The Metaphoric Interpretation of Paintings: Effects of the Clustering Strategy and Relaxed Attention Exercises

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to teach university students a way to interpret paintings metaphorically. Twenty-seven art education majors learned the clustering strategy for writing metaphoric interpretations of three kinds of paintings (realistic, abstract, and nonobjective) seen as color slides. Subjects were randomly divided into two groups. Prior to interpreting the paintings the experimental group engaged in relaxed attention exercises; the control group heard a lecture about the importance of those exercises. Eight judges rated students' written interpretations of the paintings on a 0-5 scale from literal to metaphoric. Interjudge reliability was high. The clustering strategy increased the metaphoric nature of students' written interpretations for all three kinds of paintings. Relaxed attention exercises significantly increased metaphoric interpretations of realistic paintings only.

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