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Understanding Cognitive Film Theory

There are a number of studies and film theories that seek to create a means by which we can understand how people perceive or otherwise understand film as an art. Studying the individual ways in which a film can be interpreted represents a key element of film theories which have evolved over the years to include a variety of different focuses, elements, and institutions. Particularly, cognitive film theory, is one such means of film study that is not technically a “unified theory of film study” but rather represents a research tradition that can help us to better understand where these scholars that study film theories and define means of examining films are coming from.

What is Cognitive Film Theory?

Cognitive film theory came about in the 1980s when a group of scholars would dedicate time at an annual conference that included international commitments came together to discuss film. The reaction against and critique of various psychoanalytic and semiotic theories and paradigms that had then dominated film study were largely the focus when cognitive film theory began to evolve.

Essentially, cognitive film theory sought to propose that various elements of film spectatorship experience that draw upon the fields of cognitive science and analytic philosophy can be used to examine and study film. Thus, according to cognitive film theory, or cognitive media theory, various characteristics are important in the study of film and media. These particular relate to neuroscience, psychology, and the philosophy of art.

According to cognitive film theory, film is more than just a replication of the human perception. It’s an augmented reality which transforms the human perception.  A film therefore can be analyzed through psychoanalysis and the resulting context of the film may be examined in a number of different manners.

Cognitive theorists attempt to understand films from the perspective of how they engage the brain and thought processes. The idea of “the best available theory” representing the cognitive theorists approach to film study. Thus, in experiencing cinema, our experiences of seeing and comprehending the film and events in the film are based on our understanding of responses to film.  

Applying Cognitive Theory to Film

According to cognitive film theory, perception and cognition of a film, or the way that we perceive and think about a film, represents particular goal oriented processes in which there is a certain construction of cognitive conclusions. These are based on nonconscious inferences that are made based on various premises including our culture, education, environment, understanding, and a variety of other elements. Thus, cognitive film theory applies to the connections that we make when engaging in a film and understanding or making comprehensive conclusions as to what we see and how it is interpreted. There is therefore a fundamental assumption that can be made among some theorists and not others. 

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