Updating the Aesthetic Fluency Scale: Revised long and short forms for research in the psychology of the arts

PLOS ONE RESEARCH ARTICLE Updating the Aesthetic Fluency Scale: Revised long and short forms for research in the psychology of the arts Katherine N. Cotter1, Rebekah M. Rodriguez-Boerwinkle ID2, Alexander P. Christensen ID3, Anna Fekete4, Jeffrey K. Smith5, Lisa F. Smith5, Pablo P. L. Tinio6, Paul J. Silvia ID2* a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 1 Positive Psychology Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America, 2 Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro, North Carolina, United States of America, 3 Department of Psychology and Human Development, Peabody College, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, United States of America, 4 Department of Cognition, Emotions and Methods in Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria, 5 College of Education, University of Otago, Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand, 6 Educational Foundations Department, Montclair State University, Montclair, New Jersey, United States of America * Abstract OPEN ACCESS Citation: Cotter KN, Rodriguez-Boerwinkle RM, Christensen AP, Fekete A, Smith JK, Smith LF, et al. (2023) Updating the Aesthetic Fluency Scale: Revised long and short forms for research in the psychology of the arts. PLoS ONE 18(2): e0281547. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. pone.0281547 Editor: Frantisek Sudzina, Aalborg University, DENMARK Received: October 13, 2022 People’s knowledge about the arts shapes how they experience and engage with art. Since its introduction, the 10-item Aesthetic Fluency Scale has been widely used to measure selfreported art knowledge. Drawing from findings and researchers’ experience since then, the present work develops and evaluates a Revised Aesthetic Fluency Scale using item response theory to broaden its scope (36 items) and refine its response scale. In a large sample (n = 2,089 English-speaking adults), Study 1 found strong evidence for unidimensionality, good item fit, and a difficulty level suitable for its targeted population; Study 2 (n = 392) provided initial evidence for score validity via relationships with art engagement, Openness to Experience, and aesthetic responsiveness; and Study 3 derived a brief, 10-item form for time-constrained projects. Taken together, the revised scales build upon lessons learned from the original and appear promising for the next generation of research. Accepted: January 25, 2023 Published: February 8, 2023 Copyright: © 2023 Cotter et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability Statement: The data files and R code are publicly available at Open Science Framework: https://osf.io/d9ujk/. Funding: The authors received no specific funding for this research. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Introduction Art knowledge is one of the most fundamental variables in the psychology of aesthetics and the arts. The beliefs, knowledge, and expertise that people bring to art encounters are central to developmental [1] and cognitive [2–4] theories of how people view, think about, and experience the arts. Beyond basic research, understanding how people gain and use art knowledge is central to the applied and translational goals of advancing art education and the public appreciation of the arts [5]. In the present research, we develop a revised version of the Aesthetic Fluency Scale [6], one of the most widely used self-report tools for measuring individual differences in art knowledge. After reviewing past work with the scale, we identify key areas for improvement and describe the iterative development of a revised scale with psychometric tools from classical test theory, item response theory, and network models. We then present evidence for score validity and conclude with a brief form of the scale for use when time and survey space are tight. PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0281547 February 8, 2023 1 / 21 PLOS ONE Revised Aesthetic Fluency Scale The original Aesthetic Fluency Scale Researchers interested in measuring art knowledge have used a few measurement strategies, each with different strengths and drawbacks. One approach is to measure demographic markers of art expertise, such as whether people have earned degrees, pursued formal training, or been employed in some domain of the arts [7, 8]. Another approach is to test people’s knowledge on questions about art that have correct answers. The VAIAK, for example, contains a section that assesses objective art knowledge [9, 10]. Finally, a third approach is to measure what Specker et al. [9] call subjective knowledge—people’s self-reported knowledge of the arts. The Aesthetic Fluency Scale, developed by Smith and Smith [6], is a typical example of the subjective knowledge approach. According to the authors, “Aesthetic fluency is the knowledge base concerning art that facilitates aesthetic experience in individuals. It can be acquired through direct instruction, but it can also be learned through experience” (p. 50). The original 10-item Aesthetic Fluency Scale was developed during the early 2000s with visitors to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The respondents indicated how much they knew about 10 art ideas and artists: Mary Cassatt, Isamu Noguchi, John Singer Sargent, Alessandro Botticelli, Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Fauvism, Egyptian Funerary Stelae, Impressionism, Chinese Scrolls, and Abstract Expressionism. Responses were given using a 5-point scale: 0: I have never heard of this artist or term 1: I have heard of this but don’t really know anything about it 2: I have a vague idea of what this is 3: I understand this artist or idea when it is discussed 4: I can talk intelligently about this artist or idea in art In a sample of 400 visitors, the scale showed good psychometric properties regarding internal consistency and unidimensionality [6]. Since then, the Aesthetic Fluency Scale has been widely used in research to measure variation in art knowledge [11–18]. Beyond its original fine arts form, a few variations on the method have appeared, such as a version for film knowledge [19], as have translations of the scale into other languages [11]. The core assessment approach—present participants with artrelated figures and terms and record their self-reported knowledge—has inspired similar scales, such as the Art Affinity Index [20], that contain subjective art knowledge items. Taken together, the Aesthetic Fluency Scale has been both popular and fertile in arts research. Some directions for revision Because the Aesthetic Fluency Scale has established itself as a prominent tool in arts research, it is worth taking stock of the scale to see how it might be refined and improved for the next generation of research. Based on (...truncated)