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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【详解】 细节理解题。根据第三段中的“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.(在那些人当中，效果更加显著：美感组中有艺术爱好的受试者，其抽象思维平均分比对照组中有艺术爱好的受试者高出25%以上。)”以及第四段中的“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.(在所有受试者中，审美组受试者所报告的 “蜕变感与自我超越感”（诸如感动、豁然开朗、备受鼓舞这类情绪）平均水平，比对照组高出23%。)”可知，拥有艺术爱好的美感组成员测试平均分最高。