Rudolf Arnheim's contribution to Gestalt psychology.

Gestalt psychology was the foundation of Rudolf Arnheim's approach to art. Reviewing Arnheim's long and productive career, it becomes useful to assess his relationship to the evolving theory. By paying special attention to the issues of (1) perceptual abstraction and visual thinking, (2) perceptual dynamics and expression, and (3) perceptual "goodness" and beauty, it can be seen the degree to which Arnheim actually altered the basis of the general theory of Gestalt psychology, affirming the centrality of art in its purview. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Evolutionary and neurocognitive approaches to aesthetics, creativity and the arts.

Reviews the book, Evolutionary and neurocognitive approaches to aesthetics, creativity and the arts, edited by Colin Martindate, Paul Locher, and Vladimir M. Petrov (see record 2007-00414-000). This book follows in the line of Jungian, Humanistic, and Existential theories in proclaiming that the arts are essentially connected to human nature in a meaningful way. Like May, many of the chapter authors agree that the arts have a purpose beyond mere amusement, entertainment, or stress relief. With Freud, they also agree that the arts emerged through the evolutionary process, but they disagree that this was merely a useful by-product of natural selection. Rather, the arts are innately connected to human survival and development. The approach in this book is very distinct from the methods of Freud, Jung, and May. The chapter authors use quantitative research, genetic research, and electroencephalographic (EEG) studies to examine the purpose of the arts, aesthetics, and creativity. Although their results often feel much blander than the mythical interpretations of Jung and May, they continue to provide important empirical support for the utility and need for the arts using more contemporary methods. Many of the chapters in this book provide important insights into the creativity process. Some chapters provide more understanding than utility, which is a major weakness of the book. It would have been helpful to have some of the chapters make more direct connections to the practical utility and meaning of the research presented or reviewed. However, in the end, this book provides a wealth of information from many different perspectives and, as a whole, provides a significant contribution to the psychological and scientific literature on creativity. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Rudolf Arnheim: An elegant artistic Gestalt.

Rudolf Arnheim created an influential new psychology of art by applying the Gestalt principles of perceptual organization to generate deeper understanding of great artistic works. He wrote widely used books on the psychology of art and taught for many years at major institutions of higher learning, and could be considered the founder of the discipline to which this journal is devoted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Introduction.

This issue of Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts reminds us again of the diversity and nuance evident in our field. This introduction presents a brief presentation of the papers and studies in this issue. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

From the editors.

Presents a brief synopsis of each of the articles in the current issue of Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Berlyne on art: A review of D. E. Berlyne's Aesthetics and psychobiology.

Reviews the book, Aesthetics and Psychobiology by D. E. Berlyne (see record 1973-00821-000). Progress in the aesthetic disciplines has been at a snail's pace. Berlyne charges six factors with having impeded advance: the belief in art as a supernatural phenomenon, the failure to separate factual from normative questions, the conception of art as a unitary phenomenon, the habit of treating art in isolation from nonartistic forms of behavior, the preoccupation with uniqueness in aesthetic taste, and the concentration on verbal judgments in aesthetic work. But the future looks brighter, due primarily to the following developments: (1) the rise of information theory, which provides procedures for rigorously analyzing some of the features of stimulus patterns that most concern aesthetics, (2) recent empirical and theoretical contributions in both psychology and neurophysiology to the understanding of pleasure and arousal, and (3) findings bearing on the nature of exploratory behavior, both in animals and humans, particularly as these teach the motivational importance of such elements as complexity, novelty and uncertainty, so-called "collative" variables, that "seem to be identifiable with the irreducibly essential ingredients of art and of whatever else is aesthetically appealing" (viii). The principal aim of Berlyne's book is to establish the ground gained in these three areas, compare it to the contributions made by earlier workers, and effectuate "a provisional synthesis that will at least bring key problems to the fore" (viii). It is a formidable task. Inevitably, the effort fares better in some assignments than others. Ironically, what discrepancies in quality do exist would probably project less were Berlyne not so knowledgeable about his subject matter. He is, quite obviously, in the tradition of those "cultured gentlemen" with whom he is wont to populate the early history of psychological science. Parenthetically, one suspects that he could supplement the present work with a very creditable companion volume in the philosophy of aesthetics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Grouping and gambling: A Gestalt approach to understanding the gambler's fallacy.

The gambler's fallacy was examined in terms of grouping processes. The gambler's fallacy is the tendency to erroneously believe that for independent events, recent or repeated instances of an outcome (e.g., a series of "heads" when flipping a coin) will make that outcome less likely on an upcoming trial. Grouping was manipulated such that a critical trial following a run of heads or tails was grouped together with previous trials (i.e., the last trial of "Block 1") or was the first trial of another group (the first trial of "Block 2"). As predicted, the gambler's fallacy was evident when the critical trial was grouped with the previous trials, but not when it was arbitrarily grouped with the next block of trials. Discussion centres on the processes underlying the gambler's fallacy and practical implications of these findings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

生态美学视阈下的文艺理论研究

在生态美学逐渐成为显学的背景下,生态批评的学术储备也日益丰盈,因此作为探究文学艺术这一审美意识形态规律的文艺理论研究,也应该在其哲学思想来源、理论话语原则、理论视阈等方面有新的突破。     

The Bender Gestalt: A review and a perspective.

The 1950-61 literature is covered and is organized around the test designs, the various scoring systems, and the diagnostic interpretations. When scored objectively its validity in determining mental ages for children, and as an additional tool in a test battery aimed at differential diagnoses, is acceptable. Symbolic interpretation remains highly subjective. The lack of standardization mitigates against utilizing the test as a norm against which to judge other variables. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Comment on "Bender Gestalt Discernment of organic pathology."

Bender Gestalt (BG) literature, reviewed by Billingslea (1963), leads to ambiguity concerning the usefulness of BG in discerning organic brain pathology. Some ambiguity seems to stem from inadequate realization by many authors of the importance of locus of brain pathology in selecting Ss and interpreting results. Also, much BG work involving recall seems unrealistically simplified in its view of memory, leading to faulty design and contradictory results. This note reviews knowledge of parietal lobe function necessary to thoughtful BG study and cites findings which cast doubt on some assumptions underlying recall methods used in BG studies. Implications bearing on diagnostic interpretations of BG results are discussed. (27 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Bender Gestalt Test: A scoring method for identifying brain damage.

Comparisons between groups of 20 brain damaged, 38 psychiatric, and 25 normal Ss as to the occurences of 31 signs in Bender Gestalt protocols yeilded 15 signs which discriminated between brain damaged and non-brain-damaged groups. Protocols of the original sample of Ss and of a 2nd sample of matched psychiatric and brain damaged Ss (21 in each sample) were scored by using the discrimination weight of the signs derived from the original sample. Results indicated that the scoring system significantly differentiated between brain damaged and non-brain-damaged groups in both the original and cross-validation samples. Characteristics and limitations of the system are discussed. This new scoring method shows promise for objectively identifying impairment associated with brain damage. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The specific effects of a Gestalt intervention.

Reports 3 cases in which the effects on client depth of experiencing and voice quality of the Gestalt "2-chair" operation were investigated. In a design using the clients as their own controls, the effects on each client of 3 Gestalt operations, applied under experimental control to client statements of conflict, were compared with the effects of 3 active-empathy operations at similar points. Results confirm that following the Gestalt operation the depth of experiencing was significantly higher for each of the 3 clients selected as good prognosis clients for client-centered therapy. Two Ss used significantly more emotionally expressive voice after the Gestalt operation. The implications of the change in depth of experiencing on shifts in awareness and on the client's ability to cope with and resolve conflict are discussed. (22 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

From the editors.

Introduces the articles appearing in this issue of Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. Of particular interest in this issue are the breadth and the rigor of the methodology that underlie the substantive and theoretical issues addressed in the work. The issue begins with an article from Dean Keith Simonton, who looks at the idea of what success in film is and how different indicators of success (critical, box office, etc.) are related to one another over the life of a film. Paul Silvia, James C. Kaufman, and Jean Pretz then address the question of the domain specificity of creativity. The third article shifts to the field of music and looks at the relationship between personality characteristics and how people use music in their lives. The next article reports the results of an experimental design that looked at recognition of objects in cubist paintings and pupil dilation after having made a classification of an object. The next article looks at differences in the motivations and personality characteristics of individuals who visit modern art museums versus ancient art museums. Next, Patricia Stokes uses the problem-solving approaches of Reitman and Simon in a case study examining the sculpture of Richard Serra. The issue concludes with an analysis of the idea of “lived experience” as it relates to the psychology of aesthetics and art making. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluating dynamic performance: The influence of salient Gestalt characteristics on performance ratings.

It is well recognized that performance changes over time. However, the effect of these changes on overall assessments of performance is largely unknown. In a laboratory experiment, we examined the influence of salient Gestalt characteristics of a dynamic performance profile on supervisory ratings. We manipulated performance trend (flat, linear-improving, linear-deteriorating, U-shaped, and ∩-shaped), performance variation (small, large), and performance mean (negative, zero, positive) within subjects and display format (graphic, tabular) between subjects. Participants received and evaluated information about the weekly performance of different employees over a simulated 26-week period. Results showed strong main effects on performance ratings of both performance mean and performance trend, as well as interactions with display format. Theoretical and practical implications of the results are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The usefulness of two scoring systems for the Bender Gestalt Test for identifying brain damage.

The Peek-Quast and Hain scoring systems for the Bender Gestalt Test (BGT) were employed in an attempt to discriminate 142 brain-damaged patients from 120 control patients. While 12 of the 30 individual signs and the Peek-Quast and Hain BGT scores differentiated between the groups at a better-than-chance level of significance, diagnostic errors were so frequent as to preclude the BGT's being useful for individual diagnosis. It was suggested that the use of the BGT may increase the number of diagnostic errors when the base rates are low. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Current status of research and theory in human problem solving.

Summarizes problem-solving theories in 3 areas: traditional learning, cognitive-Gestalt approaches, and more recent computer and mathematical models of problem solving. Recent empirical studies are categorized according to the type of behavior elicited by the particular problem-solving task. Anagram, "insight," water-jar, and arithmetic problems are considered to be solved by covert trial-and-error behavior. Switch-light, classification, probability-learning, and numerous "miscellaneous" tasks are approached by overt trial-and-error behavior. (3 p. ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Are some Gestalt principles deployed more readily than others during early development? The case of lightness versus form similarity.

Four experiments investigated how readily infants achieve perceptual organization by lightness and form similarity. Infants were (a) familiarized with elements that could be organized into rows or columns on the basis of lightness or form similarity and tested with vertical versus horizontal bars depicting the familiar versus novel organization or (b) familiarized with bars and tested with elements. For lightness similarity, generalization occurred in both tasks; however, for form similarity, generalization occurred only in the elements → bars task. The findings indicate that lightness similarity is more readily deployed than form similarity and are discussed in the context of (a) whether the difference reflects speed of application or experience-based learning, (b) evidence from visual agnosic patients and the time course of application of the principles in healthy adults, and (c) development of dorsal and ventral visual processing streams. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Understanding phylogenies in biology: The influence of a Gestalt perceptual principle.

Cladograms, hierarchical diagrams depicting evolutionary histories among (groups of) species, are commonly drawn in 2 informationally equivalent formats--tree and ladder. The authors hypothesize that these formats are not computationally equivalent because the Gestalt principle of good continuation obscures the hierarchical structure of ladders. Experimental results confirmed that university students (N = 44) prefer to subdivide ladders in accordance with good continuation rather than with the underlying hierarchical structure. Two subsequent experiments (N = 164) investigated cladogram understanding by examining students' ability to translate between formats (e.g., from tree to ladder). As predicted, students had greater difficulty understanding ladders than trees. This effect was larger for students with weaker backgrounds in biology. These results have important implications for evolution education reform. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Advancing disciplinary practice through critical thinking: A rejoinder to Bensley.

The authors respond to Bensley’s (see record 2009-12731-009) comment on their alternative formulation of critical thinking in psychology (see record 2008-11592-004). They argue that Bensley’s defense of the traditional critical thinking approach—which they term scientific analytic reasoning (SAR)—fails to address their main objections to SAR and their reasons for presenting an alternative. In particular, the openness, fairness, and generativity that Bensley references as strengths of SAR are themselves informed by scientific analytic assumptions and values, which, they argue, illustrates their original contention—that SAR offers an insular and insufficiently critical approach to critical thinking. The authors conclude by calling for future developments in critical thinking that are not driven by an implicit SAR agenda. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A critical analysis of Schachter's externality theory of obesity.

Analyzes S. Schachter's (1968, 1974) external hypersensitivity theory of obesity in light of other researcher's findings, particularly findings which relate to the behavioral and psychological differences between juvenile- and adult-onset obesity, the correlation between obesity and socioeconomic status, and the inadequate testing of the externality theory in the natural environment. The complex nature of obesity and eating behavior is emphasized. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)