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Eye Tracking During Visually Situated Language Comprehension: Flexibility and Limitations in Uncovering Visual Context Effects
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Visual narrative comprehension: Universal or not?

Neil Cohn1

  • 1Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences, Department of Communication and Cognition, Tilburg center for Cognition and Communication, Tilburg University, P.O. Box 90153, 5000 LE, Tilburg, The Netherlands. neilcohn@visuallanguagelab.com.

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
|December 11, 2019
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Visual narratives, like comics, are not universally understood and require practice. Decoding these visual stories involves complex skills, challenging their use as simple communication tools.

Keywords:
ComicsIQ testNarrativePicture arrangementTemporal cognitionTheory of mindVisual narrative

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Science
  • Linguistics
  • Developmental Psychology

Background:

  • Visual narratives (comics, storyboards) are often assumed to be universally understood.
  • This assumption leads to their use in cognitive science research and communication efforts.
  • However, research indicates greater complexity in decoding visual narratives than previously thought.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To review research on the comprehension and creation of visual narrative sequences.
  • To synthesize findings from cross-cultural, developmental, and clinical psychology studies.
  • To challenge the notion of universal transparency in visual narrative interpretation.

Main Methods:

  • Literature review synthesizing cross-cultural and developmental research.
  • Inclusion of findings from clinical psychology (autism, language disorders, aphasia).
  • Analysis of studies on the comprehension and creation of visual narrative sequences.

Main Results:

  • Visual narrative comprehension is more complex than assumed.
  • Decoding visual languages requires fluency gained through exposure and practice.
  • Cross-cultural, developmental, and clinical data reveal significant decoding challenges.

Conclusions:

  • The perceived transparency of visual narratives is often an oversimplification.
  • Understanding visual narratives requires learned fluency in a graphic system.
  • The use of visual narratives in diverse populations needs careful consideration of decoding skills.