ArticleTopics in cognitive science2020
The Scene Perception & Event Comprehension Theory (SPECT) Applied to Visual Narratives.
Article in Topics in cognitive science, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers.
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Who cites it
42 citing papers in PubMed.
- Event segmentation and encoding rely on information accumulated over different temporal scales.Memory & cognition · 2026Article
- Acute stress impairs visual narrative comprehension in younger but not older adults.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Distinct roles of central and peripheral vision in rapid scene understanding.Journal of vision · 2026Article
- The role of working memory in encoding the temporal structure of events in episodic memory: Evidence from a dual-task paradigm.Memory & cognition · 2026Article
- Executive Function Costs of Fantastical Interference in Narrative Comprehension: A Response to Lillard's (2026) Commentary.Developmental science · 2026Article
- Rethinking Naturalistic Movie Neuroimaging Through Film Form.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Semantic cues modulate brain activity in different Dunhuang narrative murals appreciation: an fNIRS study.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- The role of event understanding in guiding attentional selection in real-world scenes: The Scene Perception & Event Comprehension Theory (SPECT).Attention, perception & psychophysics · 2026Review
- Narrative context shifts gaze from visual to semantic salience.Communications psychology · 2026Article
- Inference generation in older adults: Comparing pictorial and textual comprehension in the context of cognitive decline.Memory & cognition · 2026Article
- The predictive-affective loop for directors: a target-state design framework for audiovisual directing.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Eye movements during free viewing to maximize scene understanding.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Coming Up Next: The Extent of the Perceptual Window in Comic Reading.Cognitive science · 2025Article
- Processing Written Language in Video Games: An Eye-Tracking Study on Subtitled Instructions.Journal of eye movement research · 2025Article
- Temporal dedifferentiation of neural states with age during naturalistic viewing.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Protracted development of gaze behaviour.Nature human behaviour · 2025Article
- Is Comprehension in Comics More Effective Than in Traditional Texts in Skilled Adult Readers? An Eye Movement-Based Study.Cognitive science · 2025Article
- A Computational Framework to Study Hierarchical Processing in Visual Narratives.Cognitive science · 2025Article
- An exploration of the editing cut as an articulator in film through frequency domain analysis of spectator EEGs.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025Article
- Processing Incongruity for Mental Events in Comics: Contours of Character Inferences.Metaphor and symbol · 2025Article
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4 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Understanding how people comprehend visual narratives (including picture stories, comics, and film) requires the combination of traditionally separate theories that span the initial sensory and perceptual processing of complex visual scenes, the perception of events over time, and comprehension of narratives. Existing piecemeal approaches fail to capture the interplay between these levels of processing. Here, we propose the Scene Perception & Event Comprehension Theory (SPECT), as applied to visual narratives, which distinguishes between front-end and back-end cognitive processes. Front-end processes occur during single eye fixations and are comprised of attentional selection and information extraction. Back-end processes occur across multiple fixations and support the construction of event models, which reflect understanding of what is happening now in a narrative (stored in working memory) and over the course of the entire narrative (stored in long-term episodic memory). We describe relationships between front- and back-end processes, and medium-specific differences that likely produce variation in front-end and back-end processes across media (e.g., picture stories vs. film). We describe several novel research questions derived from SPECT that we have explored. By addressing these questions, we provide greater insight into how attention, information extraction, and event model processes are dynamically coordinated to perceive and understand complex naturalistic visual events in narratives and the real world.
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