Table 1 The Housen model used to characterize people into different stages of cognitive processing based on their actions as they view visual models (DeSantis and Housen 2000 , p. 13)

I

Accountive

Use senses, memories, emotions and personal associations, to make concrete observations about the work which get woven into a narrative

II

Constructive

Use logical and accessible tools: their own IVMs, knowledge, values of their social, moral and conventional world. If work does not look the way it is “supposed to”—if craft, skill, technique, hard work, utility, and function are not evident— then work is “weird,” lacking, and of no value.

III

Classifying

Analytical and critical. Identify work as to place, school, style, time and provenance. Decode the work using library of facts and figures that they are ready and eager to expand.

IV

Interpretive

Seek a personal encounter with a work. Let the meaning of the work slowly unfold; appreciate the subtleties of line and shape and colour. Critical skills are put in the service of feelings and intuitions; let underlying meanings of the work—what it symbolizes—emerge. Each encounter with a work of art presents a chance for new comparisons, insights, and experiences. Knowing that the work of art’s identity and value are subject to reinterpretation, these students see their own processes subject to chance and change.

V

Re-creative

Have established a long history of viewing and reflecting. A familiar painting is like an old friend who is known intimately, yet full of surprise. Combines personal contemplation with views that broadly encompass universal concerns.