This study compared the eye movement patterns of twenty-three children and adults while viewing five paintings at the Van Gogh Museum. The objectives of the study were two-fold. First, the study...Show moreThis study compared the eye movement patterns of twenty-three children and adults while viewing five paintings at the Van Gogh Museum. The objectives of the study were two-fold. First, the study determined the roles of top-down and bottom-up attentional processes during the aesthetic experience. Second, the development of these attentional processes was investigated by comparing adults and children. Bottom-up processes were measured by creating salience maps for every painting, whereas top-down processing was manipulated by letting the participants view the paintings in two phases. In the first phase, participants were allowed to freely view the paintings. Before the second phase, background information about each painting was provided to the participants. Eye-tracking technology was used to measure the participants' eye movements whilst they viewed the paintings. The salience analysis consisted of a linear mixed-effects model, which results showed that there was no significant difference between the two phases over the fixations. As earlier research suggested that the change from bottom-up to top-down processing happens within the first few fixations, this may suggest that the processes people rely on stay constant afterwards. A second model was constructed to investigate the effect of age on viewing processes, suggesting that over the entire aesthetic process, there was no effect of age on the processes used by the participants. Despite this, the results indicate that children are more influenced by bottom-up processes at the start of their viewing process, whilst adults switch from top-down to bottom-up processes near the end of their aesthetic experience. In between the first and last fixations, both adults and children seem to use top-down processes.Show less
The Japanese Government, since the establishment of the Kyoto Protocol, has failed in effectively addressing climate change. Research has shown that the Japanese Government’s failure in combination...Show moreThe Japanese Government, since the establishment of the Kyoto Protocol, has failed in effectively addressing climate change. Research has shown that the Japanese Government’s failure in combination with its control over the media developed a misleading conception among the Japanese population of its efficacy in implementing environmentally-friendly policies, thus different kinds of communication are needed. This study aims to determine how employing art as a surrogate form of communication might raise awareness on the necessity and urgency of tackling environmental issues in Japan. Building on an alternative conception of the human-nature relationship arising from Zen Buddhist and Shinto values, this study asks: “To what extent can ecological art in Japan promote a message of sustainability that raises awareness and enhances the action of everyday actors?” By means of process-tracing combined with a case study analysis, this study illustrates the causal mechanisms between the Japanese religio-cultural inspired conception of the human-nature relationship, ecoart, and the establishment of a more environmentally friendly society. The case study analyses on the Echigo-Tsumari Art Field (ETAF) initiative showed that, by means of ecoart focused on community, locality and emotions, ETAF represents a viable model for Japan to increase ecoart initiatives and stimulate grassroots efforts towards environmental protection by means of art. Further research is needed on the initiatives engaging with the Japanese public aimed at delivering a message of environmental betterment by means of art and culture, as well as to determine the effects of ecoart in other parts of the world.Show less
This thesis raises the point that incorporating bottom-up understandings of psychology in Chinese society can give us a more complete outlook on the level of development of psychology in the nation...Show moreThis thesis raises the point that incorporating bottom-up understandings of psychology in Chinese society can give us a more complete outlook on the level of development of psychology in the nation. This is done by using academic stress as the focus of research. By looking at Chinese internet sources of everyday situations of academic stress and analyzing these with the help of Foucauldian thought and the theory of “Interpretive Perspective”, these results are compared to the current state of psychology as an academic discourse in China. It is concluded that psychology is indeed much more developed in China than top-down academic discourse may give it credit for. Furthermore, a more complete account on how academic stress is experienced by students in China is given by integrating primary internet sources with secondary literature and finds that academic stress is not expressed the same by all students.Show less
