The psychology of stories Communication 200 (Oct 4, 2000) Kristine Samuelson Byron Reeves

Why are stories compelling? n The grammar of stories matches the way humans think and feel n Stories have evolutionary significance n The person with the best story survives n Stories influence conscious thought n Bias in memory n Effects on judgments and evaluations

Assumptions of psychological theories about stories n People are mentally active n People try to organize information n Unidirectionality of thinking -- people reduce complexity; they don’t create it n Reduction of complexity is efficient but often troublesome (e.g. stereotypes) n Stories organize thinking

Information processing models n Three stages of processing n acquisition of information n retention n retrieval n Primary attention to representation of information in memory n Stories are the stuff of memory

Three different storage units n Sensory storage n information that impinges on sense organ n veridical and decays in seconds n The work space n temporary storage n decays in minutes if not permanently encoded n Permanent storage n long-term memory n Stories are most important for organizing permanent memory

Organization of information in permanent memory n Similar information is stored together n The most general concept that describes storage is “schema” n Types of schema n Scripts -- social action as a series of events n Prototypes -- idealized schema used to categorize more highly variant information n Story grammars -- organization of information by event sequences

More about schema n Similar to common ideas about thinking: n “top of my head” n “that makes me think of…” n “Stanford students always…” n “that reminds of what happened next…”

Schema are interconnected networks of information n Networks of information n Storage bins filled from the top

Predictions about media effects using this model n Information decays if not encoded as a story in permanent storage n The most recent stories are templates for long-term memory n Stories bias memory by adding and subtracting information n Recall best for story consistent information

The psychological parts of stories n Psychological stages of a story n equilibrium at the outset n disruption of equilibrium by some action n recognition of the disruption n uncertainty about the the possibility of repair n attempt to repair the disruption n reinstatement of equilibrium

Memory for story consistent information (A. Lang) n Empirical study about broadcast news n Inverted pyramid vs. story sequence n Better memory (recall after watching) for stories n Stories liked better than facts n Implications for assignment editors?

The study of stories in media effects n Agenda setting effects n Which stories are important vs. n What the stories convey n Cultivation effects n Media centralize story telling n The central stories bias local interpretation n Priming studies n Mere presence of stories influences processing of subsequent information

Arousal and stories n The creation and resolution of conflict is arousing and compelling n “Get them sick, get them well” advertising n Physical arousal in violent video games (story games vs. random killing) n Arousal and drama n Being excited is separate from feeling happy or sad n Arousal transfers from bad feelings to good n The arousal of conflict in stories feeds the good feelings at time of story resolution

Can the influence of stories be unconscious? n Subliminal priming n Much interest in media effects n Many contemporary examples: n RATS n Sex in ice cubes n The Lion King n Connections between “story” elements need not be conscious

Unconscious priming in psychology n lots of empirical interest recently n none of the studies are like the popular claims n different vocabulary - “semantic activation without subjective awareness”

Unconscious paradigms for priming n dichotic listening n “cocktail party” phenomenon n shadowing n parafoveal vision n information flashed outside of visual focus n backward pattern masking n information flashed quickly at point of focus n beyond subjective or conscious identification threshold

A media experiment n Could this work with video? n Video clips below and above identification threshold n 1 frame with mask n 2 frames with mask

Experimental design n Happy or sad face, or no picture n 20 seconds of person talking (newscaster, moderators in ads, etc..) n Rate emotion of people in the video

Results n Priming of related information is influential even when it’s conscious n People need not aware of the material being primed