THE ABILITY OF COLLEGE STUDENTS TO RECOGNIZE DEGREES OF ESTHETIC MERIT IN OBJECTS OF ART WAS STUDIED. THE OBJECTIVE WAS TO DETERMINE BY EXPERIMENTATION SOME OF THE FACTORS WHICH MAY BE IMPORTANT IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF ESTHETIC JUDGMENT. A SAMPLE OF MALE COLLEGE STUDENTS WAS GIVEN SEVERAL TESTS OF ESTHETIC JUDGMENT. FROM THESE SUBJECTS WERE CHOSEN SETS OF SUBJECTS, EQUATED ON JUDGMENT OF ART. EACH SET WAS DIVIDED AT RANDOM INTO VARIOUS EXPERIMENTAL GROUPS. THE GROUPS WERE REQUIRED TO RESPOND WITH ESTHETIC JUDGMENT TO A LARGE NUMBER OF PAIRS OF ART OBJECTS PRESENTED ON SLIDES. ESTHETIC JUDGMENT WAS FOUND TO BE RELATED TO AMOUNT OF BACKGROUND IN ART. THERE WAS NO WAY OF ASSESSING TO WHAT EXTENT THIS REFLECTS AN INFLUENCE OF BACKGROUND ON ESTHETIC JUDGMENT SCORE AND TO WHAT EXTENT IT REFLECTS A TENDENCY FOR PEOPLE WITH BETTER ESTHETIC JUDGMENT TO BE MORE INTERESTED IN ART AND THUS OBTAIN MORE EXPERIENCE WITH IT. THE RESULTS OF THIS STUDY CONSTITUTE TENTATIVE FINDINGS WHICH MIGHT WELL SERVE AS SOURCES OF HYPOTHESES IN THE STUDY OF OTHER GROUPS. OF SPECIAL IMPORTANCE WAS THE GENERAL PATTERN INTO WHICH A NUMBER OF FINDINGS FELL, SUGGESTING THAT GOOD ESTHETIC JUDGMENT IS LARGELY AN OUTCOME OF A GENERAL COGNITIVE APPROACH TO THE WORLD, AN APPROACH INVOLVING SEARCH FOR COMPLEX AND NOVEL EXPERIENCE WHICH IS THEN UNDERSTOOD AND EVALUATED THROUGH RELATIVELY AUTONOMOUS INTERACTIONS OF THE INDIVIDUAL WITH OBJECTS WHICH PROVIDE SUCH EXPERIENCE. (JH)