Psychological Bulletin And Review Will Summarize The Mind Wandering ' During Film Comprehension Experiment

Everyone watches movies, whether it be in a theater or just at home on your TV. The reason that most people think of is just simply for entertainment. The fact that there are so many different genres of movies makes it easy for us to bring out different emotions while watching them. Those rush of emotions are what keeps us entertained and coming back for more.

For most people, movies are made for entertainment. However, there are also movies that go beyond merely entertaining its audience. There are films that have been created making use of psychological principles, which enrich the movie-viewing experience of audiences. This paper will focus on the movie Shrek, which was released in 2001, directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson.

Although the best reasons for “going to the movies” are to be entertained and eat popcorn, understanding a film is actually quite complex. Movies are not only a reflection of life, they also have the capability of shaping our norms, values, attitudes, and perception of life. Through the media of film, one can find stories of practically anything imaginable and some things unimaginable. Movie-makers use their art to entertain, to promote political agendas, to educate, and to present life as it is, was, or could be. They can present truth, truth as they interpret it, or simply ignore truth altogether. A movie can be a work of fiction, non-fiction, or anything in-between. A film is an artist’s interpretation. What one takes away from a film depends upon how one interprets what has been seen and heard. Understanding film is indeed difficult.

The purpose of the study was to measure the effect that the Flicker Paradigm had on visual perception. The Flicker Paradigm causes a distraction while there is a change made in the image. It was designed to test how long the groups took to react to a change in the visual field. The test is meant to show that the disturbance in the visual field made it much more challenging for the viewer to notice any changes that were made in the image. The hypothesis stated that the experimental group, the group using the Flicker Paradigm, would take longer to notice the change in the visual field than the control group, which had no flicker between the altered images. This is because the disturbance in the visual field caused the brain to miss the change that was made to the image because the information was deemed as unimportant. The majority of the perceived changes occurred in the background of the scene, and were considered minor in reference to the whole scene. This was proven true from the data collected, and coincided with previous tests. (Rensink, R. A. 2000). The data in tables 1.1 and 1.3 shows the individual participant data for the test with a flicker for both tests one and two. Tables 1.2 and 1.4 represent the individual results for the tests with no flicker, or the control group. Graphs 1.1 and 1.2 showed the relationship between the time taken to recognize alterations in the images. The data was taken from the average time to recognize the change from all

In the essay “Hal and Me” written by Nicholas Carr, he describes two very different kind of minds. The first being the linear mind which he says is described as calm, focused, and undistracted. He states the linear mind is a product of the printing press which made book reading a popular pursuit. The new mind he describes is a product of the internet. It is described as one that skips around, gains info quickly, has a short attention span, and enjoys a lot of graphics.

One of these points is the link between television shows and social lives. The feelings we have of forgetting character’s names and plot lines relates to a similar feeling in real life, according to cognitive scientist Richard Gerrig, who says “Being able to keep track of plots and characters is the same as keeping track of our friends’ lives.” Gerrig’s statement also helps Jurgensen’s article by bringing scientific and cultural realms together, and interlinking the psychology of reality with a casual event.

Michael, nicknamed Fresh is a 12-year old kid running drugs for gangsters. Because he is smart and honest, they respect him. Fresh lives with 11 other children in the spotless, orderly apartment of his aunt. His father has become a street bum, but still meets with Fresh on occasion to play chess.   Fresh's sister is also a junkie who sleeps with the dealers who Fresh sells for.

Carr speculates that by consistently perusing material in a quick and superficial manner, we are diminishing our ability to concentrate. He thinks that this is harming our intellect because it is changing our neurological wiring. We are not taking the time to reflect upon the subject matter, contemplate the information, and draw our own conclusions. According to him, this is causing a “rewiring”, or unwiring, of our brains. Ultimately, we lose the neurological connections that enable us to perform a true introspective analysis. He quotes the old adage, “use it or lose it.” Just as muscles must be used or they slowly dwindle away, so will the neurological connections in the

Powell (1986) conducted a study in which individuals viewed a photo or slide. Individuals were required to scan images and decide on an image for the entire display (Powell, 1986). Objects were pointed to, and subjects were asked to identify its location (Powell, 1986). The subject was asked to close his or her eyes and were shown another image. The subjects were to decide if the object was in the correct position (Powell, 1986). The subjects would hear one of the objects and was required to focus on the object while keeping the entire image in his or her mind (Powell, 1986). When the next object was identified, the subjects were to move from the first object to the second watching a black dot moving in a straight line (Powell, 1986).

The consequences linked with moderate engagement were that participants showed superficial encoding, that their answers coincided with their own autobiographical memories. The deepest levels of engagement with external stimuli involves individuals to read, retain information and then give a narrative of events occurring beyond the time of the current external input. Mind wandering during this setting, such as reading, occurs less than during signal detection, about 20-40% of the time (Schooler et al., 2005). Mind wandering is believed to deny individuals the ability to encode information correctly meaning that the consequences associated with mind wandering during the deepest level of engagement are that we produce an impaired building of the initial model given, we cannot reproduce an accurate narrative of the events. Mind wandering is prevalent across all levels but more frequent when less attention is required. Similarly mind wandering negatively impacts recall across all levels, having a slightly different effect depending of the level of engagement but having the worst impact on tasks requiring a deeper level of

Trailer #1 shows a lot of visuals, visuals are better because people prefer watching a movie rather than hearing or reading. This explains different ways people prefer reading to receive information.

    Film and literature are two media forms that are so closely related, that we often forget there is a distinction between them. We often just view the movie as an extension of the book because most movies are based on novels or short stories. Because we are accustomed to this sequence of production, first the novel, then the motion picture, we often find ourselves making value judgments about a movie, based upon our feelings on the novel. It is this overlapping of the creative processes that prevents us from seeing movies as distinct and separate art forms from the novels they are based on.

In the world of modern technology there are many ways to keep one entertained and informed. Two of the best ways are through the reading of books, and the watching of movies: both are eternal works of art designed for those who would wish to momentarily leave the existent of reality and dive into a world unknown or to question the known world through stories of factual relevance. Both take the entertained on a journey that has been created in the minds of a genius, but, it is the way they take the entertained into their imagery worlds that are different. Books, for example require the reader to use there imagination to mentally visualize the image the author is trying to perceive. Movies, on the other hand, will have the audience mesmerized as the picture comes to life right before their eyes. Both books and movies are great evening actives

The scientific article, “Inspired by Distraction: Mind Wandering Facilitates Creative Incubation”, by Benjamin Baird, Jonathon Smallwood, Michael D. Mrazek, Julia W. Y. Kam, Michael S. Franklin, and Jonathon W. Schooler (2012) focuses on creative thoughts and mind wandering. The article uses the incubation paradigm, where performance is measured by a UUT (Unusual Uses Task) and if it can be aided by a demanding task or an undemanding task that boosts mind wandering.

Movies and other forms of popular entertainment sources have often presented varied information and as well as misinformation about schizophrenia, most specifically in regard to its negative portrayals, which can lead to confused public opinion. In summary, majority of movies and popular entrainment media sources portrays people with schizophrenia as violent and with homicidal and suicide thoughts. In addition, most characters in these media sources are portrayed as Caucasians, males, and with supernatural abilities (Gaebel, 2011).