What is the role of the film viewer? The effects of narrative comprehension and viewing task on gaze control in film.

ABSTRACT: Film is ubiquitous, but the processes that guide viewers' attention while viewing film narratives are poorly understood. In fact, many film theorists and practitioners disagree on whether the film stimulus (bottom-up) or the viewer (top-down) is more important in determining how we watch movies. Reading research has shown a strong connection between eye movements and comprehension, and scene perception studies have shown strong effects of viewing tasks on eye movements, but such idiosyncratic top-down control of gaze in film would be anathema to the universal control mainstream filmmakers typically aim for. Thus, in two experiments we tested whether the eye movements and comprehension relationship similarly held in a classic film example, the famous opening scene of Orson Welles' Touch

SUBMITTER: Hutson JP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5698392 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature