Attention and the Evolution of Hollywood Film

Attention and the Evolution of Hollywood Film

Reaction times exhibit a spectral patterning known as l/f, and these patterns can be thought of as reflecting time-varying changes in attention. We investigated the shot structure of Hollywood films to determine if these same patterns are found. We parsed 150 films with release dates from 1935 to 20...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Psychological science Vol. 21; no. 3; pp. 432 - 439
Main Authors: Cutting, James E., DeLong, Jordan E., Nothelfer, Christine E.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01-03-2010
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects:
Acoustic spectra
Attention
Autocorrelation
Awareness
Cinema
Cognitive psychology
Correlation analysis
Film theory
Fourier Analysis
Humans
Mind
Motion Perception
Motion picture industry
Motion pictures
Motion Pictures - trends
Movies
Narration
Narratives
Noise spectra
Optical Illusions
Pattern recognition
Pattern Recognition, Visual
Photography - trends
Power
Reaction Time
Response time
Sequences
Signal Detection, Psychological
Signal noise
Visual culture
White noise
1/f
attention
cinema
film
visual momentum
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Reaction times exhibit a spectral patterning known as l/f, and these patterns can be thought of as reflecting time-varying changes in attention. We investigated the shot structure of Hollywood films to determine if these same patterns are found. We parsed 150 films with release dates from 1935 to 2005 into their sequences of shots and then analyzed the pattern of shot lengths in each film. Autoregressive and power analyses showed that, across that span of 70 years, shots became increasingly more correlated in length with their neighbors and created power spectra approaching l/f. We suggest, as have others, that l/f patterns reflect world structure and mental process. Moreover, a l/f temporal shot structure may help harness observers' attention to the narrative of a film.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-1
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-2
content type line 23
ObjectType-Article-2
ObjectType-Feature-1
ISSN:0956-7976
1467-9280
DOI:10.1177/0956797610361679