The Influence of Body Usage on Creative Drawing: A Comparison of Calisthenics and Meditation in Junior High School Students
Satoko Nishizawa, Takaya Yuizono
IIAI Letters on Business and Decision Science 2025 DOI: 10.52731/lbds.v005.338 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Within-subjects experiment Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 97 |
| Population | Second-year junior high school students |
| Interventions | Calisthenics Meditation |
| Duration | Three-minute sessions |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | Drawings produced after meditation tended to have larger areas, while drawings produced after calisthenics showed increased use of warm colors. Students who reported that calisthenics activated their creative drawing often commented on body image, while those who reported that meditation activated them commented on thinking and feeling. |
Abstract
This study investigates the influence of body usage on creativity drawing. We examined the effects of physical exercise and meditation on creativity in second-year junior high school students (N=97) through a within-subjects experiment. Participants performed three-minute sessions of calisthenics and meditation before drawing, and their artworks were analyzed for differences in area, color usage, and the presence of warm/cold colors. The results showed that 1) drawings after meditation tended to have larger areas, while those after calisthenics showed an increased use of warm colors; 2) In the questionnaire, the students who felt that calisthenics activated their creative drawing often commented on body image, while other students who felt that meditation activated them commented on thinking and feeling.
Comparable studies
Other experimental studies on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Cancer patients (clinical intervention study) | 2003 | Mixed methods: scale development, correlational, quasi-experimental, laboratory, experience-sampling, and clinical intervention study | |
| Loving-kindness meditation increases social connectedness. | 2008 | Controlled laboratory experiment | |
| Mindfulness and mind-wandering: Finding convergence through opposing constructs. | 2012 | Two studies: correlational study and experimental study | |
| Mental Training Enhances Attentional Stability: Neural and Behavioral Evidence | 2009 | Experimental study | |
| Mindfulness meditation and substance use in an incarcerated population. Incarcerated population | 2006 | Quasi-experimental with treatment-as-usual control condition |