The constant bombardment by visual information that characterizes contemporary society demands a highly developed ability to critically observe the images around us. Many art museums believe they are uniquely equipped to train people in the visual skills needed to navigate, understand, and analyze our increasingly visual world.

Past research has found visual training often generalizes quite narrowly, but most training has focused on visual learning limited to a single goal, such as learning to identify visually similar objects in one category. The potential impacts and generalizability of a more diverse and varied visual training program, like those used by museums, has never been studied. We seek to scientifically test whether the kind of visual arts training museums are well equipped to provide can improve visual perception and visual cognition. The project is a collaboration with Vanderbilt University, The Ontario College of Art and Design University, and the University at Buffalo, including the Ross Eye Institute.