The Effect of Art Education on Visual Memory of Individuals

This study aims to investigate the effect of art education on the visual memory of the individual. Concerning the fact that improving the quality of perceptual structure will lead to the promotion of memory quality, any discussion on the quality of memory and its improvement is a subject for further scrutiny toward perception and organization of information in people’s minds. The attempt is made to do the evaluation in an experimental setting to answer two research questions. First, what is the effect of art education on perceptual structure of people? Second, what is the effect of art education on visual memory? The test is called “The Copy and Complex Geometric Figure Test of Andre Rey”. Sixty examinees including thirty students of visual art and thirty other nonart students participated in this study. Statistical methods were used to analyze the data. Comparing the scores showed a significant difference in the criteria of perceptual structure as well as the visual memory. Based upon the results of perceptual structure in terms of quality, enriched drawing, drawing style, and the length of drawing, non-art individuals displayed lower scores than the art students. On the other hand, results of recreation of the shapes showed that the richness and the authenticity of recreation i.e., the measure of visual memory in art students were far higher than non-art students.