A Starring Role for Inference in the Neurocognition of Visual Narratives

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Bibliographic Details
Title: A Starring Role for Inference in the Neurocognition of Visual Narratives
Language: English
Authors: Cohn, Neil (ORCID 0000-0003-0074-1995)
Source: Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications. 2021 6.
Availability: Springer. Available from: Springer Nature. One New York Plaza, Suite 4600, New York, NY 10004. Tel: 800-777-4643; Tel: 212-460-1500; Fax: 212-460-1700; e-mail: customerservice@springernature.com; Web site: https://link.springer.com/
Peer Reviewed: Y
Page Count: 14
Publication Date: 2021
Document Type: Journal Articles
Reports - Research
Descriptors: Inferences, Cognitive Processes, Brain, Visual Learning, Cartoons, Schemata (Cognition), Brain Hemisphere Functions, Language Processing
DOI: 10.1186/s41235-021-00270-9
ISSN: 2365-7464
Abstract: Research in verbal and visual narratives has often emphasized backward-looking inferences, where absent information is subsequently inferred. However, comics use conventions like star-shaped "action stars" where a reader "knows" events are undepicted "at that moment," rather than omitted entirely. We contrasted the event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to visual narratives depicting an explicit event, an action star, or a "noise" panel of scrambled lines. Both action stars and noise panels evoked large N400s compared to explicit-events (300-500 ms), but action stars and noise panels then differed in their later effects (500-900 ms). Action stars elicited sustained negativities and P600s, which could indicate further interpretive processes and integration of meaning into a mental model, while noise panels evoked late frontal positivities possibly indexing that they were improbable narrative units. Nevertheless, panels following action stars and noise panels both evoked late sustained negativities, implying further inferential processing. Inference in visual narratives thus uses cascading mechanisms resembling those in language processing that differ based on the inferential techniques.
Abstractor: As Provided
Entry Date: 2021
Accession Number: EJ1287610
Database: ERIC
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Abstract:Research in verbal and visual narratives has often emphasized backward-looking inferences, where absent information is subsequently inferred. However, comics use conventions like star-shaped "action stars" where a reader "knows" events are undepicted "at that moment," rather than omitted entirely. We contrasted the event-related brain potentials (ERPs) to visual narratives depicting an explicit event, an action star, or a "noise" panel of scrambled lines. Both action stars and noise panels evoked large N400s compared to explicit-events (300-500 ms), but action stars and noise panels then differed in their later effects (500-900 ms). Action stars elicited sustained negativities and P600s, which could indicate further interpretive processes and integration of meaning into a mental model, while noise panels evoked late frontal positivities possibly indexing that they were improbable narrative units. Nevertheless, panels following action stars and noise panels both evoked late sustained negativities, implying further inferential processing. Inference in visual narratives thus uses cascading mechanisms resembling those in language processing that differ based on the inferential techniques.
ISSN:2365-7464
DOI:10.1186/s41235-021-00270-9