Balancing Art: The Effect of Paintings Conceptual Ambiguities on Postural Control

It has been shown that challenging contemporary art including conceptual ambiguities influences viewers’ preferences and eye movements. Here, we test whether such conceptual ambiguities (i.e., semantic violations and inconsistent titles) affect postural control. Research suggests that performing standard cognitive tasks influences postural control. However, the effects of challenging contemporary art on posture have never been studied before. We propose that semantic violations and inconsistent titles, two sources of conceptual ambiguities, should increase the perceived cognitive challenge and lead to a more stable and controlled posture. One hundred participants without formal art education viewed 20 paintings (10 with semantic violations, 10 without) in one of three conditions: no titles, consistent titles or inconsistent titles. Each painting was viewed for 25 seconds whilst viewers’ postural control was recorded. After presentation of each image participants assessed a given painting on 6 scales (understanding, complexity, ambiguity, being moved, drawn towards, and liking). We found that semantic violations and title inconsistency are challenging for the viewers. Moreover, semantic violations and the presence of titles (both consistent and inconsistent) were related to an increase in postural variability in the anterio-posterior direction. Inconsistent titles, on the other hand, were related to a lower variability in the medio-lateral direction and less postural control as evidenced by the recurrence quantification analysis. Similarly, perceived cognitive challenge was associated with lower postural variability and less postural control. Overall, the results suggest a close link between postural control and ongoing processing of semantic information.