THE ROLE OF GENRE AND COGNITION
IN CHILDREN’S ART APPRECIATION
Laura Schneebaum
Department of Applied Psychology
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
 Dr. Gigliana Melzi & Adina Schick
 The NYU Child Language
Research Team
 Steinhardt Dean’s Grant for
Student Research
 Applied Psychology
Departmental Research Grant
A RT A PPRECIATION
 Art has been an essential part of
everyday life for many centuries.
 Although works of art can be universally
appreciated, they depict and represent
the cultural reality of a specific time
period.
 Given the importance of art in
transmitting culture across generations,
one important area of focus has been on
the ways in which children come to
comprehend artistic pieces.
I MPORTANCE OF A RT A PPRECIATION
 Art appreciation requires that children
combine their understanding of the world,
their emotions, and their interpretations of
the work.
 As children come to appreciate works of art
they learn to construct meaning and
articulate their thoughts.
 Thus, engaging with and talking about art
provides children with a forum for
developing their literacy and communication
skills.
INFLUENCES OF ART APPRECIATION
 Subject matter
 Artistic
characteristics
Type of
Artwork
 Artistic
style
 Suburban versus
urban setting
 Previous
experience
 Environmental
School
environment
Factors
 Gender
Person-level
 Characteristics
Age / Grade
DEVELOPMENT OF ART APPRECIATION
Art Appreciation Progression
Sensorial Stage
Color, Representational Content
Concrete Stage
Realism, Subject Matter, Art Quality, Color
Expressive Stage
Style, Form, Emotional Impact
DEVELOPMENT OF ART APPRECIATION
Art Appreciation Progression
Piagetian Cognitive Development
Sensorial Stage
Preoperational Stage
Color, Representational Content
Thinking is representational, lacks logic
Concrete Stage
Concrete Operational Stage
Realism, Subject Matter, Art Quality, Color
Thinking is logical and organized
Expressive Stage
Formal Operational Stage
Style, Form, Emotional Impact
Thinking is abstract and systematic
DEVELOPMENT OF ART APPRECIATION
Art Appreciation Progression
Piagetian Cognitive Development
Sensorial Stage
Preoperational Stage
Color, Representational Content
Thinking is representational, lacks logic
Concrete Stage
Concrete Operational Stage
Realism, Subject Matter, Art Quality, Color
Thinking is logical and organized
Expressive Stage
Formal Operational Stage
Style, Form, Emotional Impact
Thinking is abstract and systematic
R ESEARCH O BJECTIVES
 The present study examined children’s expression of art
appreciation.
 Two main questions guided the present study:
1.How do children talk about works from different artistic genre?
2.To what extent are the descriptions children provide related to their
overall level of cognitive reasoning?
PARTICIPANTS
 40 children between the ages 8-13
(M = 130.83,SD = 22.89) were
recruited to participate in this study.
 Groups of children were evenly
divided by gender.
 All parents had at least a college
education (M = 17.7, SD = 1.29).
 All children resided in suburban
settings.
P ROCEDURE
 Parents completed a demographic questionnaire designed to
ascertain children’s previous experiences with art.
 Children completed the Fun and Challenging Puzzles II (Bakken,
1995), a paper-and-pencil cognitive reasoning measure.
 Children were shown 3 paintings and prompted to talk about them.
Landscape with Saint Jerome
Renaissance/Baroque
Representational
by Poussin
Landscape:The Parc Monceau
Semi-representational
Impressionism
by Monet
Landscape
Abstraction
Abstract
by Kandinsky
S AMPLE P ROMPTS








What do you see in this painting?
How would you feel if you were in the painting and why?
How do you feel when you look at it and why?
Why do you think the artist painted this particular scene in the way he did?
If you saw this in a museum, why would you think it was famous?
Would you put this in your room, why or why not?
What do you like most about it and why?
What do you like least about it and why?
T RANSCRIPTION & C ODING
 Children’s conversations about art were transcribed and verified using
a standardized system (MacWhinney, 2000).
 All utterances related to the artwork were coded for level of
appreciation and artistic themes.
Perceptual
• Attraction
• Representation & Realism
• Emotional Expression
Contextual
• Style & Form
• Interpretation
Analytical
k = .87
• Other
k = .90
R ESEARCH Q UESTION 1:
How do children talk about works from
different artistic genre?
A MOUNT OF TALK BY G ENRE
42
Number of References
41
F(2, 38) = 5.23, p = .01
41.5 (23.0)
40
39
38.95 (22.9)
38
37
*
36
35.9 (22.5)
35
34
33
Poussin
Monet
Kandinsky
L EVEL OF A PPRECIATION BY PAINTING T YPE
Perceptual
16
14
Analytical
F(2, 38) = 7.91, p < .01
*
12
Mean Percentage
Contextual
*
10
8
6
4
2
0
Poussin
Monet
Kandinsky
T HEMES B Y L EVEL : P ERCEPTUAL
Attraction
Representation and Realism
Other
Poussin
Monet
Kandinsky
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
T HEMES B Y L EVEL : C ONTEXTUAL
Attraction
Representation and Realism
Emotional Expression
Style and Form
Interpretation
Poussin
Monet
Kandinsky
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
T HEMES B Y L EVEL : A NALYTICAL
Emotional Expression
Style and Form
Interpretation
Other
Poussin
Monet
Kandinsky
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
R ESEARCH Q UESTION 2:
To what extent are the descriptions
children provide related to their overall
level of cognitive reasoning?
PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS
Perceptual
Contextual
Analytical
Gender
-.06
-.03
.10
Age
-.36*
.30†
.23
Grade
-.38*
.38*
.21
*p < .05, †p = .06
PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS
Perceptual
Contextual
Analytical
Museum
Visits
-.33*
-.02
.41**
Classroom
Exhibits
-.12
.03
.12
Appreciation
Classes
-.04
-.06
.09
Production
Classes
-.07
.03
.07
**p < .01, * p < .05
C OGNITIVE R EASONING AND A RT A PPRECIATION
 Cognitive reasoning was positively correlated with analytical talk
(r = .33, p < .05).
Predictors
R2
ΔR2
Model 1
.17*
.17
(β)
(SE)
(B)
10.30
3.74
0.41
Museum Visits
9.88
3.57
0.39
Cognitive Reasoning
1.62
0.73
0.31
Museum Visits
Model 2
.26*
.10
 Cognitive reasoning uniquely explained 10% of the variance in
analytical talk, controlling for museum visits.
C OGNITIVE R EASONING AND A RT A PPRECIATION
 Cognitive reasoning was negatively correlated with total amount of talk
about Poussin (r = -.34, p < .05), and was positively correlated with
amount of talk about Monet (r = .31, p = .05).
Museum
Visits
Classroom
Exhibits
Appreciation
Classes
Production
Classes
* p < .05
Poussin
Monet
Kandinsky
-.37*
-.16
-.19
.16
-.28
.12
-.07
-.00
.06
-.01
-.01
.02
C OGNITIVE R EASONING AND A RT A PPRECIATION
 Cognitive reasoning was negatively correlated with total amount of talk
about Poussin (r = -.34, p < .05), and was positively correlated with
amount of talk about Monet (r = .31, p = .05).
 Cognitive reasoning uniquely explained 13% of the variance in amount of
talk about Poussin above and beyond museum visits.
 Cognitive reasoning uniquely explained 10% of the variance in amount of
talk about Monet.
Predictors
R2
ΔR2
ModelPredictors
1
.14* R2
.14 (β)
.64
Museum
Visits Reasoning
Cognitive
(β)
(SE)
(SE)
(B)
(B)
3.56.32
1.46.31
0.37
Museum Visits
3.75
1.37
0.39
Cognitive Reasoning
-0.71
0.28
-0.36
Model 2
.10*
.26*
.13
D ISCUSSION
 Results both support and expand on past findings
that children’s talk about art varies based on the
genre of the painting.
Representational
 The more realistic the artwork, the more children
focus on what they see in the painting.
 Children seem to have the most difficulty talking
about abstract paintings.
 There seems to be a developmental progression in
children’s level of art appreciation.
Semi-Representational
 Age/grade influence perceptual and contextual talk;
cognitive reasoning influences level of analytical talk.
 Children’s level of cognitive reasoning further
influences the type of painting they appreciate.
Abstract
I MPLICATIONS & F UTURE D IRECTIONS
 Numerous factors, including type of artwork and cognitive
reasoning, appear to play a role in children’s art appreciation.
 Art appreciation fosters children’s ability to formulate opinions and
express their thoughts and feelings.
 Current findings should be used to inform the development of art
appreciation curricula.
 The current study was exploratory in nature;
future studies should further probe these
relations:
 Larger sample size
 More experiential measures
 Longitudinal design
“I certainly consider a great
appreciation of painting to be the best
indication of a most perfect mind…”