Blended joint attention

This chapter deals with the cognitive phenomenon of blended joint attention, which builds upon the natural human capacity to attend together with others to elements of the environment. This natural, everyday behavior, known as joint attention, sets the cognitive basis for the blended joint attention triangle that is established in flashback scenes, in which the camera and the viewer together pay attention to the events in the present and, eventually, jointly attend to the narrated past. First, some preliminary issues are discussed regarding human perception, both in the real world and in film. Movies are then described as attentional engines (Carroll & Seeley, 2013) that rely on the continuity system to direct the viewer’s attention on the basis of natural human cognitive and perceptual operations. Point-of-view editing is briefly discussed as one such mechanism of continuity and attention. Second, the cognitive process of blended joint attention is analyzed in detail vis-à-vis film flashbacks, where a blended joint attention scene takes place involving the camera and the viewer jointly attending first to the narrative present and then to the past. Characters may also participate in flashback scenes attending either jointly or in parallel with the camera and the viewer to the events of the past. Finally, it is explained how the past events narrated in flashbacks constitute the object of attention in the scene of blended joint attention that is established. New concepts are introduced at this level of analysis, fundamentally those of narrative (mental) space (Dancygier, 2005, 2008, 2012b), space builder (Fauconnier, 1994 [1985], 1997), and narrative anchor (Dancygier, 2008, 2012b). In short, two basic narrative spaces are set up in flashback scenes: the present space and the past space. The viewer’s attention is drawn toward the narrative space of the past by means of the so-called space builders, many of which analyzed here take the form of narrative anchors: they not only set up narrative spaces but may also evoke and reactivate spaces, build links between present and past narrative spaces, and contribute to projection of elements from one narrative space to another (cross-input projections). Narrative context is also described as an essential component for the viewer’s successful navigation of film flashbacks. Ultimately, it is argued that what allows spectators to effectively understand flashbacks is a series of blending operations that involve the activation and construction of narrative spaces as well as establishing multiple connections between elements in those spaces.

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