The effects of posture, time, and attitude on the ideational fluency of student draftsmen
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Abstract
The purpose of the study was to determine the effects of body posture, task time, and attitudes toward drawing and problem-solving on the ideational fluency of two experimental groups and one control group of student draftsmen. The drawings produced were assessed on the basis of the quantity and quality of ideas generated during a specific drawing task.Five major questions were under investigation. Hypotheses were developed to determine whether significant differences existed (1) in the quantity or quality of ideational fluency between the three groups; (2) in the groups' attitudes toward drawing and problem-solving or their background experiences in art and teaching; (3) between the judges' responses to a series of fifteen bipolar scales which were used to assess judge strategies; (4) between the rate of idea generation for' any group; (5) in the interaction between time interval and posture for any group. Drawings produced for a forty-five minute task session and responses to a two-part questionnaire designed for the study provided the data. A team of five expert judges individually rated the quantity and quality of production of a seven-point scale and responded to the drawings via fifteen bipolar scales of the semantic differential type.A random sample of fifty-seven subjects was drawn from a population of seventy-three students enrolled in three sections of a personal development course in art for non-art elementary education majors. Sections were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups.The statistical treatments employed were: (1) One-way analyses of variance were computed to determine whether variances were in effect for (a) the groups' responses to the questionnaire, (b) groups' quantitative production, and (c) groups' qualitative production. (2) A two-way analysis of variance was computed to determine whether any variances occurred between the groups' production rates for nine time intervals and to test interaction between interval and group. (3) T tests for unequal means were used to determine which between group comparison(s) contributed to differences obtained for (a) quantity and (b) quality of production. (4) Multiple regressions were computed for each judge's quantity and quality ratings with the samples' responses to the questionnaire. (b) Pearson product-moment correlations were obtained for each judge's quantity and quality ratings with his responses to scales of the semantic differential.Significant differences in both the quantity and quality of ideation were found between the groups. The effects of posture and task time, and the interaction effects of time and posture were significant. These effects were confounded, apparently by teacher factors that were not detectable through the questionnaire. The draftsmen rated high on the quantity measure were, for the most part, not the same draftsmen as were rated high on quality.The multiple regression analyses indicated the following factors have significant predictive value for the quantity of ideation: (1) exposure to art programs at the senior high level and exposure to certain college-level art courses; (2) an approach to problem-solving that is neither chaotic nor doggedly systematic; (3) an indication that the draftsman does not react irritably to persons who are more ideationally fluent. These factors had significant predictive value for the quality of ideational fluency: (1) the draftsman's indication that his approach to problem-solving is relaxed and systematic, is not aided by isolated meditation but rather by involvement in other activity; (2) an indication that it is unwise or unproductive to plunge oneself into problem situations; (3) an indication that the draftsman would react both with admiration and irritability to someone more ideationally fluent.