Manipulating Montage: Effects on Film Comprehension,Recall,Person Perception,and Aesthetic Responses

Abstract

A short narrative film was edited four different ways by varying the amount and type of deviation from linear montage and the presentation of action and events in their canonical order. Recall of action and reconstruction of the linear order of events were strongly associated with the degree of montage linearity, regardless of the particular plot or motives that were inferred. However, the most veridical perceptions of the protagonists were produced by a relatively deviant version, along with unexpectedly high recall and linear comprehension. Results suggest that understanding and recalling a film's events and an actor's behavior depend on the interplay between the underlying story grammar and the way the montage implies temporal continuity or a retroactive match through its depiction of spatial relations and movement. Presenting negative information at the end leads to more negative impressions of a protagonist and spectators increasingly dislike the film as versions become less filmic, even if they successfully reconstruct the linear order of events.