Space in Movies: Continuity and Perceptual Load Guide Spatial Judgements

Abstract Movies often require viewers to form complex spatial maps due to the constant movement of the camera. In the present study, we investigated the role of perceptual load (high vs low) and screen orientation (regular vs mirrored) on people’s judgements of spatial relations in movie scenes. We manipulated perceptual load as the complexity of information in the background and screen orientation as the position of actors in the original video compared to a mirrored version, which flipped the actor positions 180° on the horizontal axis halfway into the video. In Experiment 2, we introduced a cue (either on the actor or on the background) to draw attention to the spatial relations in the first half of the video, which represented the regular orientation. To explore these variables in a more controlled setting, we filmed simple activity videos in the laboratory in Experiment 3. Overall, the results indicated that preference for the most recent spatial orientation significantly decreased, and reaction times increased when actor positions reversed halfway into the scene. Also, high perceptual load or cues on actors increase the chance that the viewer might shift from the original spatial-temporal framework. The results suggest that continuity of actor positions appears to be the most crucial factor for forming and updating spatial representations in movie sequences. Nonetheless, scene background is also considered by the viewers as a part of the active mental model as a contextual cue to anchor actor positions.