The Enhancement of Cognitive Flexibility
through Aesthetic Experience
Elizabeth S.
1,2
Che
& Irina A.
1
Sekerina
Department of Psychology at the College of Staten Island, CUNY1 ; Macaulay Honors College, CUNY2
Introduction:
5
2
Predictions:
6
7
11
2
4
8
1
9
3
6
5
4
8
7
6
4
3
5
7
2
1
3
4
6
5
8
1
5
2
2
2
11
8
6
9
7
4
4
1
11 6
2
3
8
7
10
9
6
3
1
1
Eye-tracking system ISCAN ETL-500
8
Regular
12
7
4
3
9
3
5
6
12
6
10
9
11
2
5
8
6
4
1
10
4
9
5
7
6
3
10
7 4
11
1
9
6
2
8
8
5
3
6
7
3
2
4
Results:
1. Correlations between eye movements and scores for curiosity and cognitive flexibility;
2. Analysis of variance for the differences in number of eye movements as a function of
Paintings and Group (regular vs. surreal);
3. Independent-samples t-tests for pretest/posttest scores on Guilford’s Unusual Uses test.
8
6
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Painting
I. Background Information Questionnaire
6-item questionnaire: Collected demographic information (gender, age, majors, minors,
year of standing, GPA.
25-item inventory
• 15-items from the Perceptual Curiosity scale (PC; Collins et al., 2004)
• 5-items for each category: diverse, specific, general
(e.g., Specific: When I hear strange sounds, I like to find out what caused it.)
• 10-items from the Curiosity and Exploration Inventory II (CEI II; Kashdan et al., 2009).
• 5-items for each category: embracing, stretching
(e.g., Stretching: I frequently seek out opportunities to challenge myself and
grow as a person.)
Task Answer using a 5-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree).
Measures Scales were analyzed separately. 25 total points per curiosity scale category.
Based on Guilford’s 1956 Brick and Unusual Uses tests.
Task In 2 minutes, name all of the uses for a coat hanger (pretest) and a scissor (posttest).
Measures Scores calculated using Guilford’s Brick and Unusual Uses test coding scheme.
Quadrants over matched
regular and surreal painting #5.
8
Three statistical analyses were conducted:
10
Participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups: Regular (N = 9), and
Surreal (N = 9) and completed each of the following tasks:
•
•
10
1
2
Some surreal paintings (#2, 4, 8, 14) had more fixations (M = 11) than the regular paintings (M =9).
Surreal
IV. Eye-movements
Surreal Painting #12
5
10
2
III. Object Manipulation Task
What color is the
creature on the floor?
7
6
Regular Painting #12
How many clocks are there?
8
7
5
1
1
5
II. Perceptual Exploration Inventory
How many people are there?
9
8
2
Method: Participants, Design, Procedure:
•
5
2
14
3
9
12
Same number of fixations were observed for regular and
surreal painting #7 (M = 11, SD = 0).
6
2
2
3
5
9
1
7 11
8
4
6
3
4
11
Some regular paintings ( #1, 6, 9, 13, 16) had more fixations (M=10) than the surreal paintings (M=8).
14
4
7
3
7
1
What kind of landscape is this?
10
8
1
9
8
4
4
3
5 11 1 8
6
10
3
8
9
10
2
7
4
5
18 students (14 females and 4 males) from the College of Staten Island were
recruited through the CSI Department of Psychology research participation system
(http://csi-cuny.sona-systems.com).
• Age: 24 (±7)
• College year: 2 (±1)
• Majors: 15 Bachelors of Science, and 3 Bachelors of Art - none of them had a
concentration in Art (Studio or Art History).
• GPA: 3.0 (±0.282)
10
5
7
13 3
2
7
10
Participants:
3
2
4
1
9
5
1. Surreal paintings may engage individuals in a more flexible and creative
thinking process in contrast to regular paintings;
2. Greater engagement will be reflected in more movements on different
regions for the surreal paintings compared to regular paintings;
3. Curiosity may be an possible indicator of cognitive flexibility: the higher the
curiosity score, the more engagement with the paintings will be found.
10
4
5
9
1
7
8
1
6
Number of Fixations
Problem solving occurs throughout daily situations where people make
logical decisions to complete a task. However, some solutions require creativity
where there is more than one answer and it is not limited by correctness.
Creativity is often a result of cognitive (knowledge-based) flexibility. Ritter et al.
(2012) showed that cognitive flexibility is enhanced through active
participation in events that violate the laws of physics but passive viewing of
such events is not effective. We hypothesize that aesthetic viewing could lead
to enhanced cognitive flexibility if these events are depicted in unusual art.
6
16 paintings (regular or surreal) were presented as PowerPoint slides, viewed for 15 sec
Each was followed by 2 oral questions regarding the subject of the painting (e.g., amount of
items seen, type of item, color of item…), with 10 sec to answer each question
Measures
• Participants’ eye movements as they inspected each painting for 15 sec were recorded with
the ESCAN ETL-500 remote eye-tracker with 33-ms resolution
• Recorded and calculated the number of fixations within each of the 4 quadrants of a 2x2 grid
for each painting and each participant and averaged.
Correlations:
•
•
Cognitive flexibility score and curiosity score were not correlated;
A positive correlation was found between the mean number of eye movements
and general (PC) curiosity score, r (18) = 0.566, p = 0.014: Participants who scored
higher on the PC scale looked more.
Analysis of variance:
•
•
There is a main effect for Paintings (F(15,240) = 4.535, p < 0.001) indicating that the different
paintings elicited different number of eye movements;
There is an interaction between Paintings and Group (F(15,240) = 3.248, p < 0.001) indicating
that different paintings elicited different number of eye movements in both groups.
Independent-samples t-test:
•
•
•
Scores for the Guilford’s Unusual Uses did not
differ between each other for either the pretest or
posttest;
Scores for the Guilford’s Unusual Uses increased
from the pretest to the posttest in both groups,
t(16) = 8.398, p < 0.01, indicating the effect of
practice (performing the task twice);
There was a significant difference in the cognitive
flexibility scores for the Unusual Uses posttest
(F(16) = 7.984, p < 0.05), but no difference in
cognitive flexibility between Regular and Surreal
groups (M =2.667, SD = 1.410, n.s.)
18
15
Number of Items
1
12
9
6
3
0
01 Regular
02 Regular 01 Surreal
Unusual Test Groups
02 Surreal
Discussion:
Although the difference in cognitive flexibility scores were not significant between pre and
posttest, there is a directional effect indicating that participants who viewed surreal paintings had
higher cognitive flexibility scores than participants who looked at regular paintings.
A future study will be conducted to
• isolate the effects of the paintings (i.e., complexity)
• examine possible effects of the response accuracy for descriptive questions (from eyemovements task) on cognitive flexibility.
• Increase the grid size. Close-distanced details may not be noted for fixation in a 2x2 grid.
• Vary the pre and posttest: e.g., pretest: list all items that produce sound , posttest: name all of
the uses for a stapler.