Effect of Dialogical Appreciation Based on Visual Thinking Strategies on Art-Viewing Strategies

• Published in: Psychology of aesthetics, creativity, and the arts creativity, and the arts, 2021-02, Vol.15 (1), p.51-59
• Main Authors: Ishiguro, Chiaki, Takagishi, Haruto, Sato, Yuki, Seow, Ai Wee, Takahashi, Ai, Abe, Yuko, Hayashi, Takayuki, Kakizaki, Hirotaka, Uno, Kei, Okada, Hiroyuki, Kato, Etsuko
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Art Education; Art history; Education; Experimental Recruitment; Eye Movements; Female; Human; Intervention; Male; Museums; School Based Intervention; Test Construction; Visual arts; Visual perception
• ISSN: 1931-3896; 1931-390X
• DOI: 10.1037/aca0000258

This study examines how educational interventions involving art viewing affect students' art-viewing behaviors and their evaluations of artworks. We focused on Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS), a typical intervention implemented in schools and museums, and examined its educational effect by comparing it to another common intervention: lectures on art history. To conduct this experiment, we recruited a sample of undergraduate students who were then assigned to a VTS condition or a lecture condition. The participants viewed 10 specific artworks both before and after receiving the educational intervention, and their eye movements and evaluations of each picture were measured and contrasted. The results showed that the participants who were assigned to the VTS condition increased the amount of time they spent viewing the artworks, whereas the lecture interventions had no observable effect on any measurement. The participants' favorability toward the artworks was not affected by either intervention. These findings reveal a new aspect of the effects of employing VTS in art education regarding art viewing.