The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of ambiguous visual stimuli in art instruction with ninth grade girl art students on the four divergent thinking abilities of fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration, as measured by Torrance's Tests of Creative Thinking, Figural Forms (1966).The research hypothesis was formulated as follows: Students exposed to ambiguous visual stimuli in art will exhibit a greater increase in divergent thinking abilities than students exposed to non-ambiguous visual stimuli.A group of 40 freshmen high school girls studying art at West Philadelphia Catholic Girls' High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, during the 1969-1970 school year, constituted the sample of subjects for the study. These subjects were matched for IQ and previous art teacher, then randomized into two treatment groups. The assignment of the ambiguous stimuli treatment to one group was done at random by the researcher. The second group thus became the non-ambiguous stimuli treatment group.The art instruction given to both treatment groups consisted of projects in design, watercolor painting, print-making, and the production of 2 x 2 acetate transparencies. A variety of materials were used. The study lasted nine weeks, averaging 4 meetings weekly, with 42 minutes per meeting.Each treatment group was exposed to a separate set of slides during the art classroom activities. One set, the ambiguous visual stimuli, contained 51 slides of the Rorschach "projective" and the Gestalt "figure-ground" ambiguity types. The non-ambiguous visual stimuli set of 45 slides was composed of representational or non-abstract pictures, paintings, designs, etc.The two art instructors for the study exchanged places with each other several times during the nine weeks in order to minimize any possible differences due to teacher "style" and/or personality.The results of the study showed high positive correlations between the factors of fluency and flexibility, moderate to high correlations between fluency and originality, and between flexibility and originality, with low positive correlation between elaboration and the other three factors.There was no statistically significant difference between the scores of the two treatment groups on Torrance's Tests of Creative Thinking, Figural Forms. The ambiguous visual stimuli-treatment group, however, showed significant net mean gains on fluency and originality. No significant net mean gains were made by the non-ambiguous visual stimuli treatment group.The conclusions drawn from the findings are:1. Torrance's Tests do not seem to be measuring four distinct factors; to know an individual's flexibility score is to know her fluency and originality scores.2. A Gestalt-like figural flexibility factor, similar to the "spontaneous" flexibility of Guilford, seems to be the factor or ability being measured by the Tests.3. The use of Rorschach "projective" ambiguity and Gestalt "figure-ground" ambiguity in art instruction with ninth grade girls does not inhibit growth in divergent thinking abilities.4. High school girl subjects in an art instructional setting are not adversely affected on divergent thinking measures by either ambiguous or non-ambiguous visual stimuli.Recommendations for further research included:1. Replication of this study, employing a randomized sample of boys and girls (or boys only), restricting the visual stimuli to the Gestalt "figure-ground" ambiguity, administering several measures of divergent thinking, increasing the treatment time and exposure to the visual stimuli, and evaluating the art products of the subjects.2. Continued utilization in art education research of Guilford's "Structure-.of-Intellect" model, with particular emphasis on the figural content of the divergent thinking (production) operation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/175706 |
| Date | January 1971 |
| Creators | Cullina, James J. |
| Contributors | Laing, Richard H. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | vi, 105, [2] leaves : col. ill. ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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