Unveiling Human Emotions: A Journey through Clay Play

Unveiling Human Emotions: A Journey through Clay Play | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Unveiling Human Emotions: A Journey through Clay Play Xiangrui Miao, Xiaofang Zhang, Qili Wei, Huadong Liu, Yuanhang Yang This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9063891/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Review Version 1 posted 10 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Clay play has been recognized as a potential avenue for alleviating depressed mood and reducing stress, frequently employed to aid the recovery of children or soldiers coping with trauma. Despite its widespread use, the theoretical underpinnings remain relatively weak, relying heavily on empirical observations of patient progress in these therapeutic activities. In this study, we investigated the relationship between clay work and human emotion, The experiment recruited 102 university students who either watched a tragedy film, a comedy film, or did not engage in any specific activity, designated as Group A, Group B, and Control Group C, respectively. They were then asked to create clay artworks. Through the analysis of the artworks created under different groups, it was found that participants which in Group A tended to produce clay works with smaller surface areas, narrower color ranges, and more abstract patterns. These observed characteristics suggest that clay crafting serves as an important medium for emotional expression, capable of reflecting young people’s authentic emotions to a certain extent. This provides university educators with an effective assessment method for monitoring the psychological states of college students. Humanities/Cultural and media studies Social science/Cultural and media studies Biological sciences/Psychology Social science/Psychology Clay playing Emotional expression Artmaking therapy Material engagement Artwork dimension Artwork color Figures Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 1. Background Clay play has a long history in human society, as its three-dimensional form of expression has been used to create works of art to express the artist’s emotions [1] .And clay playing therapy is commonly used to help children [2] or soldiers [3] to restore the trauma. The brain-hand communication by haptic perception could build the capacity to continue a child’s developmental path. It was also claimed that the clay production reflects the subconscious mind of the patient and absorbs the anxiety. The subconscious expression during the creative process can reveal the author’s true emotions [4] . Artmaking is considered a means of improving depressed mood and reducing stress [6] , contributing to the adjustment of multiple sensory, emotional, and cognitive engagement levels, and at the same time, the artwork being created may symbolize the underlying emotions of the makers [7][8] , even as a carrier of post-traumatic emotions where inner states are seen and value [9] . Many clinical studies were reported in which patients were improved over the art therapy [10] . Like Plato believed that music could calm the soul, clay playing as an artistic expression form has also been considered by many scholars to be an effective form of art therapy. Between the release of the child’s natural instinct to play with mud and the similarity of clay playing to the act of shaping mud, cognitive archaeology and anthropology have conducted in-depth research on the material participation theory [11] . It has been documented that painful art could raise the connection to tragedy or horror and resulted the painful emotions [12] , and Petrillo et al showed that the catharsis emotion improves positive mood [13] . Adolescents and university students often experience difficulties in identifying and verbally articulating their emotional states. Emotional repression, limited communication with parents and teachers, and a lack of safe and supportive spaces for self-expression may contribute to the accumulation and escalation of psychological distress within this population. In educational settings, negative emotions are frequently reported by teachers to remain unnoticed until they manifest as behavioural problems or declines in academic performance. Consequently, non-verbal modes of expression, such as artistic activities, may provide a valuable avenue for facilitating emotional awareness, supporting healthier emotional expression, and promoting mental well-being in school and university contexts. Recent studies have demonstrated that visual art products themselves can reflect emotional states. For example, art therapy masks have been shown to mirror emotional changes in individuals with post-traumatic stress symptoms, indicating that the visual characteristics of art objects may serve as indicators of inner emotional conditions [14] . Similarly, drawings have been conceptualized as a "window to emotion", with systematic analyses of visual features revealing consistent associations between visual expression and participants’ emotional experiences [15] . 2. Research questions However, the theoretical basis for clay playing as art therapy is still weak and is often limited to the empirical observation of the progress made by patients involved in these mediation treatment activities [3] . One interesting question is that whether the participants is benefited from the physical touching or the emotion expressed during the clay therapy. We set out to investigate the correlation between emotion and clay playing and ask if clay therapy is an alternative way of emotion expression. This study seeks to explore the relationship between artistic creation and emotional expression, and to provide a foundation or support for the development of art therapy in areas such as campus psychological counseling, special education, and the adjunctive treatment of mental illness [16] . Based on the above literature, the present study addresses the following research questions: Q1: Do different emotional states influence the size of clay artworks produced by adolescents? Q2: Do adolescents show different color preferences in clay making under different emotions? Q3: Do adolescents produce different shapes and image types in clay making under different emotions? 3. Method The experimental group recruited 102 undergraduate students aged between 18 through 23 (46 males and 56 females) from Xi’an Jiaotong University. Note they are not art majors. Before the experiment, volunteers signed the experimental consent form and completed a questionnaire consisting of 13 items (including age, major, understanding of art creation, current emotional assessment, etc.). Then, they were randomly assigned into three groups, i.e. group A, group B and group C, each with 34 students. The volunteers in the group A were asked to watch the mixed clips of “The Comic Dialogue”, “Home with Kids”, and “Tom and Jerry”. Note that these videos are typical comedies. The group B members watched the mixed clips of “Train to Busan”, “Coco”, “Miracle in Cell No. 7”, “Titanic” and “Aftershock” which are some classical tragic videos. The third group is group C, whose members did not watch anything. It is widely acknowledged that audiences easily empathize with characters and experience a range of emotions due to the plot [17][18] . Previous studies have demonstrated that short film clips are effective tools for inducing transient emotional states and are widely used in experimental mood induction paradigms, particularly among adolescents and young adults. Based on their facial expressions, body language, and self-reported perceptions, and supported by multiple studies indicating that watching films or video clips can significantly influence individuals’ emotional states [19–22] , we inferred that the participants successfully entered distinct emotional states, such as positive and negative affect. Hereafter, all participates in three groups went to three specialized clay playing rooms respectively. They were asked to try to make a clay art independently without any communication within about thirty minutes. The experiment provided three colors of clay directly: red, yellow and blue, which are the three primary colors. The volunteers were given a simple instruction on color principles, that is, red and yellow mix to form orange, yellow and blue mix to form green, and red and blue mix to form purple. Green, purple and brown are the three intermediate colors. The volunteers could freely choose the use of the above colors in their clay works. The time consumed, dimensions (length, width, height), colors and shapes (strip, circle, angle and ball) of the clay work of every participant were measured or briefly described by other volunteers. These data were used as key indicators to analyze the research questions outlined above, specifically to investigate whether ceramic artworks can reflect the hidden emotions of adolescents and to provide evidence for the development of art therapy. The significance of the data was analyzed by the one-factor paired ANAVO (Analysis of Variance) test and the cut-off was set as p < 0.05. All procedures involving human participants were approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Xi’an Jiaotong University and were conducted in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. Informed consent was obtained from all participants. 4. Results and Discussion Based on the questionnaire results, we can see that there is a slightly higher proportion of individuals aged between 18 through 19 across these groups compared to those aged between 20 through 23 ( Fig. 1A ). Most of the volunteers reported knowledge of a variety of artistic processes, even though they came from non-art majors ( Fig. 1B ). The group A, group B and group C exhibited a comparable gender distribution ( Fig. 1C ). According to the results of the questionnaire before the experiment, most of the students thought that they were in a calm or positive emotional state before the experiment interfered with personal emotions ( Fig. 1D ). The average time spent on the activity was proximately thirty minutes. No significant differences were observed within the groups (Table 1 ). This means the random grouping of volunteers did not introduce significant variance into the experiment. Table 1 The ANOVA analysis for time consumed. Group A Group B Group C Source of Variation F P-value F crit SUMMARY (Length) Average 28.62 31.79 32.56 Between Groups 1.73 0.18 3.09 Variance 9.86 7.41 10.24 Count 34 34 34 We showcased clay artworks created under different emotional states, analyzed their distinguishing characteristics, and explored the impact of emotions on the creative process. Selected examples of the clay works are displayed in Fig. 2 . 4.1 The emotion effects on the size of clay arts The dimensions of the clay artworks were measured, and corresponding box plots are presented in Fig. 3 . Width played a significant role in distinguishing the experimental performance of the groups A and B. The group B exhibited similar upper and lower extremum, mean, and variance of width, while the group A displayed lower extremum and mean values than the group C. Moreover, in the group A, the range of variance change was greater compared to that of the group C. Additionally, the length experiment revealed that the upper and lower extreme values and variances of the Group B closely resembled those of the group C. However, the variance distribution range and upper and lower biases of the group A were lower than those of the group C. The dimensions from the three groups showed significant differences according to the ANOVA single-factor analysis. Table 2 displays p-values of length, width and hight smaller than 0.05, indicating high confidence. The average length of the Group A is 15.8 cm, approximately 20% smaller than that of the other groups. A similar pattern is evident in the width measurements, with average widths of 14.09 cm, 17.21 cm, and 16.71 cm observed in the Group A, the Group B, and the group C, respectively. Regarding height, the clay arts of the Group A exhibit the maximum value. It is easier to extend the works in width and length rather than height during the creative process because clay creation lacks a rigid internal structure to support the height of the clay. The average height of artworks from the Group A reached 7.82 cm, surpassing the Group B’s average height of 5.68 cm and the group C’s average of 7 cm. Namely, the Group A scored approximately 38% higher than the Group B. These findings indicate that, given the same amount of clay, individuals in Group A showed a greater tendency to emphasize the vertical dimension of their works. Thus, these results support Research Question 1, suggesting that changes in emotional states are systematically reflected in the spatial dimensions of ceramic artworks. Table 2 The ANOVA analysis of length, width and height within groups. Group A Group B Group C Source of Variation F P-value F crit SUMMARY (Length) Average 15.82 20.68 18.03 Between Groups 3.90 0.023 3.09 Variance 49.66 45.07 59.48 SUMMARY (Width) Average 14.09 17.21 16.71 Between Groups 4.01 0.021 3.09 Variance 22.02 28.90 20.46 SUMMARY (Hight) Average 7.82 5.68 7.00 Between Groups 3.11 0.049 3.09 Variance 12.63 9.86 15.94 Count 34 34 34 4.2 The emotion effects on the color of clay arts The clay arts were described by a volunteer to record the colors and shapes appeared in each works. The key word of colors such as “red, yellow, blue, green, purple and brown” were extracted from the description. To avoid the bias induced by the analyst, the percentage of a specific color in the art was not considered. As long as it was described, this color will be counted once, as shown, the number of color counts was shown in Table 3 and Fig. 4A . These six colors were used 133 times in the group B, while only 98 times were found in the group A and 108 times were found in the group C. The ANOVA analysis showed that Group A used an average of 2.88 colors, while Group C and Group B used an average of 3.18 and 3.91 colors, respectively, with the mean number of colors increasing progressively across groups. The p-value was 0.001, indicating a high level of reliability for this observation. The data clearly showed that student in sad mood tend to use more colors in their clay arts. Maybe they are expressing their emotion unconsciously in colors. Multiple colors might help them relieve from the sad mood. In summary, these patterns of color use substantiate the question raised in Q2. As shown in Fig. 4B , the use of colors in clay works can be classified into two categories: primary colors (including red, yellow, and blue) and intermediate colors (brown, green and purple). Among them, the primary colors are the clay colors directly provided by the experiment to the volunteers, while the intermediate colors are the hues produced by the volunteers through free blending. We found that group A used primary colors 60 times out of 98 times, which is 61.22%, while group B used primary colors 82 times out of 133 times, which is 61.65%. Both group A and B used primary colors significantly less than group C at 64.81%. This suggests that students who were emotional were more inclined to use interstitial colors compared to those who were calm. Contrary to the conjecture, students in happy moods did not use more saturated primary colors, which are considered to be "powerful", "cheerful" and "dynamic" characteristics [23] . This may be because students’ diverse emotional experiences need to be expressed through more subtle colors. When we divided the colors of the clay art into two categories, cool (blue, green and purple) and warm (red, yellow and brown), as shown in Fig. 4C , group C used cool and warm colors about the same number of times, 53 (49.1%) and 55 (50.9%) times; while group A and B had a clear preference for cool colors, with 73 out of 133 color choices (54.87%) by the group B and 56 out of 98 choices (57.14%) by group A. Group B’s preference for cool colors may be because cool colors give a low and negative impression, which is in line with group B’s mood [24] . In contrast, group A preferred cold colors, probably because in positive moods, subjects were happy to express their love for blue-green hues. This emotion may stem from our innate human fascination with cool-colored spaces such as waters, skies, and forests [25] . Table 3 The ANOVA analysis of types of colors used within groups. Average Group A Group B Group C Source of Variation F P-value F crit 2.88 3.91 3.18 Between Groups 7.21 0.001 3.09 Variance 1.08 1.11 1.79 Count 34 34 34 4.3 The emotion effects on the shape of clay arts The use of shape as a symbolic element in artistic creation can be seen as the exploration and expression of self-emotions and thoughts [26] . Key words describing the main shapes such as “strip, circle, square and ball” were extracted from the description text. For the same reason, the number of shapes in the art was not counted. Only the frequency was used to analysis to avoid the bias. As shown in Fig. 5A , less shapes were used in either group A or B in comparing with group C. The ANOVA results showed that the average number of strip-shaped elements per clay work was 0.62, 0.32, and 0.79 in Groups A, B, and C, respectively. Compared to Group C, both Groups A and B used significantly fewer strip-shaped elements (p < 0.05), while no significant differences were found in the use of other shapes. This indicates that emotional states led to changes in shape preference. Although further experiments are needed to address, we can see big difference of the frequency of circle within three groups. There are 21 and 26 volunteers of groups A and C used circles in their clay arts. Only 12 clay arts contain circles in group B, which is only half of other two groups. It is hard to explain by the random variance. Similarly, there are fewer strips in group A than those in other two groups. Although it is not conclusive, sad volunteers are less likely to use circle and happy volunteers are less likely to use strip than volunteers in group C. The images appearing in clay works can be divided into two categories: abstract and figurative images. The former are those imitating people, plants, animals, etc., while the latter refer to those consisting of pure geometry, symbols etc. The number of occurrences of these two kinds of images were counted in the works. As shown in Fig. 5B , the number of occurrences of concrete and abstract images is presented in the table. The bar graphs show that abstract images are in the majority in the three groups of clay works. Compared to the 69.66% frequency of use in the group C, the frequency of abstract images in the group B decreased to only 64.76%, while the frequency of abstract images in the group A greatly increased to 75.61%. This suggests that sadness causes participants to prefer more concrete images, whereas happy emotions cause participants to prefer to represent abstract images. Although some differences in basic shapes did not reach statistical significance, the shift in abstract versus concrete images provides partial support for Q3. Table 3 The ANOVA analysis of shapes within groups. Group A Group B Group C Source of Variation F P-value F crit SUMMARY (Strip) Average 0.62 0.32 0.79 Between Groups 9.05 0.00 3.09 Variance 0.24 0.23 0.17 SUMMARY (Circle) Average 0.24 0.21 0.24 Between Groups 0.05 0.95 3.09 Variance 0.19 0.17 0.19 SUMMARY (Angle) Average 0.68 0.50 0.59 Between Groups 1.08 0.34 3.09 Variance 0.23 0.26 0.25 SUMMARY (Ball) Average 0.03 0.06 0.03 Between Groups 0.25 0.78 3.09 Variance 0.03 0.06 0.03 Count 34 34 34 5. Conclusion This study explores the visual characteristics of clay works created by college students in experimentally induced emotional states. Through the analysis of the size, color use and morphological characteristics of clay works in different emotional states, the research results provide empirical support for clay play as a non-verbal emotional expression medium. The research results systematically respond to the research hypothesis put forward. Consistent with the research question l, there are significant differences in the spatial dimensions of clay works created in different emotional states: participants in positive emotional states (group A) tend to create works that are more compact in length and width but more prominent in the vertical direction, presenting a more concentrated and upward spatial table. Reach. In terms of color use, the results support the research question 2, that is, the participants in a negative emotional state (group B) use a richer color range, which may reflect more complex emotional experiences. In terms of form and image type, the research results provide partial support for the Q3: although there is no significant difference in the frequency of use of basic shapes, there is a clear distinction between abstract and concrete expression preferences. Sad emotions tend to be concrete, while positive emotions are more abstract. The research results further show that clay creation has potential emotional guidance value in the context of teenagers and college education. Emotional state can be reflected in clay works in a subtle and systematic way through intuitive selection of size, color and form. The touch and plasticity of clay makes it a material medium that helps to externalize emotions. From the perspective of education, paying attention to the visual and spatial characteristics of students’ clay works may provide a non-invasive emotional observation and support channel for teachers and tutors. Future research can further refine emotional types, such as anxiety, stress or loneliness, on the basis of this experiment, to explore whether more specific emotional states correspond to a clearer pottery creation model. Follow-up experiments can also focus on the group of college students with mental health problems, examine the changes in the characteristics of clay works before and after the intervention, and combine it with in-depth analysis of the content, form and process of creation, so as to more comprehensively understand the relationship between emotional state and the use of materials, for clay playing in the field of education and mental health. The application provides further support. Declarations Author Contribution Xiangrui Miao ( [ [email protected] ](mailto: [email protected] ) ) proposed the idea and performed the experiments.Huadong Liu ( [ [email protected] ](mailto: [email protected] ) ) conceived the presented idea and analyzed the results.Qili Wei( [ [email protected] ](mailto: [email protected] ) ) wrote the manuscript.Xiaofang Zhang ( [ [email protected] ](mailto: [email protected] ) ) described the arts and wrote the manuscript.Yuanhang Yang (yang [yuanhang1@gmail.](mailto:yuanhang1@gmail.) com) revised the manuscript.All the authors have made substantive contributions to the article and assume full responsibility for its content. We have no conflicts of interest to disclose. Data Availability All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in its **Supplementary File 1** . References Yamacli, R., Ozen, A. & Tokman, L. Y. An experimental study in an architectural design studio: the search for three-dimensional form and aesthetics through clay[J]. Int. J. Art Des. Educ. 24 , 308–314 (2005). Elbrecht, C. & Antcliff, L. Being in Touch: Healing Developmental and Attachment Trauma at the Clay Field. Child. Australia . 40 (2), 209–220 (2015). Chesnot, O. H. & Chidiac, N. Clay mediation: An innovative therapy in the treatment of trauma and post-traumatism. Ann. Med. Psychol. 178 (3), 1–9 (2020). Xiang, R. Exploration of the Psychological Healing Function of Abstract Art, Central Academy of Fine Arts[D]. (4) (2012). Ni, T. & Hu, B. The application and development trend of art therapy in China in the past decade. Journal of Southwest Jiaotong University (Social Sciences Edition), Vol. 13, p.92. (5) (2012). Orkibi, H. & Ram-Vlasov, N. Linking Trauma to Posttraumatic Growth and Mental Health Through Emotional and Cognitive Creativity. Psychol. Aesthet. Creativity Arts . 13 (6), 416–430 (2019). Czamanski-Cohen, J. & Weihs, K. The bodymind model: A platform for the conduct of the mechanistic study of art therapy. Arts Psychother. 51 , 63–71 (2016). (18). Gerge, A. & Pedersen, I. N. Analyzing pictorial artifacts from psychotherapy and art therapy when overcoming stress and trauma. The Arts in Psychotherapy, Vol. 54, pp. 56–68. (19) (2017). Diamond, S. & Shrira, A. From a Nothing to Something Special: Art as a Space of Holding Attunement in the Creative Experience of Holocaust Survivor Artists[J]. Psychol. Aesthet. Creativity Arts . 16 , 318–331 (2022). Hu, J., Zhang, J., Hu, L., Yu, H. & Xu, J. Art Therapy: A Complementary Treatment for Mental Disorders. Front Psychol, Vol. 12, p. 686005. (7) (2021). Malafouris, L. Mind and material engagement. Phenomenol Cogn. Sci. 18 (8), 1–17 (2019). Strohl, M. Art and painful emotion. Philosophy Compass, Vol. 14, No.1. (9) (2019). De Lili, W. E. Does Art Improve Mood? A Test of a Key Assumption Underlying Art Therapy[J]. Art Therapy, Vol. 22, p. 7. (10) (2005). Estrada Gonzalez, V. et al. Art therapy masks reflect emotional changes in military personnel with PTSS. Sci. Rep. 14 , 7192 (2024). Weng, H. C. et al. Drawing as a window to emotion with insights from tech-transformed participant images. Sci. Rep. 14 , 11571 (2024). Ni, T. & Hu, B. The application and development trend of art therapy in China in the past decade. Journal of Southwest Jiaotong University (Social Sciences Edition), Vol. 13, p.92. (5) (2012). Ulus, F. Movie Therapy, Moving Therapy[M] pp. 47–49 (Trafford Publishing, 2003). Kim, S. S. Comparative Study of the Therapeutic Factors of Self-help and Interactive Cinema Therapy. Film Stud. 55 , 83–126 (2013). Di Crosta, A. et al. The Chieti Affective Action Videos database, a resource for the study of emotions in psychology. Sci. Data . 7 , 32 (2020). Gross, J. J. & Levenson, R. W. Emotion elicitation using films. Cogn. Emot. 9 , 87–108 (1995). Baveye, Y., Dellandréa, E., Chamaret, C. & Chen, L. LIRIS-ACCEDE: A Video Database for Affective Content. Anal. IEEE Trans. Affect. Comput. 6 , 43–55 (2015). Deng, Y., Yang, M. & Zhou, R. A. New Standardized Emotional Film Database for Asian Culture. Front. Psychol. 8 , 1941 (2017). Lee Da Som and Park Yung Kyung. Color Emotion of High-Saturation Color. J. Korea Soc. Color. Stud. 33 (2), 86–95 (2019). Rui et al. Investigation on factors to influence color emotion and color preference responses. Optik - International Journal for Light and Electron Optics, Vol. 136, pp. 71–78. (13) (2017). Lengen, C. The effects of colours, shapes and boundaries of landscapes on perception, emotion and mentalising processes promoting health and well-being[J]. Health & Place, pp. 166–177. (14) (2015). Gabel, A. & Robb, M. (Re)considering psychological constructs: A thematic synthesis defining five therapeutic factors in group art therapy[J]. The Arts in Psychotherapy, Vol. 55, pp. 126–135. (20) (2017). Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Review Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 21 Apr, 2026 Reviews received at journal 13 Apr, 2026 Reviews received at journal 08 Apr, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 03 Apr, 2026 Reviewers agreed at journal 03 Apr, 2026 Reviewers invited by journal 03 Apr, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 02 Apr, 2026 Editor invited by journal 02 Apr, 2026 Submission checks completed at journal 29 Mar, 2026 First submitted to journal 29 Mar, 2026 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9063891","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":619643362,"identity":"60c2660c-09a7-4ddd-8de1-96539be1d979","order_by":0,"name":"Xiangrui Miao","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Xiangrui","middleName":"","lastName":"Miao","suffix":""},{"id":619643363,"identity":"ad7e7f42-1d6d-4001-92ee-5aa8fa54522d","order_by":1,"name":"Xiaofang Zhang","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Xiaofang","middleName":"","lastName":"Zhang","suffix":""},{"id":619643364,"identity":"526ace57-f022-4cf5-8dcf-cedffe94a161","order_by":2,"name":"Qili Wei","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Qili","middleName":"","lastName":"Wei","suffix":""},{"id":619643365,"identity":"b15be4e4-b6a8-4dfa-88c1-d9587a405a13","order_by":3,"name":"Huadong Liu","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Huadong","middleName":"","lastName":"Liu","suffix":""},{"id":619643366,"identity":"757a7bec-9ef0-4ce1-994d-1549c4e5680a","order_by":4,"name":"Yuanhang Yang","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAABAUlEQVRIiWNgGAWjYDADAxCRUAEkmJkbSNDy4AxICyMJWhgftoGYBLQYHD97+DVvm12eOfvZwy8S59VG87cDtfyo2IZby5m8NGvetuRiy568NIvEbcdzZxxmbGDsOXMbt5YDOWbGvG3MiRuADIPEbcdyG4BamBnb8Gg5/wakpT5xA5BhkDjnWO58glpu5Bg/5m07nLgByHiQ2FCTu4GQFskbb8wY55w7DtTyxowh4diB3I1ALQfx+YXvfI7xhzdl1UCH5Rh//FFTlzvv/OGDD35U4NaicICBTYoHwmaTYGA4DGYdwKkeCOQbGJg//oCwmT8wMNThUzwKRsEoGAUjFAAAFExmeNWlTuIAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"","institution":"Nanyang Technological University","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Yuanhang","middleName":"","lastName":"Yang","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-03-08 11:38:36","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9063891/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9063891/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":106581099,"identity":"32b1eee6-64c4-4dc4-b51d-09a569b200e9","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-10 06:41:39","extension":"jpg","order_by":1,"title":"Figure 1","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":78260,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eThe questionnaire analysis of participants.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"1.jpg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9063891/v1/954b617732a0b31a8b424b8b.jpg"},{"id":106581098,"identity":"be492f70-7051-4963-88f0-32afc8fa5803","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-10 06:41:39","extension":"jpg","order_by":2,"title":"Figure 2","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":95016,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eSome clay arts made by the participants.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"2.jpg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9063891/v1/21187d03ad76ecad44c5f0f5.jpg"},{"id":106581110,"identity":"d558563a-f1e2-4dc7-a8a3-e807bac2a27d","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-10 06:41:42","extension":"jpg","order_by":3,"title":"Figure 3","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":40143,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eThe size distribution of clay arts made by volunteers.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"3.jpg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9063891/v1/76353dbb7499b8240ab3a443.jpg"},{"id":106581124,"identity":"911394bf-638c-44b4-b1ba-a34572d6ed9b","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-10 06:41:44","extension":"jpg","order_by":4,"title":"Figure 4","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":70962,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eThe color distribution of clay arts made by volunteers.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"4.jpg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9063891/v1/1d51cd308df4aadfaf5d49b3.jpg"},{"id":106581095,"identity":"314f50aa-39f3-40a5-88b9-d3287c737f29","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-10 06:41:33","extension":"jpg","order_by":5,"title":"Figure 5","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"figure","size":43167,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eThe shape distribution of clay arts made by volunteers.\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"5.jpg","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9063891/v1/56573527f9cbfb405d0fd83f.jpg"},{"id":106581208,"identity":"85e328ab-3d76-454e-b574-be5b2e1f5843","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-04-10 06:42:17","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1115903,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"manuscript.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-9063891/v1/16bd5d87-92ad-4e8f-bae1-866eeb49548a.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Unveiling Human Emotions: A Journey through Clay Play","fulltext":[{"header":"1. Background","content":"\u003cp\u003eClay play has a long history in human society, as its three-dimensional form of expression has been used to create works of art to express the artist\u0026rsquo;s emotions\u003csup\u003e[1]\u003c/sup\u003e.And clay playing therapy is commonly used to help children\u003csup\u003e[2]\u003c/sup\u003e or soldiers\u003csup\u003e[3]\u003c/sup\u003e to restore the trauma. The brain-hand communication by haptic perception could build the capacity to continue a child\u0026rsquo;s developmental path. It was also claimed that the clay production reflects the subconscious mind of the patient and absorbs the anxiety. The subconscious expression during the creative process can reveal the author\u0026rsquo;s true emotions\u003csup\u003e[4]\u003c/sup\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eArtmaking is considered a means of improving depressed mood and reducing stress\u003csup\u003e[6]\u003c/sup\u003e, contributing to the adjustment of multiple sensory, emotional, and cognitive engagement levels, and at the same time, the artwork being created may symbolize the underlying emotions of the makers\u003csup\u003e[7][8]\u003c/sup\u003e, even as a carrier of post-traumatic emotions where inner states are seen and value\u003csup\u003e[9]\u003c/sup\u003e. Many clinical studies were reported in which patients were improved over the art therapy\u003csup\u003e[10]\u003c/sup\u003e. Like Plato believed that music could calm the soul, clay playing as an artistic expression form has also been considered by many scholars to be an effective form of art therapy. Between the release of the child\u0026rsquo;s natural instinct to play with mud and the similarity of clay playing to the act of shaping mud, cognitive archaeology and anthropology have conducted in-depth research on the material participation theory \u003csup\u003e[11]\u003c/sup\u003e. It has been documented that painful art could raise the connection to tragedy or horror and resulted the painful emotions\u003csup\u003e[12]\u003c/sup\u003e, and Petrillo et al showed that the catharsis emotion improves positive mood \u003csup\u003e[13]\u003c/sup\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e Adolescents and university students often experience difficulties in identifying and verbally articulating their emotional states. Emotional repression, limited communication with parents and teachers, and a lack of safe and supportive spaces for self-expression may contribute to the accumulation and escalation of psychological distress within this population. In educational settings, negative emotions are frequently reported by teachers to remain unnoticed until they manifest as behavioural problems or declines in academic performance. Consequently, non-verbal modes of expression, such as artistic activities, may provide a valuable avenue for facilitating emotional awareness, supporting healthier emotional expression, and promoting mental well-being in school and university contexts. Recent studies have demonstrated that visual art products themselves can reflect emotional states. For example, art therapy masks have been shown to mirror emotional changes in individuals with post-traumatic stress symptoms, indicating that the visual characteristics of art objects may serve as indicators of inner emotional conditions\u003csup\u003e[14]\u003c/sup\u003e. Similarly, drawings have been conceptualized as a \"window to emotion\", with systematic analyses of visual features revealing consistent associations between visual expression and participants\u0026rsquo; emotional experiences\u003csup\u003e[15]\u003c/sup\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"2. Research questions","content":"\u003cp\u003eHowever, the theoretical basis for clay playing as art therapy is still weak and is often limited to the empirical observation of the progress made by patients involved in these mediation treatment activities\u003csup\u003e[3]\u003c/sup\u003e. One interesting question is that whether the participants is benefited from the physical touching or the emotion expressed during the clay therapy. We set out to investigate the correlation between emotion and clay playing and ask if clay therapy is an alternative way of emotion expression. This study seeks to explore the relationship between artistic creation and emotional expression, and to provide a foundation or support for the development of art therapy in areas such as campus psychological counseling, special education, and the adjunctive treatment of mental illness \u003csup\u003e[16]\u003c/sup\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eBased on the above literature, the present study addresses the following research questions:\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eQ1: Do different emotional states influence the size of clay artworks produced by adolescents?\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eQ2: Do adolescents show different color preferences in clay making under different emotions?\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eQ3: Do adolescents produce different shapes and image types in clay making under different emotions?\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"3. Method","content":"\u003cp\u003eThe experimental group recruited 102 undergraduate students aged between 18 through 23 (46 males and 56 females) from Xi\u0026rsquo;an Jiaotong University. Note they are not art majors. Before the experiment, volunteers signed the experimental consent form and completed a questionnaire consisting of 13 items (including age, major, understanding of art creation, current emotional assessment, etc.). Then, they were randomly assigned into three groups, i.e. group A, group B and group C, each with 34 students. The volunteers in the group A were asked to watch the mixed clips of \u0026ldquo;The Comic Dialogue\u0026rdquo;, \u0026ldquo;Home with Kids\u0026rdquo;, and \u0026ldquo;Tom and Jerry\u0026rdquo;. Note that these videos are typical comedies. The group B members watched the mixed clips of \u0026ldquo;Train to Busan\u0026rdquo;, \u0026ldquo;Coco\u0026rdquo;, \u0026ldquo;Miracle in Cell No. 7\u0026rdquo;, \u0026ldquo;Titanic\u0026rdquo; and \u0026ldquo;Aftershock\u0026rdquo; which are some classical tragic videos. The third group is group C, whose members did not watch anything.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIt is widely acknowledged that audiences easily empathize with characters and experience a range of emotions due to the plot\u003csup\u003e[17][18]\u003c/sup\u003e. Previous studies have demonstrated that short film clips are effective tools for inducing transient emotional states and are widely used in experimental mood induction paradigms, particularly among adolescents and young adults. Based on their facial expressions, body language, and self-reported perceptions, and supported by multiple studies indicating that watching films or video clips can significantly influence individuals\u0026rsquo; emotional states\u003csup\u003e[19\u0026ndash;22]\u003c/sup\u003e, we inferred that the participants successfully entered distinct emotional states, such as positive and negative affect. Hereafter, all participates in three groups went to three specialized clay playing rooms respectively. They were asked to try to make a clay art independently without any communication within about thirty minutes. The experiment provided three colors of clay directly: red, yellow and blue, which are the three primary colors. The volunteers were given a simple instruction on color principles, that is, red and yellow mix to form orange, yellow and blue mix to form green, and red and blue mix to form purple. Green, purple and brown are the three intermediate colors. The volunteers could freely choose the use of the above colors in their clay works. The time consumed, dimensions (length, width, height), colors and shapes (strip, circle, angle and ball) of the clay work of every participant were measured or briefly described by other volunteers. These data were used as key indicators to analyze the research questions outlined above, specifically to investigate whether ceramic artworks can reflect the hidden emotions of adolescents and to provide evidence for the development of art therapy. The significance of the data was analyzed by the one-factor paired ANAVO (Analysis of Variance) test and the cut-off was set as \u003cem\u003ep\u003c/em\u003e\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.05.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003e All procedures involving human participants were approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of Xi\u0026rsquo;an Jiaotong University and were conducted in accordance with relevant guidelines and regulations. Informed consent was obtained from all participants.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"4. Results and Discussion","content":"\u003cp\u003eBased on the questionnaire results, we can see that there is a slightly higher proportion of individuals aged between 18 through 19 across these groups compared to those aged between 20 through 23 (\u003cstrong\u003eFig.\u0026nbsp;1A\u003c/strong\u003e). Most of the volunteers reported knowledge of a variety of artistic processes, even though they came from non-art majors (\u003cstrong\u003eFig.\u0026nbsp;1B\u003c/strong\u003e). The group A, group B and group C exhibited a comparable gender distribution (\u003cstrong\u003eFig.\u0026nbsp;1C\u003c/strong\u003e). According to the results of the questionnaire before the experiment, most of the students thought that they were in a calm or positive emotional state before the experiment interfered with personal emotions (\u003cstrong\u003eFig.\u0026nbsp;1D\u003c/strong\u003e). The average time spent on the activity was proximately thirty minutes. No significant differences were observed within the groups (Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e1\u003c/span\u003e). This means the random grouping of volunteers did not introduce significant variance into the experiment.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab1\" border=\"1\"\u003e\n \u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e\n \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 1\u003c/div\u003e\n \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eThe ANOVA analysis for time consumed.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/div\u003e\n \u003c/caption\u003e\n \u003ccolgroup cols=\"8\"\u003e\u003c/colgroup\u003e\n \u003cthead\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eGroup A\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eGroup B\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eGroup C\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eSource of Variation\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eF\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eP-value\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eF crit\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c2\" namest=\"c1\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eSUMMARY (Length)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003c/thead\u003e\n \u003ctbody\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAverage\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e28.62\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e31.79\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e32.56\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eBetween Groups\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e1.73\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.18\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e3.09\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVariance\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e9.86\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e7.41\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e10.24\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCount\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e34\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e34\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e34\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003c/tbody\u003e\n \u003c/table\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe showcased clay artworks created under different emotional states, analyzed their distinguishing characteristics, and explored the impact of emotions on the creative process. Selected examples of the clay works are displayed in Fig. \u003cspan refid=\"Fig1\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv id=\"Sec5\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\n \u003ch2\u003e4.1 The emotion effects on the size of clay arts\u003c/h2\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eThe dimensions of the clay artworks were measured, and corresponding box plots are presented in Fig. \u003cspan refid=\"Fig2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e. Width played a significant role in distinguishing the experimental performance of the groups A and B. The group B exhibited similar upper and lower extremum, mean, and variance of width, while the group A displayed lower extremum and mean values than the group C. Moreover, in the group A, the range of variance change was greater compared to that of the group C. Additionally, the length experiment revealed that the upper and lower extreme values and variances of the Group B closely resembled those of the group C. However, the variance distribution range and upper and lower biases of the group A were lower than those of the group C. The dimensions from the three groups showed significant differences according to the ANOVA single-factor analysis. Table\u0026nbsp;\u003cspan refid=\"Tab2\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e2\u003c/span\u003e displays p-values of length, width and hight smaller than 0.05, indicating high confidence. The average length of the Group A is 15.8 cm, approximately 20% smaller than that of the other groups. A similar pattern is evident in the width measurements, with average widths of 14.09 cm, 17.21 cm, and 16.71 cm observed in the Group A, the Group B, and the group C, respectively. Regarding height, the clay arts of the Group A exhibit the maximum value. It is easier to extend the works in width and length rather than height during the creative process because clay creation lacks a rigid internal structure to support the height of the clay. The average height of artworks from the Group A reached 7.82 cm, surpassing the Group B\u0026rsquo;s average height of 5.68 cm and the group C\u0026rsquo;s average of 7 cm. Namely, the Group A scored approximately 38% higher than the Group B. These findings indicate that, given the same amount of clay, individuals in Group A showed a greater tendency to emphasize the vertical dimension of their works. Thus, these results support Research Question 1, suggesting that changes in emotional states are systematically reflected in the spatial dimensions of ceramic artworks.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab2\" border=\"1\"\u003e\n \u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e\n \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 2\u003c/div\u003e\n \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eThe ANOVA analysis of length, width and height within groups.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/div\u003e\n \u003c/caption\u003e\n \u003ccolgroup cols=\"8\"\u003e\u003c/colgroup\u003e\n \u003cthead\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eGroup A\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eGroup B\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eGroup C\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eSource of Variation\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eF\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eP-value\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eF crit\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c2\" namest=\"c1\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eSUMMARY (Length)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003c/thead\u003e\n \u003ctbody\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAverage\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e15.82\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e20.68\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e18.03\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eBetween Groups\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e3.90\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.023\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e3.09\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVariance\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e49.66\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e45.07\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e59.48\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c2\" namest=\"c1\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSUMMARY (Width)\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAverage\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e14.09\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e17.21\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e16.71\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eBetween Groups\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e4.01\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.021\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e3.09\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVariance\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e22.02\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e28.90\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e20.46\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c2\" namest=\"c1\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSUMMARY (Hight)\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAverage\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e7.82\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e5.68\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e7.00\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eBetween Groups\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e3.11\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.049\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e3.09\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVariance\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e12.63\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e9.86\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e15.94\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCount\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e34\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e34\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e34\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003c/tbody\u003e\n \u003c/table\u003e\n \u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv id=\"Sec6\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\n \u003ch2\u003e4.2 The emotion effects on the color of clay arts\u003c/h2\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eThe clay arts were described by a volunteer to record the colors and shapes appeared in each works. The key word of colors such as \u0026ldquo;red, yellow, blue, green, purple and brown\u0026rdquo; were extracted from the description. To avoid the bias induced by the analyst, the percentage of a specific color in the art was not considered. As long as it was described, this color will be counted once, as shown, the number of color counts was shown in Table \u003cspan refid=\"Tab4\" class=\"InternalRef\"\u003e3\u003c/span\u003e \u003cstrong\u003eand Fig.\u0026nbsp;4A\u003c/strong\u003e. These six colors were used 133 times in the group B, while only 98 times were found in the group A and 108 times were found in the group C. The ANOVA analysis showed that Group A used an average of 2.88 colors, while Group C and Group B used an average of 3.18 and 3.91 colors, respectively, with the mean number of colors increasing progressively across groups. The p-value was 0.001, indicating a high level of reliability for this observation. The data clearly showed that student in sad mood tend to use more colors in their clay arts. Maybe they are expressing their emotion unconsciously in colors. Multiple colors might help them relieve from the sad mood. In summary, these patterns of color use substantiate the question raised in Q2.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eAs shown in \u003cstrong\u003eFig.\u0026nbsp;4B\u003c/strong\u003e, the use of colors in clay works can be classified into two categories: primary colors (including red, yellow, and blue) and intermediate colors (brown, green and purple). Among them, the primary colors are the clay colors directly provided by the experiment to the volunteers, while the intermediate colors are the hues produced by the volunteers through free blending. We found that group A used primary colors 60 times out of 98 times, which is 61.22%, while group B used primary colors 82 times out of 133 times, which is 61.65%. Both group A and B used primary colors significantly less than group C at 64.81%. This suggests that students who were emotional were more inclined to use interstitial colors compared to those who were calm. Contrary to the conjecture, students in happy moods did not use more saturated primary colors, which are considered to be \u0026quot;powerful\u0026quot;, \u0026quot;cheerful\u0026quot; and \u0026quot;dynamic\u0026quot; characteristics\u003csup\u003e[23]\u003c/sup\u003e. This may be because students\u0026rsquo; diverse emotional experiences need to be expressed through more subtle colors.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eWhen we divided the colors of the clay art into two categories, cool (blue, green and purple) and warm (red, yellow and brown), as shown in \u003cstrong\u003eFig.\u0026nbsp;4C\u003c/strong\u003e, group C used cool and warm colors about the same number of times, 53 (49.1%) and 55 (50.9%) times; while group A and B had a clear preference for cool colors, with 73 out of 133 color choices (54.87%) by the group B and 56 out of 98 choices (57.14%) by group A. Group B\u0026rsquo;s preference for cool colors may be because cool colors give a low and negative impression, which is in line with group B\u0026rsquo;s mood\u003csup\u003e[24]\u003c/sup\u003e. In contrast, group A preferred cold colors, probably because in positive moods, subjects were happy to express their love for blue-green hues. This emotion may stem from our innate human fascination with cool-colored spaces such as waters, skies, and forests\u003csup\u003e[25]\u003c/sup\u003e.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab3\" border=\"1\"\u003e\n \u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e\n \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 3\u003c/div\u003e\n \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eThe ANOVA analysis of types of colors used within groups.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/div\u003e\n \u003c/caption\u003e\n \u003ccolgroup cols=\"8\"\u003e\u003c/colgroup\u003e\n \u003cthead\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\" morerows=\"1\" rowspan=\"2\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAverage\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eGroup A\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eGroup B\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eGroup C\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eSource of Variation\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eF\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eP-value\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eF crit\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e2.88\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e3.91\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e3.18\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eBetween Groups\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e7.21\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.001\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e3.09\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003c/thead\u003e\n \u003ctbody\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVariance\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e1.08\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e1.11\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e1.79\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCount\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e34\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e34\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e34\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003c/tbody\u003e\n \u003c/table\u003e\n \u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e\n\u003cdiv id=\"Sec7\" class=\"Section2\"\u003e\n \u003ch2\u003e4.3 The emotion effects on the shape of clay arts\u003c/h2\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eThe use of shape as a symbolic element in artistic creation can be seen as the exploration and expression of self-emotions and thoughts \u003csup\u003e[26]\u003c/sup\u003e. Key words describing the main shapes such as \u0026ldquo;strip, circle, square and ball\u0026rdquo; were extracted from the description text. For the same reason, the number of shapes in the art was not counted. Only the frequency was used to analysis to avoid the bias. As shown in \u003cstrong\u003eFig.\u0026nbsp;5A\u003c/strong\u003e, less shapes were used in either group A or B in comparing with group C.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eThe ANOVA results showed that the average number of strip-shaped elements per clay work was 0.62, 0.32, and 0.79 in Groups A, B, and C, respectively. Compared to Group C, both Groups A and B used significantly fewer strip-shaped elements (p\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.05), while no significant differences were found in the use of other shapes. This indicates that emotional states led to changes in shape preference. Although further experiments are needed to address, we can see big difference of the frequency of circle within three groups. There are 21 and 26 volunteers of groups A and C used circles in their clay arts. Only 12 clay arts contain circles in group B, which is only half of other two groups. It is hard to explain by the random variance. Similarly, there are fewer strips in group A than those in other two groups. Although it is not conclusive, sad volunteers are less likely to use circle and happy volunteers are less likely to use strip than volunteers in group C.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eThe images appearing in clay works can be divided into two categories: abstract and figurative images. The former are those imitating people, plants, animals, etc., while the latter refer to those consisting of pure geometry, symbols etc. The number of occurrences of these two kinds of images were counted in the works. As shown in \u003cstrong\u003eFig.\u0026nbsp;5B\u003c/strong\u003e, the number of occurrences of concrete and abstract images is presented in the table. The bar graphs show that abstract images are in the majority in the three groups of clay works. Compared to the 69.66% frequency of use in the group C, the frequency of abstract images in the group B decreased to only 64.76%, while the frequency of abstract images in the group A greatly increased to 75.61%. This suggests that sadness causes participants to prefer more concrete images, whereas happy emotions cause participants to prefer to represent abstract images. Although some differences in basic shapes did not reach statistical significance, the shift in abstract versus concrete images provides partial support for Q3.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003cdiv class=\"gridtable\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003ctable float=\"Yes\" id=\"Tab4\" border=\"1\"\u003e\n \u003ccaption language=\"En\"\u003e\n \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionNumber\"\u003eTable 3\u003c/div\u003e\n \u003cdiv class=\"CaptionContent\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eThe ANOVA analysis of shapes within groups.\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/div\u003e\n \u003c/caption\u003e\n \u003ccolgroup cols=\"8\"\u003e\u003c/colgroup\u003e\n \u003cthead\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eGroup A\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eGroup B\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eGroup C\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eSource of Variation\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eF\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eP-value\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eF crit\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c2\" namest=\"c1\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eSUMMARY (Strip)\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e\n \u003cth align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/th\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003c/thead\u003e\n \u003ctbody\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAverage\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.62\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.32\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.79\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eBetween Groups\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e9.05\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.00\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e3.09\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVariance\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.24\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.23\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.17\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c2\" namest=\"c1\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSUMMARY (Circle)\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAverage\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.24\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.21\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.24\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eBetween Groups\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.05\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.95\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e3.09\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVariance\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.19\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.17\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.19\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c2\" namest=\"c1\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSUMMARY (Angle)\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAverage\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.68\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.50\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.59\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eBetween Groups\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e1.08\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.34\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e3.09\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVariance\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.23\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.26\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.25\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colspan=\"2\" nameend=\"c2\" namest=\"c1\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eSUMMARY (Ball)\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eAverage\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.03\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.06\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.03\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003eBetween Groups\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.25\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"char\" char=\".\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.78\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e3.09\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eVariance\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.03\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.06\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e0.03\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003ctr\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c1\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCount\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c2\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e34\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c3\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e34\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c4\"\u003e\n \u003cp\u003e34\u003c/p\u003e\n \u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c5\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c6\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c7\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003ctd align=\"left\" colname=\"c8\"\u003e\u0026nbsp;\u003c/td\u003e\n \u003c/tr\u003e\n \u003c/tbody\u003e\n \u003c/table\u003e\n \u003c/div\u003e\n\u003c/div\u003e"},{"header":"5. Conclusion","content":"\u003cp\u003eThis study explores the visual characteristics of clay works created by college students in experimentally induced emotional states. Through the analysis of the size, color use and morphological characteristics of clay works in different emotional states, the research results provide empirical support for clay play as a non-verbal emotional expression medium.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe research results systematically respond to the research hypothesis put forward. Consistent with the research question l, there are significant differences in the spatial dimensions of clay works created in different emotional states: participants in positive emotional states (group A) tend to create works that are more compact in length and width but more prominent in the vertical direction, presenting a more concentrated and upward spatial table. Reach. In terms of color use, the results support the research question 2, that is, the participants in a negative emotional state (group B) use a richer color range, which may reflect more complex emotional experiences. In terms of form and image type, the research results provide partial support for the Q3: although there is no significant difference in the frequency of use of basic shapes, there is a clear distinction between abstract and concrete expression preferences. Sad emotions tend to be concrete, while positive emotions are more abstract.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe research results further show that clay creation has potential emotional guidance value in the context of teenagers and college education. Emotional state can be reflected in clay works in a subtle and systematic way through intuitive selection of size, color and form. The touch and plasticity of clay makes it a material medium that helps to externalize emotions. From the perspective of education, paying attention to the visual and spatial characteristics of students\u0026rsquo; clay works may provide a non-invasive emotional observation and support channel for teachers and tutors.\u003c/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eFuture research can further refine emotional types, such as anxiety, stress or loneliness, on the basis of this experiment, to explore whether more specific emotional states correspond to a clearer pottery creation model. Follow-up experiments can also focus on the group of college students with mental health problems, examine the changes in the characteristics of clay works before and after the intervention, and combine it with in-depth analysis of the content, form and process of creation, so as to more comprehensively understand the relationship between emotional state and the use of materials, for clay playing in the field of education and mental health. The application provides further support.\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"Declarations","content":"\u003ch2\u003eAuthor Contribution\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eXiangrui Miao ( [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) ) proposed the idea and performed the experiments.Huadong Liu ( [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) ) conceived the presented idea and analyzed the results.Qili Wei( [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) ) wrote the manuscript.Xiaofang Zhang ( [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) ) described the arts and wrote the manuscript.Yuanhang Yang (yang [yuanhang1@gmail.](mailto:yuanhang1@gmail.) com) revised the manuscript.All the authors have made substantive contributions to the article and assume full responsibility for its content. We have no conflicts of interest to disclose.\u003c/p\u003e\u003ch2\u003eData Availability\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eAll data generated or analyzed during this study are included in its **Supplementary File 1** .\u003c/p\u003e"},{"header":"References","content":"\u003col\u003e\u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eYamacli, R., Ozen, A. \u0026amp; Tokman, L. Y. An experimental study in an architectural design studio: the search for three-dimensional form and aesthetics through clay[J]. \u003cem\u003eInt. J. Art Des. Educ.\u003c/em\u003e \u003cb\u003e24\u003c/b\u003e, 308\u0026ndash;314 (2005).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eElbrecht, C. \u0026amp; Antcliff, L. Being in Touch: Healing Developmental and Attachment Trauma at the Clay Field. \u003cem\u003eChild. Australia\u003c/em\u003e. \u003cb\u003e40\u003c/b\u003e (2), 209\u0026ndash;220 (2015).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eChesnot, O. H. \u0026amp; Chidiac, N. Clay mediation: An innovative therapy in the treatment of trauma and post-traumatism. \u003cem\u003eAnn. Med. Psychol.\u003c/em\u003e \u003cb\u003e178\u003c/b\u003e (3), 1\u0026ndash;9 (2020).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eXiang, R. Exploration of the Psychological Healing Function of Abstract Art, Central Academy of Fine Arts[D]. (4) (2012).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNi, T. \u0026amp; Hu, B. The application and development trend of art therapy in China in the past decade. Journal of Southwest Jiaotong University (Social Sciences Edition), Vol. 13, p.92. (5) (2012).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOrkibi, H. \u0026amp; Ram-Vlasov, N. Linking Trauma to Posttraumatic Growth and Mental Health Through Emotional and Cognitive Creativity. \u003cem\u003ePsychol. Aesthet. Creativity Arts\u003c/em\u003e. \u003cb\u003e13\u003c/b\u003e (6), 416\u0026ndash;430 (2019).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eCzamanski-Cohen, J. \u0026amp; Weihs, K. The bodymind model: A platform for the conduct of the mechanistic study of art therapy. \u003cem\u003eArts Psychother.\u003c/em\u003e \u003cb\u003e51\u003c/b\u003e, 63\u0026ndash;71 (2016). (18).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGerge, A. \u0026amp; Pedersen, I. N. Analyzing pictorial artifacts from psychotherapy and art therapy when overcoming stress and trauma. The Arts in Psychotherapy, Vol. 54, pp. 56\u0026ndash;68. (19) (2017).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDiamond, S. \u0026amp; Shrira, A. From a Nothing to Something Special: Art as a Space of Holding Attunement in the Creative Experience of Holocaust Survivor Artists[J]. \u003cem\u003ePsychol. Aesthet. Creativity Arts\u003c/em\u003e. \u003cb\u003e16\u003c/b\u003e, 318\u0026ndash;331 (2022).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eHu, J., Zhang, J., Hu, L., Yu, H. \u0026amp; Xu, J. Art Therapy: A Complementary Treatment for Mental Disorders. Front Psychol, Vol. 12, p. 686005. (7) (2021).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eMalafouris, L. Mind and material engagement. \u003cem\u003ePhenomenol Cogn. Sci.\u003c/em\u003e \u003cb\u003e18\u003c/b\u003e (8), 1\u0026ndash;17 (2019).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eStrohl, M. Art and painful emotion. Philosophy Compass, Vol. 14, No.1. (9) (2019).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDe Lili, W. E. Does Art Improve Mood? A Test of a Key Assumption Underlying Art Therapy[J]. Art Therapy, Vol. 22, p. 7. (10) (2005).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eEstrada Gonzalez, V. et al. Art therapy masks reflect emotional changes in military personnel with PTSS. \u003cem\u003eSci. Rep.\u003c/em\u003e \u003cb\u003e14\u003c/b\u003e, 7192 (2024).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWeng, H. C. et al. Drawing as a window to emotion with insights from tech-transformed participant images. \u003cem\u003eSci. Rep.\u003c/em\u003e \u003cb\u003e14\u003c/b\u003e, 11571 (2024).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eNi, T. \u0026amp; Hu, B. The application and development trend of art therapy in China in the past decade. Journal of Southwest Jiaotong University (Social Sciences Edition), Vol. 13, p.92. (5) (2012).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eUlus, F. \u003cem\u003eMovie Therapy, Moving Therapy[M]\u003c/em\u003e pp. 47\u0026ndash;49 (Trafford Publishing, 2003).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eKim, S. S. Comparative Study of the Therapeutic Factors of Self-help and Interactive Cinema Therapy. \u003cem\u003eFilm Stud.\u003c/em\u003e \u003cb\u003e55\u003c/b\u003e, 83\u0026ndash;126 (2013).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDi Crosta, A. et al. The Chieti Affective Action Videos database, a resource for the study of emotions in psychology. \u003cem\u003eSci. Data\u003c/em\u003e. \u003cb\u003e7\u003c/b\u003e, 32 (2020).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGross, J. J. \u0026amp; Levenson, R. W. Emotion elicitation using films. \u003cem\u003eCogn. Emot.\u003c/em\u003e \u003cb\u003e9\u003c/b\u003e, 87\u0026ndash;108 (1995).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eBaveye, Y., Dellandr\u0026eacute;a, E., Chamaret, C. \u0026amp; Chen, L. LIRIS-ACCEDE: A Video Database for Affective Content. \u003cem\u003eAnal. IEEE Trans. Affect. Comput.\u003c/em\u003e \u003cb\u003e6\u003c/b\u003e, 43\u0026ndash;55 (2015).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDeng, Y., Yang, M. \u0026amp; Zhou, R. A. New Standardized Emotional Film Database for Asian Culture. \u003cem\u003eFront. Psychol.\u003c/em\u003e \u003cb\u003e8\u003c/b\u003e, 1941 (2017).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLee Da Som and Park Yung Kyung. Color Emotion of High-Saturation Color. \u003cem\u003eJ. Korea Soc. Color. Stud.\u003c/em\u003e \u003cb\u003e33\u003c/b\u003e (2), 86\u0026ndash;95 (2019).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRui et al. Investigation on factors to influence color emotion and color preference responses. Optik - International Journal for Light and Electron Optics, Vol. 136, pp. 71\u0026ndash;78. (13) (2017).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eLengen, C. The effects of colours, shapes and boundaries of landscapes on perception, emotion and mentalising processes promoting health and well-being[J]. Health \u0026amp; Place, pp. 166\u0026ndash;177. (14) (2015).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e \u003cli\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGabel, A. \u0026amp; Robb, M. (Re)considering psychological constructs: A thematic synthesis defining five therapeutic factors in group art therapy[J]. The Arts in Psychotherapy, Vol. 55, pp. 126\u0026ndash;135. (20) (2017).\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\u003c/ol\u003e"}],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":true,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":false,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":false,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"scientific-reports","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"scirep","sideBox":"Learn more about [Scientific Reports](http://www.nature.com/srep/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Scientific Reports","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Scientific Reports","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Clay playing, Emotional expression, Artmaking therapy, Material engagement, Artwork dimension, Artwork color","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9063891/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9063891/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eClay play has been recognized as a potential avenue for alleviating depressed mood and reducing stress, frequently employed to aid the recovery of children or soldiers coping with trauma. Despite its widespread use, the theoretical underpinnings remain relatively weak, relying heavily on empirical observations of patient progress in these therapeutic activities. In this study, we investigated the relationship between clay work and human emotion, The experiment recruited 102 university students who either watched a tragedy film, a comedy film, or did not engage in any specific activity, designated as Group A, Group B, and Control Group C, respectively. They were then asked to create clay artworks. Through the analysis of the artworks created under different groups, it was found that participants which in Group A tended to produce clay works with smaller surface areas, narrower color ranges, and more abstract patterns. These observed characteristics suggest that clay crafting serves as an important medium for emotional expression, capable of reflecting young people\u0026rsquo;s authentic emotions to a certain extent. This provides university educators with an effective assessment method for monitoring the psychological states of college students.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Unveiling Human Emotions: A Journey through Clay Play","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-04-10 06:39:22","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9063891/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"decision","content":"Revision requested","date":"2026-04-21T09:37:37+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2026-04-13T14:07:38+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvitedReview","content":"","date":"2026-04-08T12:09:18+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"25148681097814664899521697056650266241","date":"2026-04-03T09:43:19+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewerAgreed","content":"140157175894092656889651773404668969962","date":"2026-04-03T07:02:57+00:00","index":"hide","fulltext":""},{"type":"reviewersInvited","content":"","date":"2026-04-03T06:23:19+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2026-04-03T02:43:38+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorInvited","content":"","date":"2026-04-03T02:38:36+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2026-03-30T02:10:58+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"Scientific Reports","date":"2026-03-30T02:06:38+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"scientific-reports","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"scirep","sideBox":"Learn more about [Scientific Reports](http://www.nature.com/srep/)","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Scientific Reports","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Scientific Reports","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"e11afb73-a655-4aac-a0b1-2bb137a236db","owner":[],"postedDate":"April 10th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"under-review","subjectAreas":[{"id":65939733,"name":"Humanities/Cultural and media studies"},{"id":65939734,"name":"Social science/Cultural and media studies"},{"id":65939735,"name":"Biological sciences/Psychology"},{"id":65939736,"name":"Social science/Psychology"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-05-06T06:38:40+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-04-10 06:39:22","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-9063891","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-9063891","identity":"rs-9063891","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}