What Comes to Mind when Watching Films - Essay Example

?What Comes To Mind When Watching Films? It has been said that life imitates art and vice versa. This is most often manifested in films. When one watches a movie, it is inevitable that some sort of emotion is evoked from the audience, whether it is shallow amusement or deep pain. This is because it is natural for humans to empathize with the plight of others whether on film or in real life. Cognitive processes are constantly ongoing because there is stimulation all around us. Everything that our senses pick up provide information that our brains process. McDevitt & Omrod (2004) identify the components of the information processing system as the central executive, the sensory register, the working memory and the long-term memory. The central executive, as the term implies is central in overseeing the flow of information throughout the system. It is like the main administrator which ensures that all systems are working well. It is in charge of planning, decision-making, self-regulation, and inhibition of unproductive thoughts and behaviours. The sensory register is the component of the memory which holds information gathered from the environment in raw form for a very brief period of time. The working memory is another component of the memory which enables people to dwell on the information and process it in a very short duration of time. It has a limited storage capacity. Finally, the long-term memory is still another component of the memory which holds the knowledge and skills gained by a person for a relatively long period of time. Unlike the working memory, the long term memory has unlimited storage capacity. How do these components work together to process information? It all starts with a stimulus from the environment. The individual detects it physiologically with his senses. This is called sensation where as many senses are involved. In watching films, a scene is visually and auditorily perceived by the audience. The visual and auditory stimulation triggers the central executive to work on moving the flow of information in the brain. The working memory processes the information and allows the individual to comprehend what is happening in the scene. This happens very quickly that he is not even aware that the information has been processed in mere seconds. As the scene progresses, more information is processed in-depth and whatever information is gathered in that short span of time now goes to the long-term memory which stores the accumulated knowledge and experience related to the scene. This information may be associated with a related memory that may be similar to the scene just watched and a greater appreciation for the film is developed. Long-term memory is the repository of things learned in the course of one’s life. Obviously, long-term memory increases as one gets older that is why it is characterized by its unlimited capacity. What they store in their long-term memory can become integrated as more and more learning is acquired which are related to whatever was already stored there. As more and more information is stored, then learning may be more effective to the individual as there is more information to draw from in their long-term memories when new learning takes place (McDevitt & Omrod , 2004). Hogan (2003) contends that sensory perception is stored as a representational memory. This includes stimuli that have been visually and auditorily perceived. Emotional response is stored in the emotional memory. When a representational memory is recalled, the emotional memory is simultaneously triggered, resulting in a current state of emotional arousal. This explains why a tender and touching scene from a movie may first be perceived by the audience them the picture taken in their minds triggers an emotional memory related to the scene. Thus, depending on the memory, the viewer may express his or her emotions aptly. Philippe et al (2011) contends that such long-term memories make up people’s autobiographical memories which are important sources of information for the self to guide one in responding to various life situations. When people receive cues both internally and externally, such as specific situations, people and contexts which are encountered in day to day events, these trigger specific autobiographic memories encoded in people’s cognitive processes. The autobiographical memories are activated by the cues received due to some similarities observed such as physical resemblance to a significant other or a similar situation encountered in the past (Mace, 2005; Pillemer, 2003). Such memories are then processed by higher order cognitive structures and this gives the individual information to help him appraise the situation with previous knowledge (Smith & Kirby, 2000). When people watch films about situations similar to what they have experienced in the past, it triggers encoded experiences to resurface and this helps the individual appraise the film in his own perspective and is likely to evoke similar emotions. This process is similar to associative processing in social cognition which accounts for how hidden attitudes towards certain situations are established (Gawronski & Bodenhausen, 2006). For example, if a lady watches a film about abandonment, and she herself has embedded memories of being abandoned as a child, then such autobiographical memory will trigger the emotions she felt during that particular time she was abandoned. Philippe et al. (2011) further explain that other memories linked to the specific autobiographical memory triggered also get activated and this network of memories may intensify the emotions evoked. Going back to the example, the lady who associates the film she is watching with her memories of abandonment as a child may also remember people involved, even remotely in her abandonment issues –father who left her and her mother, the grandparents who supported them, the aunt who took care of her when her mother needed to work and others who in one way or another played a role in her young life as an abandoned child. Media entertainment is very influential in eliciting a variety of emotional reactions from people. Renner (2006) shares that films must have “redundant emotion cues such as dialogue, lighting, music, mise en scene, facial expressions, and gestures – in order to ensure that viewers with distinctive emotional networks will experience the emotional orientation desired by the filmmaker” (p. 108) Blending music and emotion is an effective strategy to evoke emotional responses from viewers. The tonal and temporal properties of a melody influence perception of emotions depicted on film. One theory that may explain audience response to media entertainment is the Affective Disposition Theory (ADT). Raney (2011) explains that people’s enjoyment of media entertainment such as films is a function of the viewer’s emotional connections with the characters in the film. Haidt (2003) further qualifies that many of the emotions associated with film may be described as moral emotions. People are partial to characters they believe share the same values, beliefs and morals as they do. These all fall within the boundaries of what the viewer considers morally acceptable. For example, the protagonist of the story has risen from poverty due to hard work and determination, the viewers are most likely to favour him over one who is enjoying a comfortable life because he was born rich and did not have to work hard for the state of life he is in. On the other hand, characters deemed to have a negative disposition and resorts to acts which do not conform to the moral standards of the viewer are considered unfavourable. That is why villains who are often depicted as scheming evil plans against the protagonist are often hated by viewers. Although there are several factors that may affect how a character may be liked by the viewer such as the character’s gender, age, attractiveness, the plot, dialogue, genre and viewer mood, it is still moral considerations that determine the process of character liking (Raney, 2005). Once viewers have determined which characters in the film they like, their partiality activated the “moral emotional process of empathy” (Tangney, Stuewig, & Mashek, 2007). The viewers root for the character as he goes through various struggles, experience pain and work towards his success. Disliked characters who stand in the way of the liked character’s success are not accorded empathy and instead, are hoped to fail. ADT is premised on the viewer’s enjoyment when their liked characters experience positive outcomes and their disliked characters experience negative outcomes. When the opposite happens (like characters experience negative outcomes and disliked characters experience positive outcomes), viewer enjoyment is lessened. This is associated with the viewer’s concept of justice. Raney (2011) asserts that the determination of what is fair, right, just, equitable, excessive or insufficient is based upon the viewer’s expectations of what the outcome shall be and the emotions they anticipate to feel regarding the characters and their own concept of justice. Appel (2008) concludes that viewers’ anticipatory emotions imply their hope for justice to reign and for good to trump evil, and when this expectation is met, enjoyment of the film is intensified. Moral emotions evoked by situations that involve people that one has connections to (like a family member or friend) are expected, such as feeling sad or distressed over a car accident of a loved one. A similar event happening to a complete stranger may also trigger an emotional reaction such as compassion. Raney (2011) theorizes that the less a person is connected to the victim, the more moral is the emotional reaction. Thus, the emotional reaction of compassion for a stranger is considered more moral than the sadness felt for a loved one’s accident because the compassion is elicited without an existing connection between the individual and the event or stranger. This may also be reflected in the compassion viewers may feel for some characters in film. Their emotional reaction for the liked character is within the bounds of the viewer’s morality. Most of the moral decisions people make in their everyday lives are accompanied by strong emotions. For instance, personal dilemmas that involve loved ones hurting an individual evoked feelings of anger and righteous indignation; dilemmas involving giving in to temptation tended to evoke guilt, shame, and defensive reactions; dilemmas involving social pressure and threat of punishment tended to evoke anxiety, fear, resentment, and frustration; and dilemmas involving reacting to the needs of others tended to evoke sympathy. These are the situations that make people stop and give vent to their feelings while engaging in critical thought of causes and effects of the circumstances. When they view such circumstance on film, happening to the actors, they feel removed from their personal situation and watch the decisions the characters make decisions about their lives. Vicariously, the viewer learns what to do in real life. Emotions also surface in moral dilemma situations without arising from the options themselves. An example is the mere stress of being torn between two options. Sometimes, just to avoid being in this aversive state, people altogether avoid making decisions. At other times, emotions that are unrelated to the options end up influencing the final decision. An example is a girl’s choice between two courses of action, for instance, of continuing schooling or dropping out and pursuing gainful employment. Her final choice may be more influenced by her fear of her parents of making the wrong decision instead of carefully weighing which is best for her. A viewer of this kind of scene in a movie likewise engages in careful decision-making processes with the character. It is interesting to note that being in the situation of involved decision-making in moral dilemmas has a biological effect not only on the heart, as it has the tendency to palpitate, but the brain as well. This implies that in such situations, a person’s whole being becomes involved- his thinking and feeling, his mind and heart. It is no surprise that people watching sad movies are capable of exhibiting behaviors that reflect sadness and even devastation like crying or wailing during very touching scenes. However, social conventions dictate proper behavior in public to be prudent in displaying too much emotion. Hence, people have come to learn emotion regulation. This is when people “think or do things that decrease the likelihood, magnitude, or duration of what is felt inwardly or shown outwardly” (Richards & Gross, 2005, p. 3). In particular, emotion suppression is hiding overt manifestations of inner emotional states. Usually, when watching films, people may hold back their tears in scenes that evoke strong emotions such as sadness or even joy. Outwardly, they do not seem affected, but it does not mean that they are not feeling anything. Richards and Gross (2005) contend that expressive suppression helps people appear but not feel less emotional. Studies have shown that emotion suppression may affect one’s memory of events. For example, when one is watching a particularly vivid scene in a movie that evokes strong emotions, and the viewer suppresses his emotions by trying to keep a neutral facial expression and holding back tears, efforts to control his emotional responses draw upon the same attentional resources also provided for viewing the movie. Thus, taking away attention from the movie lessens the details that the viewer may remember (Bonanno et al., 2004; Richards & Gross, 2000). The studies of Richards and Gross (2005) found that people who put more effort in suppressing their emotional responses to a film that should elicit very strong emotions remembered less of the movie than those who were allowed to express their emotions freely. Their study implies that intrinsically motivated efforts of people in suppressing their emotions may cause impairments in memory. Anderson & Shimamura (2005) conducted studies to see the effect of different kinds of emotion-provoking films, on memory. They found that emotionally arousing films with no negative influences bring about enhanced context memory. These films were rated highly on pleasantness, arousal and dominance. However, films which were considered negative and stressful did not have memory enhancing features as the viewers tended to avoid remembering it. Anderson & Shimamura’s (2005) study concluded that an emotional event in a person’s life, much like an emotional scene in a movie, can produce complex influences on memory, particularly the benefits and costs for different aspects of memory. The kind of emotion elicited by the scene (ex. Happiness, sadness, boredom) and the stimuli used to trigger the emotion (film, among others) and the kind of memory evaluated (free recall, item recognition, context memory) are all important variables in studying the scope of emotion on memory. How do viewers feel when they repeat viewings of films? In the case of suspense films, it is common for viewers to still feel the same anticipation and excitement in suspenseful scenes. Caroll (1996) explains that although the viewer already knows the ending, he or she still considers the possibility that it could end another way. That, in itself creates a feeling of suspense. Caroll opines that the ability to experience emotion from mere imagination allows people to be prepared for a variety of threats yet un encountered. Imagining makes them prepared with defense strategies which would then help them in survival. It is interesting to venture into the myriad of processes that happen with the mere viewing of a film. The processes of visual and auditory perception, happens almost simultaneously as feeling and remembering events from the past. While viewers are not aware of this complicated network of processes that happen, they continue to enjoy the film, and when it ends, embed in their minds the memory of it along with the lived memory of a pleasant experience. References Anderson, L. & Shimamura, A.P. (2005) Influences of emotion on context memory while viewing film clips, American Journal Of Psychology Vol. 118, No. 3, pp. 323–337 Appel, M. (2008). Fictional narratives cultivate just-world beliefs. Journal of Communication, 58, 62–83. Bonanno, G. A., Papa, A., O’Neill, K. O., Westphal, M., & Coifman, K. (2004). The importance of being Xexible: The ability to enhance and suppress emotional expression predicts long-term adjustment. Psychological Science, 15, 482–487. Carroll, N. (1996) ‘The Paradox of Suspense’, in Peter Vorderer, Hans J. 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(2011) The Role of Morality in Emotional Reactions to and Enjoyment of Media Entertainment, Journal of Media Psychology, Vol. 23(1):18–23 Smith, C. A., & Kirby, L. D. (2000). Consequences require antecedents: Toward a process model of emotion elicitation. In J. Forgas (Ed.), Feeling and thinking: The role of affect in social cognition (pp. 83–106). Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. Tangney, J. P., Stuewig, J., & Mashek, D. J. (2007). Moral emotions and moral behavior. Annual Review of Psychology, 58, 345–371. Read More