The growing interest in integrating the arts across the curriculum represents an important change from previous concerns about teaching the structure of individual disciplines. It will require a change in the concept of cognition in the arts that is currently dominant in our psychology. This concept-the 'symbol systems' account-restricts thinking to one medium or symbol system at a time, whether the medium is a medium of perception-as in 'visual thinking'-or of expression-as with drawing. The restriction delegitimizes the kind of cross-media connections in thought that integrated learning
In this article, Steven Yalowitz, doctoral candidate in Experimental Psychology at Colorado State University, discusses information processing and behavior in museums. Yalowitz explores and draws connections between the different terminology used by researchers in studying these concepts.