The clustering strategy increased the metaphoric nature of college students' written interpretations for realistic, abstract, and nonobjective paintings. Relaxed attention exercises significantly increased metaphoric interpretations of realistic paintings only. (Author/RM)

Discusses Langer's thesis that metaphor is essential to thought and art is metaphor in terms of symbolization and the components of metaphor. The nature of visual metaphor, using Ortony's construct of linguistic metaphor, and how differences between visual and linguistic metaphors bear on the problem of interpreting art are discussed. (AM)