Page 36 - Studio International - October 1972

researchers have found a correspondence Also, in a related study on artists and
between psycho-physiological indices, especially non-artists in an English sample, artists were
electrical skin conductance and exposure to shown to have marked preference for single
colours, showing that colours induce emotional polygons compared to non-artists, who
states specific to hue and maybe to saturation as preferred complex ones. The results, however,
well. Glenn Wilson, for example, has shown that could be interpreted in a number of ways.
red is a more 'arousing' colour than green, Unfortunately, in any investigation of
subjective reports he obtained being consistent differences between artists and controls like this,
with the electro-dermal evidence collected. it is difficult to know in analysing the artists'
Moreover, two Kansas psychologists responses whether their judgements are: (1) due
demonstrated recently that violet is more to the consequences of art training; or (2) merely
`arousing' than green. a function of the process of selection for art
One application of the above findings may be school training, i.e. is the person who makes
cited. In the medical setting, colour of certain kinds of aesthetic judgements likely to
environment, for example walls in doctors' and opt for an art course ? Also, do these people have
dental surgeries and hospital wards, ought to be a greater chance of being selected, and are they
chosen carefully so as to keep the arousal level more likely to do well ? Again, only further
of the patients at a minimum. research will be able to throw light on the casual
relations involved.
Design judgement
Several people in the past have sought to Personality and Individual Differences
determine the pleasure derived from various Given that there are marked individual
kinds of aesthetic objects by a consideration of differences in preferences between persons for
their numerical or geometrical attributes. These designs and colour, it is necessary to look a little
attempts to find a formula for beauty have been more closely at what kind of person prefers what
traced back to Pythagoras who was interested in kind of aesthetic object and why. Hans Eysenck
establishing a connection between music and and Maureen Castle gathered information on
number; but it is only in the past few decades the personality of the respondents in their
that controlled trials have been conducted by aesthetic judgement study and found that the
such people as Emch, Rashevsky and Birkhoff. artists in their sample were more neurotic than
In 1947 the Maitland Graves Design the controls, but did not differ from them on
Judgement Test was published in the States extraversion; this was true for both men and
which purported to differentiate between women. (Subjects were administered a
artists and non-artists on the bases of test personality inventory to obtain this information.)
scores. The foundation of the test, devised in As for preference for the polygons, artists
1941 by Graves, a psychologist, rested on preferred simple ones, and non-artists those
certain theories of artistic creation and that were complex. Individual differences are
appreciation. It consists of ninety pairs of triads certainly demonstrated in this experiment but it
of designs one of which has to be chosen by the obviously needed to investigate this in more is difficult to know how to interpret the findings
subject as aesthetically superior to the other, detail; but the latter finding is encouraging. in terms of personality theory.
decisions as to 'correctness' of choice being In a similar study, to test the predictive Interestingly, there appear to be effects of
determined by agreement with the author's powers of the Maitland Graves Design neurosurgery on design preference. In a
theories and the agreement of art teachers on the Judgement Test to distinguish between relatively small study on a group of patients
superiority of the design in question. successful art students and non-artists, Eysenck undergoing temporal lobectomies for epilepsy,
Graves claimed that his test measured 'certain used a mixed group of staff and students at the H. Lansdell showed that there was a significant
components of aptitude for the appreciation or Royal College of Art and a control group of difference in scores toward preference for
production of art structure', which it individuals pursuing degrees in the pure simple, symmetrical designs after surgery than
accomplishes 'by evaluating the degree to which sciences. Interestingly, the average score of the before it, in men with non-dominant
a subject perceives and responds to the basic artist group was found to be less than that of the hemisphere operations and women with
principles of aesthetic order'. Obviously, non-artists ! It is difficult to explain why dominant hemisphere operations. Commenting
Graves's claim to be able to distinguish clearly performance of the test was so much less on the effects of the operations and the sex
between artists and non-artists on the basis of a satisfactory in these two studies than it was for differences in post-operative test scores,
test score would have important implications the original samples chosen by Graves. Eysenck Lansdell suggests that 'some physiological
for a theory of aesthetics and selection suggests this may be due to changes in the mechanisms underlying artistic judgement and
procedures for art school candidates — if it could general climate of art education which now verbal ability may overlap in the female brain
be upheld. tends to stress simplicity and regularity more but are in opposite hemispheres in the male'.
A recent attempt to replicate Graves's study than in the forties. The Extraversion-Introversion personality
by Eysenck and his associates, using an English In a related design preference study for dimension is much more likely to be related to
sample, showed that the test: (a) is not polygons, Japanese students were compared to aesthetic stimulus choice than that of
homogeneous, but breaks up into three subsets, an English sample, none in either group having Neuroticism-Stability. Indeed, the former
labelled symmetric, three-dimensional and had any formal training in the visual arts. continuum has been shown to be the crucial one
complex; (b) fails to discriminate satisfactorily Correlations between mean ratings were found in determining the amount of environmental
between artists and controls; and (c) shows to be extremely high, suggesting minimal (and internal) stimulation an individual can
interactions with sex not considered in the influences of cultural factors determining take, how much he needs, and what the optimal
manual. Nevertheless, use of one of the subsets — aesthetic judgements for designs. The data levels of arousal are for different persons.
the symmetry one—did succeed in discriminating provides support for a general factor in visual Research findings show unequivocally that
between artists and controls. Further research is aesthetic judgement. extroverts can take more intense stimulation
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