The effects of visual artistic stimuli and proporties on cognitive flexibility

Art and aesthetics have been neglected in psychology for the last few decades in an experimental sense. Although art and its various characteristics are thought to lead to some cognitive gains, this expectation has been studied experimentally very little. The existing studies usually focus on art appreciation, but art and its various characteristics have some unexplored effects on cognitive processes, more specifically on cognitive flexibility. In this study, it was tried to clarify this unexamined relationship. The four experiments were conducted in this context. Before these experiments, the stimuli to be presented were tested in a pilot study. In the first experiment of the studies, some pleasant and unpleasant examples of different art genres (representational, expressionist, and abstract art) were presented. After examining these artworks, the participants in different conditions were asked to brainstorm about the ways of development of the university. The results of the first experiment have shown that there were no significant differences in terms of flexibility across experimental conditions. In the second experiment, the only pleasant and unpleasant examples of representational artworks were presented. Before viewing the artworks, the participants were given different approach instructions according to the aesthetic, pragmatic or control conditions. It was observed that the aesthetic approach enhanced cognitive flexibility more than control condition. In the third experiment of the study, the same artworks were presented in pleasant and unpleasant conditions. High-value and low-value informations were given by manipulating the names of painters, museums, and monetary information before artworks. Contrary to expectations, the low-value participants had better performance in terms of flexibility. In the fourth experiment of the research, the value information was examined in a similar way to the third experiment. In this experiment, the value information is based on the peers' liking ratios. The high-value condition led to higher cognitive flexibility than low-value condition. The results of the study are discussed in light of contemporary theories. In addition, these experiments has some implications for both future studies as well as in applied fields.