Department of Psychology, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, Essex, CO4 3SQ, UK.
Department of Communication and Cognition, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands.
Mem Cognit. 2021 Apr;49(3):451-466. doi: 10.3758/s13421-020-01101-w. Epub 2020 Oct 6.
The comprehension of visual narratives requires paying attention to certain elements and integrating them across a sequence of images. To study this process, we developed a new approach that modified comic strips according to where observers looked while viewing each sequence. Across three self-paced experiments, we presented sequences of six panels that were sometimes automatically "zoomed-in" or re-framed in order to highlight parts of the image that had been fixated by another group of observers. Fixation zoom panels were rated as easier to understand and produced viewing times more similar to the original comic than panels modified to contain non-fixated or incongruous regions. When a single panel depicting the start of an action was cropped to show only the most fixated region, viewing times were similar to the original narrative despite the reduced information. Modifying such panels also had an impact on the viewing time on subsequent panels, both when zoomed in and when regions were highlighted through an "inset" panel. These findings demonstrate that fixations in a visual narrative are guided to informative elements, and that these elements influence both the current panel and the processing of the sequence.
视觉叙事的理解需要关注某些元素，并将它们整合到一系列图像中。为了研究这个过程，我们开发了一种新方法，根据观察者在观看每个序列时的注视位置来修改漫画。在三个自我调整的实验中，我们展示了六格漫画序列，这些序列有时会自动“放大”或重新构图，以突出被另一组观察者注视的图像部分。被注视放大的漫画格被评价为更容易理解，并且观看时间与原始漫画更相似，而不是被修改为包含非注视或不一致区域的漫画格。当一个描绘动作开始的单个漫画格被裁剪只显示最受注视的区域时，尽管信息减少了，但观看时间仍然与原始叙事相似。修改这些漫画格也会对后续漫画格的观看时间产生影响，无论是在放大时还是在通过“插图”漫画格突出显示区域时。这些发现表明，视觉叙事中的注视点会被引导到信息丰富的元素，这些元素会影响当前漫画格和序列的处理。
