Psychology of film
[5] Cuts and flashbacks represent types of editing that alter the normal temporal sequencing of events, creating non-linear narrative structures.
Research focusing on recall ability for linear versus non-linear narratives suggests that temporal changes impact memory of events, but not comprehension.
When a familiar line is not present, more experienced viewers are significantly better at comprehending a complex narrative by "filtering" out editing discontinuities.
[8] In the end, however, montage linearity that creates temporal continuity is more important than plot for recall and understanding of a narrative's events.
[9] Cognitive neuroscience research demonstrates that some movies can exert considerable control over brain activity and eye movements.
Using fMRI brain imaging, researchers asked participants to watch 30 minutes of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) as they lay on their backs in the MRI scanner.
When compared to a random sequence of scenes, the specific order of events seemed to be strongly associated with this similarity in brain activity.
It was also determined that the level of control a movie has on someone's mental state is highly dependent upon the cinematic devices (pans, cuts and close-ups) it contains.
Even though their visual system appeared to pick up on the changes, observers were not consciously aware of them or able to report noticeable differences across cuts.
This partiality toward rightward movement likely has its roots in the predominance of right-handedness in society,[17] as well as the practice of reading left-to-right in Western languages.
Top-down factors refer to expectations and background knowledge that influence viewers' perception, understanding and appreciation of film.
Explicit awareness about the processes by which meaning is created by the visual media could be regarded as one measure of film expertise and sophistication.
[22] One study compared the participants’ ability to understand narrative in Hollywood versus experimental film, by measuring interpretational awareness.
Regardless of expertise level, participants described the Hollywood-like scenes in "naturalistic terms," as if their events had occurred in reality and tended not to make explicit references to stylistic techniques.
[23] Film editing seems to be a barrier of awareness for conventional Hollywood-type movies, as they create an illusion of "real life".
Participants were then instructed to perform an event segmentation task by watching a movie and pressing a button to identify units of activity that were natural and meaningful to them.
Paying attention to situational changes gives rise to a neural cascade that is consciously perceived at the end of one event and the beginning of another.
Prediction is an adaptive mechanism made up of cognitive event models that represent "what is going on now" to create expectations and attentive biases for ongoing processing.
[27] Using an eyetracker, researchers have discovered a strong center-of-screen bias with a distribution of gaze points approximately peaking at the screen center.
