Seite 97 [97]
OCR
96 | Digital Media and Storytelling in Higher Education and the biological factors underlying reception. The research methods are similar to those in the natural and social sciences, particularly neurobiology and psychology, and the measurements — like in every empirical study — are expected to be reliable, valid, and objective. Cognitive film theory investigates the cognitive background of the reception of film narratives. The research approach of aesthetic experience and immersion can be phenomenological, psychological, or biological (neurological) depending on the methodology being followed. Phenomenological studies primarily follow a qualitative paradigm, while psychological and biological studies are often quantitative (Balint, 2014). Papp-Zipernovszky, Kovacs and Drotos (2019) used a mixed methodology design (data was collected via EEG and verbal word association) to measure the psychophysiological activities that occur during the reception of narrative and non-narrative film structures. The research team aimed to explore attentional and emotional cognitive processes rather than the conscious, verbalizable processes of reception. Based on patterns of brain activity which occurred during film viewing, it was found that viewing a non-narrative film was a more demanding memory task for the recipients due to the lack of spatio-temporal continuity and causal connections. The results of the word association test showed that the use of the same terms is less frequent in the reception of nonnarrative films, thus there is less social consensus in individual interpretations. Thus, the research concluded that the reception of non-narrative films was strongly dependent on the personality of the individual. A phenomenological approach can be seen in the qualitative analysis of subjective film experience, where respondents are asked to formulate their immersion experiences with fictional stories. Film immersion experiences are recorded through interviews, open-ended questionnaires or narrative diaries, although the validity of phenomenological studies has been called into question as they draw their conclusions by from the analysis of self-reported data. Such research can be replaced or complemented by measurements focusing on physiological parameters (e.g., heart rate, eye movements, skin sensations, or cerebral blood circulation) (Bilandzik & Busselle, 2017). Phenomenological studies examine immersion in literary or cinematic narratives from two main aspects. One is the extent to which immersion in the narratives plot world has occurred. The other aspect is the extent to which the aesthetic experience of an artifact, which is shaped through language or visual elements and organized into a specific narrative structure, evokes immersion (Kuijpers, Hakemulder, Balint & Doicaru, 2017). A number of techniques can be used for empirical research examining the impact of the narrative. One such example is a questionnaire study (n = 210) that demonstrated that the delaying effect of suspense enhances viewer immersion (Balint, Kuijspers & Doicaru, 2017). In another recall study, using Lichtenstein and Brewr’s method, the respondents were asked to highlight narrative elements that had an impact on the film experience. The qualitative case study revealed
