When Narrative Transportation Narrows Attention: Changes in Attentional Focus During Suspenseful Film Viewing

Bezdek, Matthew A.; Gerrig, Richard J.

doi:10.1080/15213269.2015.1121830

Cited by 58 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…On the one hand, this finding is in line with transportation theory which posits that transportation can explain narrative effects in stories but not in nonstory formats. It is also in line with the notion that attention is an integral part of transportation (Bezdek & Gerrig, 2016; Green & Brock, 2000) and a study that revealed a positive link between transportation and self-reported systematic message processing (Quintero-Johnson et al, 2013). On the other hand, this finding appears to be at odds with basic theoretical work on narrative persuasion.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

“…The more recipients are transported into the story world, the more their cognitive and emotional processing is focused on the story world and the less their processing is focused on the immediate surroundings (such as the room in which a story is read) or other information that is unconnected to the story (such as an upcoming sports event). As recently pointed out by Bezdek and Gerrig (2016), the self-report scales used to measure transportation (such as the Transportation Scale; Green & Brock, 2000) include items on attentional focus (e.g., “While I was reading the narrative, activity going on in the room was on my mind,” reverse coded; see also the narrative engagement scale by Busselle & Bilandzic [2009], which includes an attentional focus subscale).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 65%

“…A second family of explanations revolves around the cognitive processes underlying narrative persuasion that are particularly relevant with respect to the influence of arguments within a story context: The allocation of attention to a text is a key component of transportation and a predictor of persuasive effects (Bezdek & Gerrig, 2016; Gerrig, 1993; Green & Brock, 2000, 2002). The more recipients are transported into the story world, the more their cognitive and emotional processing is focused on the story world and the less their processing is focused on the immediate surroundings (such as the room in which a story is read) or other information that is unconnected to the story (such as an upcoming sports event).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Argument Strength and the Persuasiveness of Stories

Schreiner

Appel

Isberner

et al. 2017

Discourse Processes

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Stories are a powerful means to change people’s attitudes and beliefs. The aim of the current work was to shed light on the role of argument strength (argument quality) in narrative persuasion. The present study examined the influence of strong versus weak arguments on attitudes in a low or high narrative context. Moreover, baseline attitudes, interindividual differences in working memory capacity, and recipients’ transportation were examined. Stories with strong arguments were more persuasive than stories with weak arguments. This main effect was qualified by a two-way interaction with baseline attitude, revealing that argument strength had a greater impact on individuals who initially were particularly doubtful toward the story claim. Furthermore, we identified a three-way interaction showing that argument strength mattered most for recipients who were deeply transported into the story world in stories that followed a typical narrative structure. These findings provide an important specification of narrative persuasion theory.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 86%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 65%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Argument Strength and the Persuasiveness of Stories

Schreiner

Appel

Isberner

et al. 2017

Discourse Processes

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“…The process by which this occurs is dependent on the context of the task. For example, people can be engaged in watching a movie without any effortful thought or physical action as their attention is activated by feelings of interest, surprise, excitement etc., or by becoming cognitively absorbed in the narrative (Bezdek & Gerrig, 2017).…”

Section: Parts-to-parts Coactions Associations Between the Parts Witmentioning

confidence: 99%

Momentary Engagement as a Complex Dynamic System

Symonds¹,

Kaplan²,

Upadyaya³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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This article answers a call for increased scientific precision in student engagement research by contributing a definition of engagement at the microlevel grain size of individual students’ momentary involvement in academic tasks. We build on the classroom engagement framework to create a conceptualization of momentary engagement as a dynamic system comprised of parts (emotion, motivation, mental action, and physical action) existing within an overarching structure (co-action between parts) that develops as a process (a sequence of engagement triggers, non-linear action and disengagement). This new conceptualization is discussed in relation to methods of studying momentary engagement focusing on the notions of complexity, emergence and dynamics. We conclude by calling for a paradigm shift in research on student engagement.

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“…The expectations or questions that guide the gaze may be minimally articulated, e.g., 'what or whom are these characters looking at' as in gaze following, but the operation of higher level cognitive schemas are not excluded. The best demonstration to date of the control of focus of attention by the narrative is given in research on suspense and its effects on film viewer gazes by Bezdek et al (2015) and Bezdek and Gerrig (2017). 34 Their results can be taken to imply that suspense, a state of high absorption, is associated with focal attention to story-world details supervised by expectations created by the narrative (see also Doicaru, 2016).…”

Section: Continuity Of Events and Viewer Attention Hochberg's Questionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A psychology of the film

Tan

2018

Palgrave Commun

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The cinema as a cultural institution has been studied by academic researchers in the arts and humanities. At present, cultural media studies are the home to the aesthetics and critical analysis of film, film history and other branches of film scholarship. Probably less known to most is that research psychologists working in social and life science labs have also contributed to the study of the medium. They have examined the particular experience that motion pictures provide to the film audience and the mechanisms that explain the perception and comprehension of film, and how movies move viewers and to what effects. This article reviews achievements in psychological research of the film since its earliest beginnings in the 1910s. A leading issue in the research has been whether understanding films is a bottom-up process, or a top-down one. A bottom-up explanation likens film-viewing to highly automated detection of stimulus features physically given in the supply of images; a top-down one to the construction of scenes from very incomplete information using mental schemata. Early film psychologists tried to pinpoint critical features of simple visual stimuli responsible for the perception of smooth movement. The riddle of apparent motion has not yet been solved up to now. Gestalt psychologists were the first to point at the role of mental structures in seeing smooth movement, using simple visual forms and displays. Bottom-up and top-down approaches to the comprehension of film fought for priority from the 60s onwards and became integrated at the end of the century. Gibson's concept of direct perception led to the identification of low-level film-stylistic cues that are used in mainstream film production, and support film viewers in highly automated seamless perception of film scenes. Hochberg's argument for the indispensability of mental schemata, too, accounted for the smooth cognitive construction of portrayed action and scenes. Since the 90s, cognitive analyses of narration in film by film scholars from the humanities have revolutionised accounts of the comprehension of movies. They informed computational content analyses that link low-level film features with meaningful units of film-story-telling. After a century of research, some perceptual and cognitive mechanisms that support our interaction with events in the real world have been uncovered. Today, the film experience at large has reappeared on the agenda. An integration of top-down and bottom-up mechanisms is sought in explaining the remarkable intensity of the film experience. Advances are now being made in grasping what it is like to enjoy movies, by describing the absorbing and moving qualities of the experience. As an example, a current account of film viewers' emotional experience is presented. Further advances in our understanding of the film experience and its underlying mechanisms can be expected if film psychologists team up with cognitive film studies, computer vision and the neurosciences. This collaboration is also expected to allow for researc...

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When Narrative Transportation Narrows Attention: Changes in Attentional Focus During Suspenseful Film Viewing

Cited by 58 publications

References 43 publications

Argument Strength and the Persuasiveness of Stories

Argument Strength and the Persuasiveness of Stories

Momentary Engagement as a Complex Dynamic System

A psychology of the film

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