The Illusion of Continuity: Active Perception and the Classical Editing System

Berliner,; Cohen, Dale J.

doi:10.5406/jfilmvideo.63.1.0044

Cited by 36 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…Overall, evidence of fluency for visual narratives contrasts popular assumptions that sequential image understanding is transparent or developmentally inevitable (McCloud, ), or relies solely on basic perceptual or event processing (Berliner & Cohen, ; Radvansky & Zacks, ) or general intelligence (Ramos & Die, ). Rather, comprehenders must acquire and encode specific knowledge from the visual narratives that they read, which in turn habituate them to understand sequential images on the basis of these patterns.…”

Section: Further Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 55%

“…The perceived transparency of understanding visual narratives has made them a popular experimental stimulus for cognitive scientists investigating many domains. Yet various healthy individuals who have little experience with graphics cannot construe meaning across drawn sequential images (Byram & Garforth, ; Fussell & Haaland, ; Liddell, ; Núñez & Cooperrider, ), implying that this ability does not rely on basic, universal perceptual processes alone (Berliner & Cohen, ; Magliano & Zacks, ; McCloud, ). How then do we comprehend a sequence of images?…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Your Brain on Comics: A Cognitive Model of Visual Narrative Comprehension

Cohn¹

2019

Topics in Cognitive Science

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The past decade has seen a rapid growth of cognitive and brain research focused on visual narratives like comics and picture stories. This paper will summarize and integrate this emerging literature into the Parallel Interfacing Narrative‐Semantics Model (PINS Model)—a theory of sequential image processing characterized by an interaction between two representational levels: semantics and narrative structure. Ongoing semantic processes build meaning into an evolving mental model of a visual discourse. Updating of spatial, referential, and event information then incurs costs when they are discontinuous with the growing context. In parallel, a narrative structure organizes semantic information into coherent sequences by assigning images to categorical roles, which are then embedded within a hierarchic constituent structure. Narrative constructional schemas allow for specific predictions of structural sequencing, independent of semantics. Together, these interacting levels of representation engage in an iterative process of retrieval of semantic and narrative information, prediction of upcoming information based on those assessments, and subsequent updating based on discontinuity. These core mechanisms are argued to be domain‐general—spanning across expressive systems—as suggested by similar electrophysiological brain responses (N400, P600, anterior negativities) generated in response to manipulation of sequential images, music, and language. Such similarities between visual narratives and other domains thus pose fundamental questions for the linguistic and cognitive sciences.

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Section: Further Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 55%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Your Brain on Comics: A Cognitive Model of Visual Narrative Comprehension

Cohn¹

2019

Topics in Cognitive Science

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“…Research has demonstrated that sequences violating the 180 rule are less accurately remembered, that the spatial layouts they depict are less accurately reconstructed than equivalent nonviolating sequences, and that violations impose a reaction time cost on spatial encoding in animated scenes . Findings such as these are consistent with the hypothesis that spatial encoding is one of the most important bases of cinematic continuity . It is, however, interesting to note that no research has carefully assessed incidental detection of 180 violations (although participants in one recent study did detect about half of violations without forewarning, the study was not designed to carefully assess this), and so for now this remains a possible target for some potentially interesting new research.…”

Section: Perceptual Continuitymentioning

confidence: 79%

Bridging views in cinema: a review of the art and science of view integration

Levin

Baker

2017

WIRES Cognitive Science

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Recently, there has been a surge of interest in the relationship between film and cognitive science. This is reflected in a new science of cinema that can help us both to understand this art form, and to produce new insights about cognition and perception. In this review, we begin by describing how the initial development of cinema involved close observation of audience response. This allowed filmmakers to develop an informal theory of visual cognition that helped them to isolate and creatively recombine fundamental elements of visual experience. We review research exploring naturalistic forms of visual perception and cognition that have opened the door to a productive convergence between the dynamic visual art of cinema and science of visual cognition that can enrich both. In particular, we discuss how parallel understandings of view integration in cinema and in cognitive science have been converging to support a new understanding of meaningful visual experience. WIREs Cogn Sci 2017, 8:e1436. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1436 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.

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“…If so, does this failure have consequences for comprehension of the narrative, or can the viewer mentally fi ll the gaps? Certainly viewers are capable of accounting for gaps in space and time in a fi lm; as viewers, we are accustomed to continuity editing and elliptical editing and are able to negotiate advances in time and incomplete presentations of space (e.g., Berliner & Cohen, 2011;Levin, 2010; see Smith, this book). Viewers of Th e Bourne Ultimatum have no doubt that a car chase is occurring on-screen and are able to identify that Bourne is fl eeing from his assailants.…”

Section: Shot Durationmentioning

confidence: 99%