Artistic Judgment III: Artist Validation. Technical Report 1991-1.

Two studies compared the visual preferences, cognitive abilities, and occupational interests of artists and nonartists. Study One compared scores on an experimental battery of artistic judgment tests for three groups: professional artists, Johnson O'Connor Research Foundation examinees in art-related professions, and Foundation examinees not in those fields. Study Two compared the two groups of Foundation examinees on the standard Foundation battery and the interest scales of the Career Occupational Preference System (COPS). In Study One, the artists and nonartists differed significantly on all tests in the experimental battery. On the Barron-Welsh Art Scale (BWAS), the professional artists scored significantly higher than a nonartist sample studied previously. In Study Two, on the standard battery tests, artists scored significantly higher than nonartists in Inductive Reasoning, Structural Visualization, Paper Folding, Memory for Design, Observation, and Tweezer Dexterity. Study Two also showed that artists and nonartists differed in their occupational interests, with artists showing significantly higher interest in artistic occupations, and significantly less in science, business, and computation related fields. The Design Judgment Test, Visual Design Test scales, and the Proportion Appraisal Consensus and .67 scales were shown to be valid in distinguishing artists from nonartists. Further research should be conducted into the relationship between artistic judgment and education and training in the visual arts. (Contains 104 references and four appendices.) (Author/SG)