New article: The architecture of visual narrative comprehension

I’m happy to announce that I have a new article out in the journal Frontiers in Psychology titled “The architecture of visual narrative comprehension: the interaction of narrative structure and page layout in understanding comics.”

This is a “Focused Review,” so it summarizes the research that has been done on narrative structure, page layouts, and panel framing… and then tries to integrate them together! The intent is to show that each of these structures operates independently of each other, but that they all interface to create a larger whole than just the parts.

Abstract:

“How do people make sense of the sequential images in visual narratives like comics? A growing literature of recent research has suggested that this comprehension involves the interaction of multiple systems: The creation of meaning across sequential images relies on a “narrative grammar” that packages conceptual information into categorical roles organized in hierarchic constituents. These images are encapsulated into panels arranged in the layout of a physical page. Finally, how panels frame information can impact both the narrative structure and page layout. Altogether, these systems operate in parallel to construct the Gestalt whole of comprehension of this visual language found in comics.”

Cohn, Neil. 2014. The architecture of visual narrative comprehension: the interaction of narrative structure and page layout in understanding comics. Frontiers in Psychology. 5:680. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00680

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