User:LeonCrespo/sandbox

= Edit Blindness =

Edit Blindness refers to a psychological phenomenon, which describes that most cuts in movies stay unnoticed due to the focus of attention towards the narrative structure. Though present as a concept for film editors from the early stages of motion pictures, the phenomenon was first mentioned and described in a scientific context by Géry d'Ydewalle and Mark Vanderbeeken in 1990. It is a possible scientific explanation for Continuity editing and relies on various phenomena, such as Change Blindness and Inattentional Blindness. Movie viewers seem to have no problem perceiving a movie as a depiction of reality, even though certain visual aspects of movies differ wildly from the perception of reality, such as changes of perspective, flashbacks and cuts. Edit Blindness could serve as a possible explanation to this fallacy. The term Edit Blindness is mostly used in psychocinematic research.

Background
Due to the short length of early film stock, splicing was necessary to join together short segments into long-form. Therefore, film was cut and segments were subsequently joined in order to remove excess footage and to focus attention on significant elements of a scene. The cut has retained its purpose to this day, with alternative uses arising to achieve special effects.

Generating an uninterrupted viewing experience in post-production, using techniques to connect the film elements became necessary and was achieved by film editors. The goal was to make cuts almost invisible for a viewer, thus would not be perceived as interrupting in seeing a continuous action. Even though cuts discontinue an action in a scene per definition. Therefore film editors agreed upon Continuity editing rules, to assist the viewer in perceiving a movie without experiencing disruptive cuts.

Film editor Walter Murch referred to cutting as the cinematic equivalent of blinking since both processes are invisible unless attention is specifically focused on them.

Early research
In 1990, two separate studies asked participants to detect transitions from one viewpoint to another while watching films that either adhered to or violated the Continuity Editing Rules. Both studies found that cuts that violated the Continuity Editing Rules were detected faster than those that adhered to the rules, indicating more awareness of the discontinuity cuts. The term Edit blindness was coined and the researchers stated that it would explain some aspects of smooth perception of movies

The first study that could provide empirical evidence for Edit Blindness was conducted by Smith and Anderson in 2008 through a cut detection task. Participants were instructed to reply quickly whenever they noticed a cut in multiple short video clips depicting scenes from feature films. Eye-tracking was used to eliminate possible interference of eye blinking. Results indicated a significantly higher probability to miss cuts if Continuity editing is used. Match-Action Cuts seemed to be the most potent to divide the viewer's attention. This is explained due to the heightened focus on movement in the particular shot, as a Match-Action Cut occurs while a character is in mid-action.

Current research
Recent research states that Edit Blindness is closely related to Inattentional Blindness and Change Blindness. The shift of attention towards the narrative or other aspects of the scene could lead to Inattentional Blindness, described as the phenomenon in which individuals fail to notice visual information outside the scope of attention, even though the visual information is quite salient. Change Blindness on the other hand, which could be described as the inability to notice a change in a visual stimulus, could explain Edit Blindness as such that the cut itself causes a cognitive disruption, therefore impairing the ability the process information after the cut.

Furthermore, multiple experiments could identify the importance of audio to generate Edit Blindness. It was discovered that deletion of sound during edit detection experiments decreases the ability to notice a cut significantly. This result suggests that a rather dramatic cross-modal effect is at play since the removal of the audio part in a movie clip increased visual target detection ability for participants.

It was also established that motion after a cut is more important than before the cut when generating edit blindness in a match-action Cut, and motion before the cut can even lead to a higher cut detection rate.

In an Experiment Using a different approach, participants reviewed which cut is perceived as most smooth by adding or removing frames after the cut. It was found that viewers prefer overlapping in Match-action Cuts as it is perceived as more pleasant than experiencing a Jump Cut.

Practical implications
A precise understanding of the function of Edit Blindness might enhance the viewer's viewing experience and could bring new insights into the understanding of real-world dynamic scene perception and psychocinematics as well. Collaborations of Film editors and cognitive psychologists seem to produce new ideas in both fields.