Rules and Strategies of Visual Narratives

Abstract

A functional distinction was drawn between two sets of cinematic principles, grammatical rules and rhetorical strategies. Four different versions of visual narratives were constructed by either following or violating a cinematic rule and by following one of two cinematic strategies in a 2 by 2 design. Each narrative presented a simple interaction between two characters. Subjects viewed the narratives, evaluated the characters, and then reconstructed the depicted events. As predicted, violating a cinematic rule significantly weakened subjects' reconstruction of the stories but did not alter their evaluation of the characters. Conversely, changing the cinematic strategy influenced subjects' evaluation of the characters but not their reconstruction of the stories. General implications for comprehension of visual narratives are discussed.