The experience of deviation is often referred to as foregrounding and contrasted with the experience of feeling absorbed in a narrative. However, instead of simply assuming that foregrounding and absorption are mutually exclusive, they should also be considered as co-occurring: being absorbed as a result of a deviating aspect of a story. In the present paper we examine the co-occurrence of responses by means of a data-driven qualitative approach. The analysis of interviews about absorbed experiences with written and cinematic fictional narratives focused on occurrences of and responses to perceived deviation. We identified seven strategies in response to deviation that may be described through three underlying dimensions: absorption, agency, and valence. Findings suggest that perceived deviation, rather than obstructing absorption, is associated with intense and meaningful engagement with narratives.

Shot scale in film, that is the apparent spatial distance of characters from the camera, is one of the most important compositional elements in a film shot guiding media audiences' attention. The primary aim of the present study was to investigate the extent to which apparent spatial distance of fictional characters can evoke theory of mind responding in film viewers. Theory of mind, referring to the capacity of attributing mental states to others, is considered fundamental in audiences' character involvement and narrative understanding, and it presumably mediates narrative effects. Four short animated movies were annotated for shot scale distribution and presented to participants (N = 52) in a within-subject design.Participants were asked to retell the story of the films and fill in questionnaires on narrative experience. Skin conductance was also measured during exposure. Story-descriptions were content analysed for theory of mind responses. In a Poisson-regression model average spatial

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Narrative absorption is a spontaneous temporary change in the state of consciousness due to an exceptionally intense awareness of a fictional narrative. This article investigates the experiential level of narrative absorption, namely what it is like to be absorbed in a cinematic or printed narrative.Followingacognitivelinguisticapproachthearticleassumesthat inordertoestablishunderstandingoftheexperientiallevelofnarrativeabsorptionitisnecessarytoexaminehowpeopleexpresstheirexperience.The articleproposesthattheconceptofimageschemaisafruitfulwaytorepresent the content of viewers' and readers' consciousness so as to identify relevant mental schemata of absorbed narrative experiences. To generate richdescriptionsofnarrativeabsorptionaninterviewstudywasconducted. Theinterviewsqualitativelyemployingtheimageschemasasthesystemof thethematicanalysiswereexaminedforthisresearch.TheCentre-Periphery, Container,andtheSource-Path-Goalschemasprovidedeeperinsightintothe natureandstructureofrecurringembodiedpatternsofabsorptionwithfictionalnarratives.

Although personal relevance is key to sustaining an audience’s interest in any given narrative, it has received little systematic attention in scholarship to date. Across centuries and media, adaptations have been used extensively to bring temporally or geographically distant narratives “closer” to the recipient under the assumption that their impact will increase. In this article, we review experimental and other empirical evidence on narrative processing in order to unravel which types of personal relevance are more likely to be impactful than others, which types of impact (e.g., aesthetic, therapeutic, persuasive) they have been found to generate, and where their power becomes excessive or outright detrimental to reader experience. Together, the evidence suggests that narratives are read through the lens of the reader’s self-schema independently of genre, although certain groups of readers, especially in certain situations, may experience personal relevance and related effects more strongly than others. The literature further suggests that large-scale similarities between reader and character (e.g., gender) may not per se be enough for relevance effects to arise and that emotional valence has a role to play in the process alongside thematic saliency.

Recent research debates the effects of exposure to narrative fiction on recognition of mental states in others and self, referred to as Theory of Mind. The current study explores the mechanisms by which such effects could occur in fictional film. Using manipulated film scenes, we conducted a between subject experiment (N = 136) exploring how film shot-scale affects viewers’ Theory of Mind. Specifically, in our methods we distinguish between the trait Theory of Mind abilities (ToM ability), and the state-like tendency to recognize mental states in others and self (ToM tendency). Results showed that close-up shots (compared to long shots) of a character was associated with higher levels of Theory of Mind tendency, when the facial expression was sad but not when it was neutral. And this effect did not transfer to other characters in the film. There was also no observable effect of character depiction on viewers’ general Theory of Mind ability. Together the findings suggest that formal and content features of shot scale can elicit Theory of Mind responses by directing attention toward character mental states rather than improving viewers’ general Theory of Mind ability.

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