Arts Learning and Scientific Achievement: Another Piece of Evidence

Psychology Today provides links to many blogs on creativity. Today, I looked at "Imagine That! Annals of Ordinary and Extraordinary Genius" by Michele and Robert Root-Bernstein. Their March 6 post discusses a longitudinal study of scientific creativity by UCLA psychologist Bernice Eiduson. She collected data from 40 young scientists in 1958 about their work habits, hobbies, etc. In looking at the group's successes over twenty years, she noted patterns among those who were most successful including the Nobel laureates Linus Pauling and Richard Feynman and several members of the National Academy: They were much more likely to spend time on their

avocations and they believed that "knowledge of art, poetry, music, etc. was part-and-parcel of being an educated scientist." They also "used a much wider range of mental "tools" during problem solving than their less successful colleagues, including various forms of two-, three-, and four-dimensional visual imaging, kinesthetic imaging, acoustic imaging, verbal and written forms, diagrams, and so forth."

Are cuts in arts education and the marginalization of the arts limiting the innovative capacities of future scientists?

If you go to Imagine That, also check out their February 11 piece on the arts and economic growth.