Positive fEMG Patterns with Ambiguity in Paintings
- Author(s)
- Martina Jakesch, Jürgen Goller, Helmut Leder
- Abstract
Whereas ambiguity in everyday life is often negatively evaluated, it is considered key in art appreciation. In a facial EMG study, we tested whether the positive role of visual ambiguity in paintings is reflected in a continuous affective evaluation on a subtle level. We presented ambiguous (disfluent) and non-ambiguous (fluent) versions of Magritte paintings and found that M. Zygomaticus major activation was higher and M. corrugator supercilii activation was lower for ambiguous than for non-ambiguous versions. Our findings reflect a positive continuous affective evaluation to visual ambiguity in paintings over the 5 s presentation time. We claim that this finding is indirect evidence for the hypothesis that visual stimuli classified as art, evoke a safe state for indulging into experiencing ambiguity, challenging the notion that processing fluency is generally related to positive affect.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Cognition, Emotion, and Methods in Psychology
- Journal
- Frontiers in Psychology
- Volume
- 8
- No. of pages
- 7
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00785
- Publication date
- 05-2017
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 501001 General psychology, 501011 Cognitive psychology
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Psychology
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/e5785220-f213-45fd-ad28-d56d9323f095