Psychocinematics

"This volume brings together many of the major figures in cognitive film theory, philosophy of film, and the latest from psychologists working on perception and emotion. Shimamura (Univ. of California, Berkeley) has compiled a collection of essays that aims to dislodge ruling paradigms in film study and bring together diverse scientific approaches to the movie experience... Summing Up: Recommended." -- S.R. Kozloff, Vassar College, CHOICE "Edited by Arthur P. Shimamura, a psychology professor at the University of California at Berkeley, Psychocinematics is a breakthrough text in many ways. First, it is one of the first books to combine essays on film from experts in the fields of both psychology and cinema studies-important because most studies of film perception tend to come from either one perspective or the other. Second, it integrates many early texts on film art and perception, ... Psychocinematics is a heroic start at bringing the worlds of psychology and cinema-too long estranged from one another-back together." -- PsycCRITIQUES "The recently published book Psychocinematics: Exploring Cognition at The Movies is a good introductory guide to psychocinematics [...] Those readers new to the field of psychocinematics will find the historic perspective, and the review of the current research, interesting and informative. Also, for those already working within the field, the many novel research directions outlined by this book will doubtless be inspirational. At the price of $71.50/£52.00, Psychocinematics: Exploring Cognition at the Movies offers good value for money with content spanning over 350 pages. In addition, the impressive range of references." --Stephen Hinde School of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol "Psychocinematics: Exploring Cognition at the Movies represents something of a milestone for cognitive film theory and will be essential reading for anyone active in the research program. [... I]n a collection of high quality chapters by leading researchers, Psychocinematics presents a concise overview of some of cognitive film theory's achievements [...] and offers a bold suggestion for how it might proceed in the future. It is also a fascinating and provocative read-fascinating in terms of the questions and topics addressed by individual contributors and provocative in terms of the book's broader vision of a scientifically based investigation of the film experience. Psychocinematics is a splendid realization of cognitive theorists' aspirations for a truly interdisciplinary, empirically grounded approach to studying the film experience." -Ted Nannicelli, Projections