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Through the Eyes of the Camera: Understanding Spatial Relations and Perspective Taking in Film

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dc.contributor.authorCandan Simsek, Ayse
dc.contributor.chairCutting, James Eric
dc.contributor.committeeMemberPizarro, David A.
dc.contributor.committeeMemberFinlay, Barbara L.
dc.contributor.committeeMemberField, David James
dc.date.accessioned2018-04-26T14:15:53Z
dc.date.available2019-09-11T06:01:42Z
dc.date.issued2017-08-30
dc.description.abstractThe study of edited moving images has started to attract more interest among researchers in recent years due to their complex yet highly constructed nature, especially with respect to spatiotemporal continuity. Movies are unique visual stimuli that offer an enjoyable and seamless experience in the face of an objectively detached and segmented structure. Continuity editing rules are at the core of Hollywood cinema and those aim mainly at maintaining spatial continuity across shots. This dissertation provides further understanding to the perceptual mechanisms used to make accurate and fast integration of spatial information provided in separate movie shots into a coherent spatial representation. Those, in most cases, represent more than one agent’s viewpoint. In the scope of this dissertation, four main lines of experiments are carried out to examine how editing conventions affect viewers’ judgments for spatial relations, especially involving the position of actors in a movie scene. The results indicated that the employment of the 180-degree rule facilitates viewers’ judgments for actor positions in movie scenes and leads to faster decisions. In addition, establishing shots, which are wide-angle shots positioned at the beginning of scenes, have a complimentary but important role in keeping those relations current. Results also showed that congruent agent cues (gaze and body direction) lead to more accurate and faster judgments with respect to an upcoming position of an agent and viewers put more emphasis on body direction. Overall, the discussed experiments support the view that continuity editing rules in movies make use of people’s perceptual tendencies. The strategic usage of camera angles offers better and faster solutions to complex visual information. These rules facilitate spatial transformations across shots and alleviate cognitive resources dedicated to maintaining a coherent spatial map, which is otherwise effortful. Therefore, the viewer can allocate the much-needed resources to follow the narrative more efficiently.
dc.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.7298/X43B5X9R
dc.identifier.otherCandanSimsek_cornellgrad_0058F_10524
dc.identifier.otherhttp://dissertations.umi.com/cornellgrad:10524
dc.identifier.otherbibid: 10361425
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1813/56748
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.subjectPsychology
dc.subjectCognitive psychology
dc.subjectcontinuity editing
dc.subjectfilm perception
dc.subjectHollywood Film
dc.subjectperspective taking
dc.subjectspatial perception
dc.subjectvisual perception
dc.subjectExperimental psychology
dc.titleThrough the Eyes of the Camera: Understanding Spatial Relations and Perspective Taking in Film
dc.typedissertation or thesis
dcterms.licensehttps://hdl.handle.net/1813/59810
thesis.degree.disciplinePsychology
thesis.degree.grantorCornell University
thesis.degree.levelDoctor of Philosophy
thesis.degree.namePh. D., Psychology

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