Art in a Ganzfeld The Role of Context in the Perception of Art

Mary Powell

Date of Award

2011

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Bauer, Gordon

Keywords

Art, Ganzfeld, Perception, Turrell

Area of Concentration

Psychology

Abstract

Research suggests that individuals have stronger affective and physical reactions to objects and experiences when placed under the context of art. I conducted an experiment to see if the same stimulus would illicit different emotive as well as physical responses when the stimulus was presented as art (installation group) or as a perceptual experiment (perceptual group). Participants were exposed to a Ganzfeld, a light environment consisting of an undifferentiated visual field, for 8 minutes and then completed a questionnaire consisting of the Positive and Negative Affective Schedule and Ganzfeld perceptual measures. The installation group scored higher on the positive affect measures and lower on the negative affective measures than the perceptual group but the difference was not significant. There was no difference between groups in the Ganzfeld perceptual measures. A post hoc power analysis revealed low power suggesting that a larger sample size may yield significant differences between groups. A low strength of the manipulation may also explain lack of significant differences. The context-accessibility theory of art recognition is proposed as an alternative explanation for the results.

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