ADOLESCENTS ' METAPHORIC INTERPRETATIONS OF PAINTINGS: THE EFFECTS OF THE CLUSTERING STRATEGY AND THE ASSESSMENT OF REFERENTIAL ADEQUACY

If one concurs with Langer's thesis (1957) that art is a metaphor for what the artist knows about the life of feeling, then the study of metaphor is signficant for Art Education not only for making art but also for responding to art. Response to the environment may be understood as Symbolic Inter-action, a theory posited by certain social psychologists (Mam's and Meltzer, 1978). People, they claim, act on the basis of assigned meanings rather than acting in direct response to stimuli. New mean-ings can be formed and new courses of action taken when ability to select and interpret stimuli in the environment is developed. Since art is a vital part of the environment, this study proposes that response to art may be considered as Symbolic Interaction. Responses may be examined in terms of literal and metaphoric meanings that in-dividuals construct in the process of interpreting art. In translating Langer's idea of art as metaphor and the theory o