Train an animal to prefer a wide rectangle, and it ends up liking an even wider one best

In classic discrimination experiments, an animal rewarded for picking a wide rectangle over a narrower one doesn't peak at the trained shape — it responds most strongly to one pushed even further away from the unrewarded option. Some researchers think this 'peak shift' is part of why exaggerated caricatures can look more recognisable than the real face.

— V. S. Ramachandran & William Hirstein, The Science of Art: A Neurological Theory of Aesthetic Experience — Journal of Consciousness Studies, 1999

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