A New Visual Aesthetic Sensitivity Test: I. Construction and Psychometric Properties

Abstract

This paper reports progress in construction of a new test of visual aesthetic sensitivity, differing from previous tests in that the items were drawn by an experienced artist of international reputation. There are 42 sets of 2 non-representational pictures, differing in that one of these has been changed by the incorporation of certain intentional design faults; there is thus a “right” and a “wrong” picture, and it is the task of the subject to discover the right answer. Eight practising artists validated the construction by agreeing 100% in their answers with the key. The test was administered to 111 male and female students, and 369 male and female children. There were no sex differences, no very significant correlations with intelligence, and very little by way of correlations with personality traits. The mean score of the children was 30, that of the students 35, a very significant difference. Within the group of children, however, there was no correlation with age. The distribution of scores was skewed, with easy items (high scores) predominating. The difficulty levels of the items were similar for adults and children, male and female. The internal reliability of the test was .84 for the adults. The retest reliability of the test was .70 for girls and .32 for boys, but the samples were small.