Theory of mind, defined as attributing intentions, feelings, and thoughts to others, is a key capacity in building mental models of narratives. Shot scale, referring to the relative size of the figure on the screen, effectively regulates theory of mind relevant visual cues carried by faces. However, research into the effect of shot scale on theory of mind responses in a narrative is almost nonexistent. The aim of the present study was to investigate the extent to which shot scale influences theory of mind responding in film viewers. Four short animated movies were annotated for average shot scale and presented in a within-subject design. Employing mixed-method data collection, 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 analyzed for theory of mind responses. In a Poisson regression model, average shot scale predicted theory of mind response indicating that increasing spatial proximity to the character triggered higher occurrence of mental state references in participants’ story descriptions. The findings elucidate how formal properties of character presentation affect an audience’s mental models of a story.

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密切关注

定义为将意图，感受和思想归因于他人的心智理论是建立叙事心理模型的关键能力。镜头比例是指屏幕上人物的相对大小，可以有效地调节与面孔有关的心理理论相关视觉提示。但是，几乎没有关于射击比例对心理反应理论的影响的研究。本研究的目的是研究镜头比例在多大程度上影响电影观众的心理反应理论。注释了四部动画短片，以表示平均拍摄比例，并在主题内进行了展示。使用混合方法数据收集，要求参与者重述电影的故事并填写关于叙事经验的问卷。暴露期间还测量了皮肤电导。故事描述的内容针对心理反应理论进行了分析。在Poisson回归模型中，平均射击比例预测了心理反应理论，表明与角色的空间接近性增加，导致参与者的故事描述中出现更高的心理状态参考。这些发现阐明了角色呈现的形式特性如何影响听众的故事心理模型。