Whereas we acknowledge that drawing as process and product within the visual arts is complex and wide ranging, this study concentrates on testing the effectiveness of different pedagogical strategies for enhancing accuracy as a learning objective in drawing from observation. Based on our collective experience teaching observational drawing, we…

The premise of the article is that the history of Western art as taught in most art curricula is fundamentally biased and patriarchal. It was primarily feminist scholars who demonstrated how modernist art paradigms are constructed by gender differences and thus reflect and reinforce gender power relations. My claim is that changing the power…

Background: Visual perception and observational skills are an essential part of Visual Arts education, through which young learners, in the primary school, acquire important and necessary skills to create artworks during their creative projects. These skills provide learners in the primary school the opportunity to overcome their self-imposed…

In the early 1800s, the U.S. President Thomas Jefferson assembled a team of explorers led by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to forge a waterway connecting the Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean. How has this environment changed in 200 years and how do elementary students make sense of those changes? This study looks at the impact of…

This investigation examined whether infants display "boundary extension"--a tendency to remember more of a visual scene than was presented. Three- to 7-month-olds were familiarized with a photograph of a visual scene, and tested with wide-angle versus close-up views of the scene. Infants preferred the close-up, indicating that they perceived the…

Ninety university undergraduate students were tested on a number of tasks assessing their recognition of possible and impossible figures, mental rotation, ideational fluency, and self-report artistic and creative characteristics. Scores on the Impossible Figures Task (IFT-14) and the Mental Rotation Test, and self-ratings on the Artistic…

Investigates the effect of orientation of depth cues on the magnitude of perceived depth in pictures. Finds that, for each test drawing, the orientation with the far point above the near point provided greater depth perception than any other orientation. Discusses possible contributions of observer experience and height of visual field. (DSK)

Describes the three part system of human vision. Explores the anatomical arrangement of the vision system from the eyes to the brain. Traces the path of various visual signals to their interpretations by the brain. Discusses human visual perception and its implications in art and design. (CW)

Accurately denoting colors and measuring their meanings have been long-standing challenges for scholars and artists alike. This study addressed this problem by suggesting that the use of a model of cyan, magenta, and yellow primary colors--which is common in industry but is generally neglected by scholars and fine artists--could greatly benefit…

This study reviewed possibilities for looking at aesthetic perception in art using the D. E. Berlyne approach, identifying alternative methods, and reporting the results of a factor analytic study of preferences of young college adults for abstract art. The Berlyne approach used stimulus objects of simple to complex abstract components of the more…

This is the fifth in a series of technical research reports by Harvard Project Zero which study artistic creation and comprehension as a means toward better art education. The three papers in this report all concern the bearing of projective geometry on the perceptual processes by which pictures are "read" for spatial information. The…

The study of metaphor involves numerous fields in recent history from cognitive neuroscience to linguistics. Visual metaphor research occupies an underrepresented area of inquiry. With the development of the cognitive sciences, a cognitive view of metaphoric thinking is emerging. This calls for a reconsideration of visual metaphor in the…

This volume contains 53 articles grouped under five headings: (1) Research (14 papers on such topics as cognitive style and cognitive strategies, visual literacy training, and the impact of diagrams, type styles, and computer graphics on learning); (2) Theory (nine papers on such topics as the development of visual literacy concepts, cognition and…

More than 300 citations of books, articles, and conference papers published primarily within the last 20 years are listed with brief descriptions. The works include discussions of developmental theory, art education, art criticism, aesthetics, and philosophy of science as well as experimental studies. Research topics cover aspects of cognition…

This publication presents manuscripts and research reports by graduate students. Accompanying papers from their mentors establish a context for the student papers. In this volume the works are organized by sponsoring university. Student papers presented are: (1) "A Naturalistic Study of Art Choices in a Preschool Setting" (Karen Thomas);…