Abstract
This article explores the possibility of measuring esthetic sensitivity by means of the ability to judge whether paintings are or are not by the same artist (Westland, 1964). Unlike the conventional tests of esthetic sensitivity this measurement is based on answers that are right or wrong in a factual sense and not right or wrong on the basis of a consensus of opinion. The “test” is constructed such that it can be scored using information theory. This method allows us to include the size of the error in the score. The “test” differentiated 30 subjects attending an art course, and 34 psychology students of the same age and the same basic training. The split-half reliability is .906. The correlations with scores in specific art subjects are higher than for those on the Meier Art Judgment Test—even where these correlations are calculated for small numbers of subjects.
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