Think global, act local: A protocol analysis comparison of artists' and nonartists' cognitions, metacognitions, and evaluations while drawing.

Previous investigations of artists’ creative problem solving have mainly studied observable behaviors. To more richly examine artists’ thinking, concurrent verbal protocols from 23 artists and 23 nonartists creating original drawings were analyzed. Parsed clauses were reliably coded into categories representing cognitive processes (descriptions, plans, goals), metacognitive processes (comparing different points in time, considering hypothetical plans, monitoring progress, etc.), and evaluations (positive, negative, uncertain, neutral). Artists and nonartists were compared on the proportion of statements in each category, both prior to and while drawing. Overall, both groups’ protocols were dominated by descriptions, followed by plans, and more distantly by goals and metagoals. Evaluations were also common, comprising about 25% of statements in each group. During drawing, artists made more goal, more positive evaluations, and fewer negative evaluations than did nonartists. Artists also engaged in more metacognition having to do with monitoring the emerging progress of the drawing. Results are largely consistent with earlier findings in the expertise literature, suggesting it is a profitable framework for understanding artistic creativity.