title: The Power of the Picture: How Narrative Film Captures Attention and Disrupts Goal Pursuit.
abstract: Narrative transportation is described as a state of detachment that arises when one becomes immersed in the narrative of a story. Participants viewed either an intact version of an engaging 20 min film, "Bang You're Dead!," (1961) by Alfred Hitchcock (contiguous condition), or a version of the same film with scenes presented out of order (noncontiguous condition). In this latter condition, the individual scenes were intact but were presented out of chronological order. Participants were told a cover story that we were interested in the amount of gun violence depicted in films. Both groups were given the goal to remember to lift their hand every time they heard the word "gun" spoken during the film. Results revealed that participants were significantly less likely to remember to execute their goal in the contiguous condition, presumably because this narrative transported viewers' attention and thereby "hijacked" processing resources away from internal goals.
authors.affiliation: Yeshiva University, New York, NY, United States of America.
authors.forename: Anna-Lisa
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Cohen
authors.affiliation: Yeshiva University, New York, NY, United States of America.
authors.forename: Elliot
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Shavalian
authors.affiliation: Yeshiva University, New York, NY, United States of America.
authors.forename: Moshe
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rube
mesh_terms: D001288:Attention / Q000502:physiology*; D006040:Goals; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008570:Memory, Short-Term / Q000502:physiology; D009040:Motion Pictures; D033262:Narration; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology; D011897:Random Allocation; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D014495:Universities; D014754:Violence / Q000523:psychology; D055815:Young Adult