Confronting a Paradox: A New Perspective of the Impact of Uncertainty in Suspense
Suspense is a key narrative issue in terms of emotional gratifications. Reactions in response to this type of entertainment are positively related to enjoyment, having a significant impact on the audience's immersion and suspension of disbelief. Related to computational modeling of this feature...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2018-08-01
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| Series: | Frontiers in Psychology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01392/full |
| _version_ | 1828541628246130688 |
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| author | Pablo Delatorre Carlos León Alberto Salguero Manuel Palomo-Duarte Pablo Gervás |
| author_facet | Pablo Delatorre Carlos León Alberto Salguero Manuel Palomo-Duarte Pablo Gervás |
| author_sort | Pablo Delatorre |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Suspense is a key narrative issue in terms of emotional gratifications. Reactions in response to this type of entertainment are positively related to enjoyment, having a significant impact on the audience's immersion and suspension of disbelief. Related to computational modeling of this feature, some automatic storytelling systems include limited implementations of suspense management system in their core. In this way, the interest of this subject in the area of creativity has resorted to different definitions from fields as narratology and the film industry, as much as several proposals of its constituent features. Among their characteristics, uncertainty is one of the most discussed in terms of impact and need: while many authors affirm that uncertainty is essential to evoke suspense, others limit or reject its influence. Furthermore, the paradox of suspense reflects the problem of including uncertainty as a component required in suspense creation systems. Due to this need to contrast the effects of the uncertainty in order to compute a general model for automatic storytelling systems, we conducted an experiment measuring suspense experienced by a group of subjects that read a story. While a group of them were told the ending of the story in advance, the members of the other group experimented the same story in chronological order. Both the subjects' reported suspense and their physiological responses are gathered and analyzed. Results provide evidence to conclude that uncertainty affects the emotional response of readers, but independently and in a different form than suspense does. It will help to propose a model in which uncertainty is processed separately as management of the amount of knowledge about the outcome available to the spectator, which acts as a control signal to modulate the input features, but not directly in suspense computing. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-12T01:42:37Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-d466fd955cea4bbd8c3048199b2ef01b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1664-1078 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-12T01:42:37Z |
| publishDate | 2018-08-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Frontiers in Psychology |
| spelling | doaj.art-d466fd955cea4bbd8c3048199b2ef01b2022-12-22T00:42:40ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Frontiers in Psychology1664-10782018-08-01910.3389/fpsyg.2018.01392377286Confronting a Paradox: A New Perspective of the Impact of Uncertainty in SuspensePablo Delatorre0Carlos León1Alberto Salguero2Manuel Palomo-Duarte3Pablo Gervás4Department of Computer Science, University of Cadiz, Cádiz, SpainDepartment of Software Engineering and Artificial Intelligence, Instituto de Tecnología del Conocimiento, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, SpainDepartment of Computer Science, University of Cadiz, Cádiz, SpainDepartment of Computer Science, University of Cadiz, Cádiz, SpainDepartment of Software Engineering and Artificial Intelligence, Instituto de Tecnología del Conocimiento, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, SpainSuspense is a key narrative issue in terms of emotional gratifications. Reactions in response to this type of entertainment are positively related to enjoyment, having a significant impact on the audience's immersion and suspension of disbelief. Related to computational modeling of this feature, some automatic storytelling systems include limited implementations of suspense management system in their core. In this way, the interest of this subject in the area of creativity has resorted to different definitions from fields as narratology and the film industry, as much as several proposals of its constituent features. Among their characteristics, uncertainty is one of the most discussed in terms of impact and need: while many authors affirm that uncertainty is essential to evoke suspense, others limit or reject its influence. Furthermore, the paradox of suspense reflects the problem of including uncertainty as a component required in suspense creation systems. Due to this need to contrast the effects of the uncertainty in order to compute a general model for automatic storytelling systems, we conducted an experiment measuring suspense experienced by a group of subjects that read a story. While a group of them were told the ending of the story in advance, the members of the other group experimented the same story in chronological order. Both the subjects' reported suspense and their physiological responses are gathered and analyzed. Results provide evidence to conclude that uncertainty affects the emotional response of readers, but independently and in a different form than suspense does. It will help to propose a model in which uncertainty is processed separately as management of the amount of knowledge about the outcome available to the spectator, which acts as a control signal to modulate the input features, but not directly in suspense computing.https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01392/fullsuspenseuncertaintyanticipationcognitive modelcomputational creativity |
| spellingShingle | Pablo Delatorre Carlos León Alberto Salguero Manuel Palomo-Duarte Pablo Gervás Confronting a Paradox: A New Perspective of the Impact of Uncertainty in Suspense Frontiers in Psychology suspense uncertainty anticipation cognitive model computational creativity |
| title | Confronting a Paradox: A New Perspective of the Impact of Uncertainty in Suspense |
| title_full | Confronting a Paradox: A New Perspective of the Impact of Uncertainty in Suspense |
| title_fullStr | Confronting a Paradox: A New Perspective of the Impact of Uncertainty in Suspense |
| title_full_unstemmed | Confronting a Paradox: A New Perspective of the Impact of Uncertainty in Suspense |
| title_short | Confronting a Paradox: A New Perspective of the Impact of Uncertainty in Suspense |
| title_sort | confronting a paradox a new perspective of the impact of uncertainty in suspense |
| topic | suspense uncertainty anticipation cognitive model computational creativity |
| url | https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01392/full |
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