A team of Cambridge psychologists conducted an experiment to compare the cognitive (认知的) effects of merely seeing art with actively judging how beautiful it is.
In the study, 187 people were invited to visit Kettle’s Yard gallery during an exhibition of handmade clay objects. Participants were randomly divided into two groups: the “beauty” group was asked to actively consider and then rate the beauty of each object they viewed, while the control group just matched a line drawing of the object with the artwork itself. All participants were then tested on how they process information, and whether it’s in a more practical or abstract way.
Across all participants, those in the beauty group scored almost 14% higher on average than the control group in abstract thinking. While they were told the study was about cognitive processes, participants were asked about interests, with around half saying they had an artistic hobby. Among those, the effect was greater: those with an artistic hobby in the beauty group scored over 25% higher on average for abstract thinking than those with an artistic hobby in the control group.
Emotional states of participants were also measured by asking about their feelings while completing the gallery task. Across all participants, those in the beauty group reported an average of 23% higher levels of “transformative and self-transcendent feelings” — such as feeling moved, enlightened and inspired — than the control group. Importantly, however, the beauty group did not report feeling any happier than the control group, suggesting that it was the engagement with beauty that influenced abstract thinking, rather than any overall positivity from the experience.
“We usually think in very concrete terms when doing something on a screen,” said Simone Schnall, senior author of the study. “It’s becoming much rarer to zone out and just let the mind wander, but that’s when we think in ways that broaden our minds. Admiring the beauty of art may be the ideal way to initiate the abstract cognitive processes.”
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答案
B
解析
【导语】主要介绍剑桥心理学家开展对照实验，对比单纯观赏艺术品和主动评判美感分别带来的认知影响，并解读实验结论：主动欣赏艺术之美能够促进抽象思维，让人跳出具体、狭隘的思维方式。 【详解】 细节理解题。根据第二段中的“Participants were randomly divided into two groups: the “beauty” group was asked to actively consider and then rate the beauty of each object they viewed, while the control group just matched a line drawing of the object with the artwork itself.(参与者被随机分成两组：“美感组”被要求主动思考，然后为他们所观看的每一件物品的美感打分，而对照组只是把物品的线条图和这件艺术品实物进行配对。)”可知，美感组要为每件作品打分评级。