Introduction. In analyses of the relationship between various abilities and general intelligence, certain ones have appeared to be but slightly, if at all, related to ability in general, and to these the designation of special abilities or talents has been applied. Theoretically, artistic ability has been denoted as one of these, since " artistic aptitudes appear to be controlled primarily by special gifts rather than by general ability" (29, p. 505 ).3 Actual evidence in support of this contention exists, however, only for that limited phase of artistic performance which has been designated as representative drawing. Furthermore, statistical data supplying such evidence of a low degree of relationship between general intelligence and ability in representative drawing have been derived, in the main, from investigations dealing with unselected groups, such as those of Ayer (2), Elderton (8), Fischlovitz (9), and Ivanoff (16). These studies have uniformly shown low, positive correlations between measures of the two variables.4Complete agreement with these findings does not appear in the results of studies dealing with subjects selected for superior ability in art as manifested in other activities in addition to representation of single objects. The investigations of Kerschensteiner (17), Kik (18) and Terman (38) indicate that
J. Introduction. Artistic capacity may be interpreted psychologically as a resultant of the early and accelerated development of certain psychophysical functions which analysis indicates to be involved in expression through art media. To determine experimentally those functions in which superior development characterizes artistically superior as opposed to artistically inferior individuals was the problem of this study. In answering this question as to the distinguishing traits of the artist's equipment, the approach was made at the child level, beginning with the earliest age at which artistic capacity could be definitely detected and at which differences in the same are sufficiently marked to make possible the selection of two contrasted groups of artistic and non-artistic for purposes of comparison. By the use of the two highly selected groups it was planned to throw into relief the characteristics of the artistically superior child and at the same time to avoid confusion in the findings which would in all probability result from the inclusion of the undifferentiated middle range of artistic ability. The small number of subjects also made practicable the canvassing of a wide range of possible differentiating traits which was desirable in view of the exploratory nature of the study.Similar studies of the psychophysical traits correlated with success in art have been made with older subjects by Manuel (26) and more recently by Dreps (4). On the basis of scores made by 19 talented subjects on a battery of tests, Manuel concluded that there is no one psychophysical constitution for 108
Introduction. While tests of artistic appreciation have been devised satisfying the scientific requirement involving control of all variables under consideration, less objectivity has seemed possible in the measurement of artistic ability or the ability to produce. An approach to problems involving the artistic ability of children, however, made it incumbent upon certain of the investigators (8,9,11), whose studies are reported in this monograph, to develop, in so far as possible, a reasonably reliable means for determining status in artistic production. For this purpose the scale of values method was chosen as offering the most objective and most practical treatment available. While this method can not eliminate the necessity for a certain degree of subjectivity in judgment, it furnishes the judges with a more or less definite set of values on which to make decisions of merit. The superiority of this method over the direct judging technique has been demonstrated by Brooks (2). Using as instruments the drawing scales of Kline-Carey (5) and Thorndike (10), Brooks found the inaccuracy of rating to be reduced by one-half of what it was when ratings were made without the use of a scale. A scale of values offers a further advantage in that, once established, it may be used for other groups of similar material at different times and by different persons, while
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