What detailed research exists on the effects of aspect ratio on perception?
The most relevant keyword to add to your search is psychophysics, which is "the analysis of perceptual processes by studying the effect on a subject's experience...".

More directly, there's this SMPTE paper Searching for the Perfect Aspect Ratio. 
The paper visits some of the research conducted on different aspect ratios and its take-away is


  The research for this paper found no clear indication of a preference
  for any particular aspect ratio for moving images nor any
  physiological reason to favor one over another.