Behavioral Constraint Legibility Under Concealment

Everyday cognition requires observers to find organization in continuous behavior as surface form changes. Behavioral streams can carry a constraint that governs what remains coherent across variation. This study examines whether such a constraint can remain publicly legible when it structures an action stream and remains concealed from observers.

The study examined this question in Untitled, Literally, a full-length abstract choreographic work presented in five public performances. Eight sections were constructed with Essence-to-Movement (EtoM), a procedure for preserving a specified behavioral constraint across varied movement conditions. One section, Drink Me, served as an internal contrast. Following the performances, audience members completed an anonymous voluntary questionnaire (N = 393).

We tested the hypothesis that observers who reported structural routes into the work would show lower uncertainty, stronger active meaning-making, and lower preference for the internal contrast. The observed profile was consistent with this hypothesis. Structural-entry reports were associated with lower uncertainty, stronger active meaning-making, and sharper within-work discrimination between constraint-governed material and the internal contrast. These associations are interpreted within a post-performance self-report design under concealment.