I was part of an interdisciplinary team of researchers aiming to understand the psychological reality of Michael Fried's theory of absorptive address in painting and specifically Manet's innovative 'double relation' between absorption and acknowledgement introduced in his seminal work. Using eye tracking technology we compared the fixation patterns and verbal utterances of expert and novice viewers. Findings indicate that sensitivity to complex spatial and temporal relationships underpinning absorption and acknowledgment in art seems to be linked to expertise, whilst novices are insensitive to such complexity.
The full paper can be accessed here.