout the lifespan.
Also, in their research, the team exposed participants comprising 82 adults aged 18 to 33 years old and 96 children aged three to 10 years old.
The said participants were exposed to images of fractal patterns, both exact and statistical, that range in difficulty on computer screens.
Exact fractals are very much ordered such that a similar basic pattern is repeating precisely at each scale and may have spatial symmetry like the one seen in snowflakes.
On the contrary, statistical fractals repeat in the same, although not exact fashion through scale, and do not have spatial symmetry, like the one seen in coastlines, mountains, trees, and clouds, among others. Both forms are present in the arts across different cultures.
Similarity in Trends
When observing patterns, explained Robles, the study participants chose favorites "between pairs of images that differed in complexity."
More so, when viewing exact fractal patterns, selections engaged different pairs of images similar to a snowflake or tree branch.
Meanwhile, for the statistical fractals, choices involved selecting between pairs of images similar to a cloud. Since people choose a balance of simplicity and complexity, Robles continued explaining, and they were looking to validate that people "preferred low-to-moderate complexity" in statistical repeating patterns and that the existence of order in exact repeating patterns enable a tolerance of and preference for more complex trends.
Even though the researchers showed differences in adults and children's preferences, the overall trend was said to be similar.
Exact patterns that have greater complexity were more preferred, while options for statistical trends rose at low to moderate difficulty and then decreases with added complexity.
In succeeding procedures, the research team was able to rule out the probability that age-related perceptual tactics or biases may have initiated different preferences.
Potential Benefits
According to Professor Richard Taylor, co-author of the study and head of the Department of Physics of UO, the aesthetic experience of observing the fractals of nature "holding huge potential benefits."
Such benefits range from reduction of stress to refreshing of mental fatigue. Taylor added, nature offers such benefits for free, "but we increasingly find ourselves surrounded by urban landscapes devoid of fractals."
This research presents that integrating fractals into urban environments can start offering benefits from a very young age.
In his own research, Taylor is employing designs inspired by fractals in an initiative to create implants for the eyes for the treatment of macular degeneration.
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