Cognitive Processing of Film Cuts Among 4- to 8-Year-Old Children

Abstract

An eye tracker experiment investigated 4-, 6-, and 8-year old children’s cognitive processing of film cuts. Nine short film sequences with or without editing errors were presented to 79 children. Eye movements up to 400 ms after the targeted film cuts were measured and analyzed using a new calculation formula based on Manhattan Metrics. No age effects were found for jump cuts (i.e., small movement discontinuities in a film). However, disturbances resulting from reversed-angle shots (i.e., a switch of the left-right position of actors in successive shots) led to increased reaction times between 6- and 8-year old children, whereas children of all age groups had difficulties coping with narrative discontinuity (i.e., the canonical chronological sequence of film actions is disrupted). Furthermore, 4-year old children showed a greater number of overall eye movements than 6- and 8-year old children. This indicates that some viewing skills are developed between 4 and 6 years of age. The results of the study provide evidence of a crucial time span of knowledge acquisition for television-based media literacy between 4 and 8 years.

Children's and Adults’ Ability to Build Online Emotional Inferences During Comprehension of Audiovisual and Auditory Texts

“…Nieding and Ohler (2008) call this ''media sign literacy'' (''Mediale Zeichenkompetenz''; p. 382). The results of our work group Munk, Rey, et al, 2012) suggest that the ages between 4 and 8 years are crucial for the development of rudimentary media literacy skills. Advanced media literacy skills develop during school years and adulthood.…”

Visual narratives and the mind: Comprehension, cognition, and learning

“…Children younger than 18 months have difficulty construing the sequencing of film, and may view them as separate isolated scenes (Noble, 1975;Pempek et al, 2010;Richards & Cronise, 2000). Sequential understanding appears to fully mature between the ages of 4 and 7 (Collins, Wellman, Keniston, & Westby, 1978;Munk et al, 2012;R. Smith, Anderson, & Fischer, 1985), and be sensitive to frequency of exposure with filmic patterns (Abelman, 1990;Barr, Zack, Garcia, & Muentener, 2008).…”

Anticipatory Eye Movements While Watching Continuous Action Across Shots in Video Sequences: A Developmental Study

“…Munk et al. () showed children short films of common activities that were either consistent with video‐editing conventions or contradicted those conventions. The researchers reported that 8‐year‐olds had more scattered eye movement patterns that were dispersed across the screen during the first 400 ms following cuts that contradicted video conventions than those that were consistent with editing conventions.…”