A Vision of the Viewer

Situating Narration in the

Fiction Film in the Context of
Theories of Narrative Comprehension
Joseph P. Magliano and James A. Clinton

Abstract: Contemporary theories of narrative comprehension assume that

people build mental models for narrative experiences that are structured
around situational relationships such as time, space, and causality. The domi-
nance of this perspective in cognitive psychology arguably emerged in the
mid-1990s. Bordwell’s Narration in the Fiction Film is remarkable in how well
it dovetails with contemporary theory and the fact that it was written at least
ten years before this theoretical perspective became dominant in the psycho-
logical literature on narrative comprehension. In this paper, we discuss the re-
lationship and influence of Bordwell’s masterpiece of research focusing on the
comprehension of narrative film.

Keywords: comprehension, dynamic processes, interdisciplinary research,

narrative, schema, theories of comprehension

Narrative comprehension results from building a durable mental representa-

tion of the narrative events (e.g., Kintsch 1988). The vast majority of narrative
comprehension research has been within the text domain rather than visual
narratives (e.g., movies, comics). This is juxtaposed to the fact that visual me-
dia constitutes one of the primary ways we experience narrative. Research and
theory in narrative comprehension claim comprehension processes conducted
in text should generalize to visual media (e.g., Magliano et al. 2013). However,
such claims typically do not take into account that narrative conventions from
one medium are likely different than those in another medium, and in non-
trivial ways that could affect the processes involved in constructing a mental
representation for a narrative.
Therein lies the value of scholarly endeavors within the humanities (Bord­
well 1985; Branigan 1992) or by practitioners (McCloud 1993) that have ex-
plored the cognitive processes that support comprehension within a medium.
Bordwell’s (1985) Narration in the Fiction Film constitutes one such contribu-
tion. Bordwell took an interdisciplinary approach to his systematic analyses

Projections Volume 10, Issue 1, Summer 2016: 3–11 © Berghahn Books

doi: 10:3167/proj.2016.100103 ISSN 1934-9688 (Print), ISSN 1934-9696 (Online)
4 / P R O J E C T I O N S

of how conventions of filmmaking support comprehension, and drew heavily

upon cognitive science. However by the time that the book was published,
much of the research on narrative comprehension discussed in the book was
no longer in the zeitgeist.
Nonetheless, a central claim of this article is that Bordwell had sustained
relevance to the field of narrative comprehension, and was standard reading
for those conducting research on narrative film comprehension (Cutting and
Iricinschi 2015; Magliano et al. 2001; Schwan and Ildirar 2010; Smith et al. 2012).
The interesting mystery to solve is why? The goal of this
Bordwell (1985) anticipated article is to answer this question and to speculate upon
a contemporary perspective the continued relevance of the book for future research.
of basic event cognition that Bordwell anticipated a contemporary perspective of basic
is not likely to fall out of the event cognition that is not likely to fall out of the zeitgeist
for years to come, and namely a dynamic perspective of
zeitgeist for years to come, and
comprehension processes. Remarkably, to our knowledge,
namely a dynamic perspective Bordwell is one of the earliest adopters of this perspective
of comprehension processes. in the context of scholars interested in understanding the
basis of narrative comprehension. To provide a context of
this discussion, one first needs to specify how Bordwell characterized the role
of the viewer in film comprehension.

Bordwell’s Vision of the Viewer

Bordwell draws on a classic distinction in literary theory between the syu-
zhet and fabula, in which the former pertains to explicit content in a narra-
tive (text, images, etc.) and the latter pertains to the representation of how
events unfold in the story world. As such, the fabula is more than the syuzhet
and contains knowledge brought to bear by the consumer. Bordwell discussed
how consistent, repeated patterns of the syuzhet in film help give rise to the
cognitive processes that lead to the fabula. In contemporary theories of com-
prehension, the syuzhet refers to the surface form and the fabula refers to the
situation model (e.g., Van Dijk and Kintsch 1983), which reflects a representa-
tion of what a text is about. Much of the research on narrative comprehension
over the past three decades since the publication of Bordwell has focused on
understanding the processes that give rise to the situation model.
As was the case with contemporary perspectives of meaning making
within cognitive science, Bordwell adopted a constructionist perspective as to
how the fabula is constructed. This perspective was most strongly manifested
in schema-based theories of event comprehension (e.g., Schank and Abelson
1977). Constructionist perspectives of meaning making assume schemas guide
comprehension in an active, top-down fashion. Schemas are knowledge struc-
tures that represent what features typically cooccur with an entity (e.g., apple,
chair, person) or event (e.g., going out to dinner, going to a doctor) (Schank and
 A V I S I O N O F T H E V I E W E R / 5

Abelson 1977). As an event unfolds, encoded information is matched against

features stored in memory. Through this process, a mental representation for
the event is created and updated by incorporating the newly encoded infor-
mation and the relevant features from the schema in episodic memory.
One could characterize Bordwell’s perspective as a constrained construc-
tionist position. Within this perspective a film viewer has agency, is an active
hypothesis tester, strives to explain what is happening, and anticipates the fu-
ture (see also Graesser et al. 1994). While constrained constructionist positions
were prevalent in cognitive science, Bordwell arguably made a unique contri-
bution. This contribution was one that is at the heart of an answer to the cen-
tral question of why and how his book has had sustained relevance. Bordwell
discussed in depth how repeated patterns in film (i.e., patterns in the syuzhet)
both lead to the development of schemas for how to process the implied spa-
tial, temporal, and causal relations and constrain what knowledge is activated
from relevant event schemas. In this way, he emphasized a dynamic relation-
ship between the flow of images on the screen and the knowledge activated
to support comprehension. Like Russian formalism, he specified how learned,
stereotypical patterns in the syuzhet lead to specific kinds of representation
fabula. For example, the use of cross cutting between shots that take place in
different spatial location leads to a representation that the events are happen-
ing concurrently in the fabula.
However, one paradox of the book was that schema-dominatant theories
of event comprehension were no longer seen as psychologically plausible by
the time that the book was published (e.g., Graesser et al. 1991). While there
was strong evidence in favor of the existence of schemas and their role in event
and narrative comprehension, it was recognized that additional processes are
necessary to understand events (Graesser et al. 1991). In fact, contemporary
constructionist perspectives emphasize extemporaneous explanatory rea-
soning that does not rely on schemas (Graesser et al. 1994). Given that the
psychological theory for which Bordwell primarily appealed was considered
passé by the time the book was published, what is the basis for the claim that
it had sustained relevance? To understand the answer, we draw on van den
Broek and Gustafson (1999) who described three phases of research in narra-
tive comprehension.

Eras of Research on Narrative Comprehension

Van den Broek and Gustafson (1999) identified three eras that reflect the zeit-
geist in terms of research questions, theoretical frameworks, and methodol-
ogy in narrative comprehension research. The first (mid-1970s–mid-1980s)
provided the psychological grounding for Bordwell. This era primarily focused
on understanding the structure of memory representation for narrative. An
important theme in research on memory and learning pertained to under-
6 / P R O J E C T I O N S

standing the relationship between semantic knowledge and episodic memo-

ries—products of learning processes. The prevalence of schema theory (e.g.,
Schank and Abelson 1977) rose in part by the fact that it described this rela-
tionship. As such, it was natural for early theories of text comprehension to
rely heavily on the construct.
However, during this era a contemporary perspective of narrative repre-
sentation proposed that memory for narratives could be conceptualized as
a hierarchically structured network (Kintsch and van Dijk 1978). The network
consists of nodes that correspond to explicit and inferred narrative events,
which are linked via semantic relationships such as time, space, and causality
(e.g., Van Dijk and Kintch 1983). Part of the fall of schema-dominant theories of
comprehension came from the realization that many of these relationships re-
quired inference processes that could not be easily explained using traditional
schema-based theories of comprehension (Graesser et al. 1991).
The second era (mid-1980s–mid 1990s) focused on the inference processes
supporting the construction of a network representation, which was viewed
as the basis for establishing coherence—an essential for narrative compre-
hension. Researchers asked questions about the inferences that are necessary
to establish coherence (e.g., Graesser et al. 1994). One conclusion was that only
inferences that bridge story elements, such as causal inferences, are necessary
for comprehension and are routinely generated (for an extensive review, see
Graesser et al. 1994). For example, predictive inferences do not establish coher-
ence and are either not typically generated during reading or generated at a
coarse level (e.g., something bad will happen, something good will happen;
Graesser et al. 1994).
The construct of the situation model (Zwaan & Radvansky 1998) became a
central focus of narrative comprehension theory and research. The situation
model aligns fairly well with the construct of the fabula. It was assumed that
comprehension arises in its construction, which reflects how events would un-
fold in space and time within the story world. Situation models are that aspect
of mental models for an event that establishes how events in the syuzhet are
related along dimensions such as time, space, and causality. While the con-
struct became popular, relatively little research was conducted to understand
what it constituted. That changed in the third era (mid-1990 to present) with
the emphasis on how moment-to-moment processes give rise to a situation
model (e.g., Zwaan et al. 1995).
As one example of a study from this era, Zwaan et al. (1995) had partici-
pants read commercially produced short stories (e.g., Poe’s “The Tell-Tale
Heart”) presented one clause at a time. Zwaan and colleagues conducted a
discourse analysis to determine if there was spatial, temporal, and causal con-
tinuity across story clauses based on a set of criteria to determine if those
relationships exist. They found that clause reading times were correlated with
 A V I S I O N O F T H E V I E W E R / 7

breaks in causal and temporal continuity, but only correlated with spatial con-
tinuity upon rereading a narrative. They concluded that readers monitor time
and causality more closely during reading and only monitor spatial continuity
when they have the foundation of a situation model constructed.
The event-indexing model emerged as a predominant theory of narrative
comprehension during the third era (Zwaan and Radvanksy, 1998). This model
assumes that readers or viewers monitor situational continuity along mul-
tiple dimensions such as agency (i.e., characters), space, time, causality, and
intentionality. The network representation arises because events that share
situational indices are connected in the situation model. Situation models are
dynamically updated as new relationships are established (Zwaan and Rad-
vansky 1998).

Mechanisms and Examples of Sustained Relevance

We started this article with the claim that Bordwell had sustained relevance
in spite of the fact that schema-dominant theories of comprehension were
passé by the time the book was published. We identified at least two reason
why this is the case. First, while schema-dominant theories did not emphasize
coherence building per se or the role of situational continuity in that endeavor,
Bordwell emphasized the importance of the syuzhet in cuing the presence of
temporal, spatial, and causal continuities in the fabula. Therefore, in doing so
he anticipated central themes within eras two and three, namely coherence
building. Moreover, in doing so Bordwell arguably adopted a perspective such
that features of the input serve as processing instruction for situation model
construction, a perspective manifested in linguistics (Givón 1992) and psy-
chology (Magliano and Schleich 2000). This latter perspective is at the heart
of dynamic perspectives of information processing that dominate cognitive
science.
As an example of Bordwell relevance to second era, Magliano, Djikstra, and
Zwaan (1996) conducted a study to explore how cinematic devices can sup-
port the generation of predictive inferences. For example, consider the shot
sequence from Moonraker (Broccoli and Gilbert 1979) shown in Figure 1. Shots
3, 4, 5, and 6 make use of a cross-cutting sequence that is typically used to con-
vey that two events will eventually converge in the story world. Magliano et
al. (1996) showed that the use of these conventions were positively correlated
with the likelihood that viewers generated predictions, thereby showing that
predictions do occur when constraints are in place. Ironically, while schema-
based theories of comprehension are passé, one can only explain such effects
in terms of learned patterns of cinema (Schwan and Ildirar 2010).
As another example, Magliano et al. (2001) conducted a study akin to
Zwaan et al. (1995) but in the context of film. They had participants engage
in an event segmentation task (Newtson 1973) in which they were instructed
8 / P R O J E C T I O N S

Figure 1. Frames to identify the boundaries between situations that make up the stories. They
taken from Moon- developed content analyses of the films to identify when spatial and temporal
raker (Broccoli and
breaks in continuity occurred at editing locations outlined by Bordwell. They
Gilbert 1979) depict-
ing Jaws falling.
found that breaks in temporal continuity at editing locations had a greater
impact on segmentation judgments than breaks in space, and inferred that
similar to text, perceived temporal continuity is a more dominant cue of event
structure than spatial continuity. In a follow-up study, Magliano and Zacks
(2011) used functional magnetic resonance imaging, which allows one to iden-
tify brain networks that are active when events are processed. They found dis-
sociable networks for edit locations that maintain or demonstrate breaks in
situational continuity.
 A V I S I O N O F T H E V I E W E R / 9

Conclusion
It is remarkable that a book published in the discipline within the humani-
ties would have sustained relevance in an empirical field, but that has been
indeed the case of Bordwell. In adopting an interdisciplinary perspective, Bord­
well anticipated important themes that emerged in the study of narrative
comprehension that arose after its publication. Bordwell’s theme of dynamic
processing is at the heart of sustained relevance. Bordwell argued that pat-
terns in the syuzhet serve as processing instructions for construction of the
fabula. This argument is consistent with virtually all contemporary theories of
narrative comprehension (McNamara and Magliano 2009).
Since the publication of van den Broek and Gustafson (1999), a fourth era
comprised of multiple themes has emerged. The first theme focuses on read-
ing in context and attempts to understand complex interactions between
reader, text, and task (McNamara and Magliano 2009). Understanding the
role of individual differences in comprehension ability, working memory ca-
pacity, and other factors represents a central research agenda in this theme. A
second theme focuses on understanding how comprehension is grounded in
perceptual systems (Zwaan 2014). This theme (sometimes referred to as em-
bodied cognition) assumes that the same systems supporting our ability to
perceive and act in the world are involved in understanding and representing
events experienced in language (see also Lakoff and Johnson 1980). Bordwell
may have relevance to these foci of research, but it is up to scholars to explore
those relationships.

Joseph P. Magliano, PhD, is a Presidential Research Professor of psychology at

Northern Illinois University. He is a cognitive scientist whose research focuses
on narrative comprehension in the context of text- and visually-based narra-
tives. His research on film comprehension focuses on how cinematic features
shape comprehension processes. He also studies what it means to be college
and career ready to comprehend media and how struggling comprehenders
can become more successful. He has over 90 publications in scholarly journals
and books on these topics.

James A. Clinton is a postdoctoral scholar at Northern Illinois University, where

he recently received his PhD in Cognitive and Instructional Psychology under
the mentorship of Joseph Magliano. He is a cognitive scientist with research
interests in film and graphic narrative comprehension, but also has interests
in the areas of visual perception, social cognition, and neuroscience. He is par-
ticularly drawn to how visual perception contributes to the understanding of
both film and graphic narratives.
1 0 / P R O J E C T I O N S

References
Bordwell, D. 1985. Narration in the Fiction Film. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Branigan, E. 1992. Narrative Comprehension and Film. New York: Routledge.
Broccoli, A.R., prod., and L. Gilbert, dir. 1979. Moonraker. USA.
Cutting, J., and C. Iricinschi. 2015. “Re-Presentations of Space in Hollywood Movies: An Event-
Indexing Analysis.” Cognitive Science 39(2): 434–456.
Givón, T. 1992. “The Grammar of Referential Coherence as Mental Processing Instructions.”
Linguistics 30(1): 5–55.
Graesser, A.C., J.M. Golding, and D.L. Long. 1991. “Narrative Representation and Compre-
hension.” In Handbook of Reading Research, ed (Vol 2, pp. 171–204). R. Barr, M.L. Kamil,
P. Mosenthal, and P.D. Pearson. London: Longman.
Graesser, A.C., M. Singer, and T. Trabasso. 1994. “Constructing Inferences during Narrative Text
Comprehension.” Psychological Review 101(3): 371–395.
Kintsch, W. 1988. “The Role of Knowledge in Discourse Comprehension: A Construction-Inte-
gration Model.” Psychological Review 95(2) 163–182.
Kintsch, W., and T.A. Van Dijk. 1978. “Toward a Model of Text Comprehension and Production.”
Psychological Review 85(5): 363–394.
Lakoff, G., and M. Johnson. 1980. “The Metaphorical Structure of the Human Conceptual Sys-
tem.” Cognitive Science 4(2): 195–208.
Magliano, J.P., K. Dijkstra, R.A. Zwaan. 1996. “Generating Predictive Inferences while Viewing a
Movie.” Discourse Processes 22(3): 199–224.
Magliano, J.P., L. Loschky, J. Clinton, and A. Larson. 2013. “Differences and Similarities in Pro-
cessing Narratives across Textual and Visual Media.” Pp. 78–90 in Unraveling the Behav-
ioral, Neurobiological, and Genetic Components of Reading Comprehension, ed. B. Miller,
L. Cutting, and P. McCardle. Baltimore: Paul Brookes.
Magliano, J.P., J. Miller, and R.A. Zwaan. 2001. “Indexing Space and Time in Film Understand-
ing.” Applied Cognitive Psychology 15(5): 533–545.
Magliano, J.P., and M. Schleich. 2000. “Verb Aspect and Situation Models.” Discourse Processes
29(2): 83–112.
Magliano, J.P., and J.M. Zacks. 2011. “The Impact of Continuity Editing in Narrative Film on
Event Segmentation.” Cognitive Science 35(8): 1489–1517.
McCloud, S. 1993. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. New York: HarperPerennial.
McNamara, D.S., and J.P. Magliano. 2009. “Towards a Comprehensive Model of Comprehen-
sion.” Pp. 297–384 in The Psychology of Learning and Motivation, ed. B. Ross, vol. 51. New
York : Elsevier Science.
Newtson, D. 1973. “Attribution and the Unit of Perception of Ongoing Behavior.” Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology 28(1): 28-–8.
Schank, R.C., and R. Abelson. 1977. Scripts, Goals, Plans, and Understanding. Hillsdale, NJ: Law-
rence Elbaum Associates, Inc.
Schwan, S., and S. Ildirar. 2010. “Watching Film for the First Time: How Adult Viewers Inter-
pret Perceptual Discontinuities in Film.” Psychological Science 21(7): 970–976.
Smith, T.J., D. Levin, D., and J.E. Cutting. 2012. “A Window on Reality Perceiving Edited Moving
Images.” Current Directions in Psychological Science 21(2): 107–113.
Van den Broek, P., and M. Gustafson. 1999. “Comprehension and Memory for Texts: Three
Generations of Reading Research.” Pp. 15–34 in Narrative Comprehension, Causality, and
Coherence: Essays in Honor of Tom Trabasso, ed. R. Goldman, A.C. Graesser, and P. van den
Broek. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
 A V I S I O N O F T H E V I E W E R / 1 1

Van Dijk, T., and W. Kintsch. 1983. Strategies of Discourse Comprehension. New York: Academic
Press.
Zwaan, R.A. 2014. “Embodiment and Language Comprehension: Reframing the Discussion.”
Trends in Cognitive Sciences 18(5): 229–234.
Zwaan, R.A., J.P. Magliano, and A.C. Graesser. 1995. “Dimensions of Situation-Model Construc-
tion in Narrative Comprehension.” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory,
and Cognition 21(2): 386–397.
Zwaan, R.A., and G.A. Radvansky. 1998. “Situation Models in Language Comprehension and
Memory.” Psychological Bulletin 123(2): 162–185.

Filmography
Broccoli, A.R., prod., and L. Gilbert, dir. 1979. Moonraker. USA.