The following is a summary of “Spatiotemporal jump detection during continuous film viewing,” published in the February 2023 issue of Ophthalmology by Upadhyayula, et al.

Previous studies have shown that people often fail to detect scene edits while watching movies. However, it was not clear whether this insensitivity to spatiotemporal disruptions extends beyond scene edits. 

For a study, researchers conducted three experiments to investigate participants’ ability to detect disruptions when presented with one-minute movie clips that occasionally jumped ahead or backward in time. Participants were asked to press a button whenever they noticed any disruptions while watching the clips.

The results from experiments 1 and 2 showed that participants failed to notice disruptions in continuity 10% to 30% of the time, depending on the magnitude of the jump. Moreover, detection rates were lower when the videos jumped ahead in time compared to backward jumps, indicating that knowledge about the future affects jump detection. An additional analysis using optic flow similarity during these disruptions supported these findings.

The findings suggested that people’s ability to detect spatiotemporal disruptions during film viewing is influenced by their knowledge of future events. The research provided insight into the mechanisms underlying our ability to perceive and process information while watching movies and may have implications for how filmmakers can use temporal continuity to manipulate viewers’ experiences.

Reference: jov.arvojournals.org/article.aspx?articleid=2785400