Psychological and autonomic effects of art making in college-aged students.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Anxiety disorders comprise the most common category of mental illness among US young adults. Art making might be one method to help reduce anxiety, but the few studies investigating this have used only subjective measures of anxiety. DESIGN: This study employed both subjective (self-reported state anxiety from the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) and objective (heart rate variability) measures to assess whether 30-minute periods of art making reduced anxiety in 47 first-year college students prior to their final examinations. METHODS: Students participated in free-form painting, mandala coloring, clay modeling, and control sessions. RESULTS: Repeated-measures ANOVA with post hoc analysis revealed significantly greater pre- to post-session reductions in anxiety for all three types of art-making sessions than for the control session, as measured objectively. Measured subjectively, only free-form painting yielded a significant decrease in anxiety compared to the control session. CONCLUSIONS: Given the health benefits of anxiety reduction, further study is warranted to determine the duration of art making's anxiety-reducing effect.

Cardiovascular and electroencephalographic responses to purposeful versus nonpurposeful activities in children.

To discern effects of purposefulness on cardiovascular and neural responses, heart rate and electroencephalographic recordings were taken in 31 children performing purposeful and nonpurposeful activities of equal duration and cardiopulmonary workload. Heart rate increased from resting levels during both purposeful (p = .001) and nonpurposeful (p = .01) activities, but the level of increase was the same for both (p = .30). Similarities in heart rate during purposeful and nonpurposeful activities suggest that purposefulness might not influence heart rate response in children. Encephalographic recordings did not show a higher beta-wave activity quotient during purposeful activity (p = .33).

Cardiovascular and Electroencephalographic Response to Purposeful vs. Nonpurposeful Activity in Adults (†).

eEffects of purposefulness on heart rate, blood pressure, and electroencephalographic recordings were examined in 32 adults performing purposeful and nonpurposeful activities of equal cardiopulmonary workload. Blood pressure increased from resting during purposeful and nonpurposeful activity (all p < .02); the level of increase was similar for purposeful and nonpurposeful activity [systolic (p = .44); diastolic (p = .25)]. No significant differences in heart rate (p = .42) or electroencephalographic beta wave activity (p = .39) were noted between purposeful and nonpurposeful activities. These findings suggest that the degree of purposefulness of the activity did not influence the cardiovascular response.

Pairing of opposite learning styles among allied health students: effects on collaborative performance.

To understand better determinants of effective collaboration in allied health education, students were paired by similar and opposite learning styles to work on a simulated clinical case exercise. Fifty-six sophomore and junior students enrolled in an anatomy, physiology, and pathophysiology course from a variety of allied health programs were assigned randomly in pairs to one of three subsets based on their Kolb Learning Style Inventory scores (concrete versus abstract learners). The students read the history and physical examination findings of an immunocompromised patient with an abscess in an undisclosed spinal cord location, then answered a series of case questions. Analysis of variance revealed that mismatched pairs (concrete/abstract) performed significantly better than matched concrete pairs (F2,21 = 3.83, p < 0.05) and slightly better than matched abstract pairs. This higher performance of the mismatched group was not attributed to differences in either general or specific level of academic preparation among the groups, as measured by cumulative grade point average and prior course examination scores, respectively (F2,21 = 2.15, p > 0.05 and F2,21 = 3.04, p > 0.05). Collapsing of all three subset groups into one cohort revealed that case exercise performance was correlated moderately, however, to cumulative grade point average (r = 0.49, p < 0.01) and correlated strongly to prior course exam scores (r = 0.76, p < 0.001). These findings suggest that clinical collaboration skills are enhanced not only by individual level of academic preparation but also by intentional pairing of concrete with abstract learners.