Stephan Schwan

Do film cuts facilitate the perceptual and cognitive organization of activitiy sequences

Film depictions of activities possess two kinds of structures—namely, the structural features of the depicted activities themselves and a formal structure defined by film cuts. The former structure is used by everyday observers for perceptually and cognitively unitizing the continuous flow of events into comprehensible entities. It seems conceivable that cuts can serve a similar unitizing purpose for film viewers. For each of two different activity sequences, two film versions were produced. Throughout each film version, cuts were placed either at breakpoints or at nonbreakpoints. In a 2 × 2 (activity sequence × film version) factorial design, 40 subjects segmentation behavior depended primarily on the occurrence of breakpoints and was largely unaffected by the occurrence of cuts. Cuts accompanying a breakpoint lead to more detailed recall protocols for these sections of the film.

The relationship between formal filmic means and the segmentation behavior of film viewers

The present study addressed the question of whether formal filmic means (e.g., cuts) serve a syntactic function for the viewers by guiding them in segmenting the continuous flow of events depicted in the film. Three films depicting complex production processes were shown to 48 apprentices. We adopted a procedure developed by Newtson (1973) in which participants were required to segment the film content by pressing a button each time a production step ended and a new one began. Results show that the occurrence of either visual or auditory formal filmic means led to an increase in the proportion of segmentations. Also, formal filmic means indicating a change of scene elicited more marked segmentation behavior than formal filmic means indicating minor changes within scenes. No general effect on segmentation behavior could be found for the spectators’ expertise for the depicted film content.

Information management and learning in computer conferences: Coping with irrelevant and unconnected messages

The present study examines how learnersinteract with one another within the context ofa computer conference for the purposes ofpassing a test. In a faked computer conferencewith predetermined messages, both the number ofmessages irrelevant to the topic, and theexplicit threading of messages were varied in a2 × 2 design (n = 54). Subjects participated in anasynchronous fashion over a course of fourlog-in sessions. In general, learners indicateda fairly consistent pattern of reception. Theyopened virtually all messages, grouped them ina non-chronological order, and processed themaccording to their topic relevance. Thispattern was also mediated by the conferencecharacteristics. Explicit threading led tosequences of message readings that were morecontent oriented. Similarly, fewer irrelevantmessages lead to prolonged reading times ofrelevant messages. Whereas learning success wasnot affected by conference characteristics,explicitly threaded messages decreased theperceived cognitive demands.