Cognition and cultural mediation: The influence of semantic priming on the perception of a painting

The information about artworks presented in artistic exhibitions serves a crucial function of cultural mediation. Texts offered to the public in an exhibition can induce the perception and interpretation of an artwork. This research aimed to verify the extent to which the presentation of a text can influence the perception of visual artwork. We hypothesized that the semantic priming provided by a text can induce the participants’ interpretation of an artwork. Sixty undergraduate pedagogy students participated in the study, randomly divided into three groups with each containing 20 individuals. In this research, participants were instructed to observe an image of a painting and subsequently marked the figurative elements they could identify. Before that, the first group received the correct textual information before observing the painting; the second group received a fictitious text unrelated to the painting’s theme; and the third group performed the task without receiving any information. We found that there was a significant difference between the recurrences of original and fictitious words and between the original and random words. Therefore, this study brought greater clarity regarding the effects of semantic priming on the perception of artworks.