presentation r. doust 2

Meta-effects of narrativetowards a typology of suspense

Richard Doust

Phd program (part-time)

[email protected]

Supervisors: Richard Power, Paul Piwek

Department of Computing

Open University, UK

Meta-effects of narrative : R. DOUST – p.1

What is suspense ?

Just how do narrative structures such as aHitchcock film generate the well-known feelingknown as suspense ?

⇒


What is suspense ?

Just how do narrative structures such as aHitchcock film generate the well-known feelingknown as suspense ?

⇒

What are the minimal requirements on formal de-

scriptions of narratives such that we can ade-

quately capture these phenomena and generate

new narratives which contain them ?


Why does it matter ?

way to create more ‘lively’ texts from fictionalor technical storylines




teaching tool for writing and film-making





standard measure of suspensefulness over awide range of domains





standard measure of suspensefulness over awide range of domains

essential component of interactive dramasystems


Suspense in scientific literature

Gerrig and Bernardo (1994)

Cheong and Young’s (2006) narrative generation

Cognitive appraisal paradigm (OCC)

Desire-frustration theory (Smuts et al., 2004)

Brewer and Lichtenstein’s approach (1982)



Gerrig and Bernardo (1994)Suspense is greater the lower the number of solutionsto the hero’s current problem that can be found by thereader.








Cheong and Young’s (2006) narrative generationSuspense level depends on the number and type ofsolutions reader can imagine in order to solve theproblems facing the main character.








Cognitive appraisal paradigm (OCC)Suspense is conceptualised above all as an emotionalexperience that occurs over time: satisfaction ordisappointment for hoped-for positive events and reliefor anguish for previously feared negative events








Desire-frustration theory (Smuts et al., 2004)Suspense arises when ”we can’t do much about afuture event, when we are powerless over a givennarrative. The classic case of this is when we areonlookers of a film or a play. We have a desire tointervene but no possibility to do so.”

Brewer and Lichtenstein’s approach (1982)Meta-effects of narrative : R. DOUST – p.4

Is suspense a unified concept ?

...



Our working assumption: Yes.



Our working assumption: Yes.

Our starting point = list of verbally resumed

story events. Recent studies by Speer et al.

(2007) claim that people break narratives

down into digestible chunks in this way.

Can we discover (or uncover) narrative

commonalities across different media ?



Psychological theory of narrative

3 major structures account for storyenjoyment: surprise, curiosity and suspense.

Suspense: an initiating event which couldlead to significant consequences for acharacter in the narrative.

‘additional discourse material is placedbetween the initiating event and the outcomeevent, to encourage the build-up of suspense’


The link to existing research

Can we make the Brewer’s notions of narrativeunderstanding robust ?

How does placing additional material betweeninitiating and outcome events increase thesuspense felt in a given narrative ?


The link to existing research

Can we make the Brewer’s notions of narrativeunderstanding robust ?

How does placing additional material betweeninitiating and outcome events increase thesuspense felt in a given narrative ?

Can curiosity and surprise be formally linkedto suspense to provide a theory of narrativeenjoyment ?


Some theoretical contributions

Definition of a Storybase - used forgenerating highly similar stories

An argument in favour of the‘conflicting predictions’ idea of suspense

First steps towards a general typology ofsuspense phenomena

First phase : to model intuitive notions of sus-

pensefulness over a few basic stories, verifying

the results on a sample of readers.


System components

STORYBASE generates a particular story

INFERENCE a set of inferences triggered at eachstory step

SUSPENSE HEURISTIC at each story step, wecalculate the new suspense level


Storybase

Starting and Stopping points - all the events allowedto play the role of first or last event in thestory.

Event links - possible next steps for eachcharacter in the story

Causal constraints - constrain the choice of eventsgiven by the event links - can be positive ornegative.


A short example: The Park scene



start,



start,

"walker goes to pathA",



start,


"strangeman sees walker at pathA",



start,



"strangeman hides behind bush",



start,




"walker goes to pathB",



start,





"walker goes to pathC",



start,





"walker goes to pathC",

"strangeman prepares to jump out ofbush"...


Inference

1. Inference of basic events from sensory input.(A perceived action in the narrative together with an ‘event classifier module’

produces a list of ordered events)

2. Inferences about the current state of the story (ordeductions)

3. Inferences about the future state of the story (orpredictions)


Storysofar: Visualisation

1

strangeman_in_park global_story_suspense_level__10

2 suspense__0at__1

walker_in_park

walker_doesnt_want_to_be_surprised 3 suspense__0at__2

people_in_parks_dont_want_to_be_surprised

the_bush_is_near_pathC

4 suspense__0at__3

strangeman_wants_to_surprise_walker_when_she_goes_to_pathC

walker_goes_to_pathA

walker_is_walking_along_pathABCD

walker_goes_to_pathB

5suspense__0at__4

walker_goes_to_pathC

walker_goes_to_pathD

people_walk_along_paths

7 suspense__0at__6

8 suspense__0at__7

strangeman_surprises_walker_when_she_goes_to_pathC

salience_10

strangeman_watches_walker_at_pathA

strangeman_is_interested_in_walker6suspense__0at__5

strangeman_wants_to_surprise_walker_by_jumping_out_of_bush

people_watch_people_they_are_interested_in

strangeman_hides_behind_bush

strangeman_wants_to_surprise_someone_by_jumping_out_of_bush9suspense__5at__8

people_who_hide_want_to_surprise_others

strangeman_jumps_out_of_bush

strangeman_surprises_walker_when_she_goes_to_pathCwalker_goes_to_pathD10

strangeman_prepares_to_jump_out_of_bush

strangeman_wants_to_jump_out_of_bush_in_a_few_seconds10suspense__5at__9

people_prepare_to_do_things_they_are_just_about_to_do


‘Time-distributed salience’

Salience of a prediction-conflict is ‘spreadover’ or distributed over the relevantpredictions that lead up to it.

All events which could have a bearing on anyof the predictions in the chain become for thisreason subject to extra attention.


The Park scene: Suspense= 0

start

walker in park

walker goes to pathA

strangeman in park

strangeman watches walker at pathA

strangeman hides behind bush

strangeman prepares to jump out of bush

walker goes to pathB

walker goes to pathC

strangeman jumps out and attacks walker at pathC

stop


The Park scene: Suspense=10

start

walker in park


strangeman in park






the bush is near pathC


stop



start

walker in park


strangeman in park








stop



start

strangeman in park

walker in park









stop


Definition of suspense

The suspense level of a narrative depends onthe salience of predicted conflicts between two ormore possible outcomes and on the amount ofstory time that these predicted conflicts remainunresolved and ‘active’.


Two verifiable predictions

1. Suspense will increase as the number ofpredictions leading up to the conflict waitingto be confirmed decreases

2. A narrative can maximise suspense bykeeping ‘active’ predicted incompatibilitieswith high salience over several story steps.


Suspenseful narratives

Suspenseful narratives engineer a spreading of

the salience of key moments backwards in time,

thus maintaining a kind of tension over sufficiently

long periods for emotional effects to build up in the

spectator.


Towards a typology of suspense

First-order suspense A mugger waiting for a walkerto reach a certain point on a path in a park

First-order suspense A plain-clothes policemanwho is looking for someone in a park

Second-order suspense Will the policeman find themugger before the mugger attacks the walker?!

Most suspenseful films or novels rely heavily ona large number of possible predicted outcomesbeing ’active’ at any one time. . .


Film plot summaries

Rad Decision: A Novel of Nuclear PowerIn 1970, the Fairview Nuclear Power Station is under construction near Brixton, Indiana.A young engineer named Steve Borden is there. Meanwhile, a Russian named VitalyKruchinkin leaves his beloved wife and becomes an undercover KGB spy in the UnitedStates. Steve Borden eventually becomes plant manager at Fairview Station. The plantalso employs KGB agent Vitaly Kruchinkin, who is developing sabotage plans.Meanwhile, a Soviet mole has tipped off the U.S. about a spy working at an Americannuclear plant, and the FBI begins to investigate. Then, soon after the horrific events atChernobyl, Vitaly Kruchinkin is ordered to sabotage Fairview Station. He is told to makeit look like an accident. FBI Agent Liz Rezhnitsky has learned of the sabotage ordersand is closing in, but soon Steve Borden finds himself battling a crisis which could lead toa reactor meltdown.


Arts/Science

Goal: to create a performance piece in atheatrical setting which...

uses and extends some of the basic ideas ofthe theory.

could also result in a published article,perhaps in two different domains.


Thankyou for your...


Thankyou for your...

attention !

[email protected]


presentation r. doust 2

Technology

narrative structures

given narrative

linkedto suspense

scientic literaturegerrig

theory of narrativeenjoyment

hitchcock lm

lively texts

outcome events