Mental Simulation

Simulation is often conceived in cognitive-scientific terms: one's own behavior control system is employed as a manipulable model of other such systems. The system is first taken off-line, so that the output is not actual behavior but only predictions or anticipations of behavior, and inputs and system parameters are accordingly not limited to those that would regulate one's own behavior. Many proponents hold that, because one human behavior control system is being used to model others, general information about such systems is unnecessary. The simulation is thus said to be process-driven rather than theory-driven (Goldman, A.).

In the areas of Empirical Investigation, may have relevance to the debate quetions, like:

Does film narrative create emotional and motivational effects by the same processes that create them in real-life situations?

What do I really want?
What questions do i have?
What am i trying to argument?
How do I give support to my questions and arguments?

Learning Theories

The basic distinction in constructivism is that while behaviorists view knowledge as something that happens in response to external factors, and cognitivists view knowledge as abstract symbolic representations inside the learner's head, constructivists view knowledge as constructed internally by each individual

In Cognitive theories knowledge is viewed as symbolic, mental constructions in the minds of individuals, and learning becomes the process of comitting these symbolic representations to memory where they may be processed.

Cognitive theories emerged as a new perspective employing "information-processing ideas" rather than the behavioristic assumptions that the learner is determined by his environments and so passively adapts to the circumstances

What is Cognitive Science?

The science of cognition

. how we perceive
. how we learn, think and reason
. how we (plan to) speak, act etc.
. of what is involved in mapping sensory input to motor output
. that is, of what the brain does

The investigation of the brain

both structure and function! in order to find out how the brain does what it does

The study of the 'wheels of the mind'

. viewing 'what the brain does' as computation or information processing
. modelling the functions of the mind as aspects of information processing systems

Cognitive(medical definition): Pertaining to the mental process of thought, including perception, reasoning, intuition and memory

Pattern language process in

Individual learning styles
Just-in-time
Simulation
Tutorial
Assessment

Intrapersonal skills
Brain-based learning
Cognitive psychology
Emotional Intelligence
Self-motivation
Mood management
Self-awareness

Emotional intelligence, Daniel Goleman

"...in navigating our lives, it is our fears and envies, our rages and depressions, our worries and anxieties that steer us day to day. Even the most academically brilliant among us are vulnerable to being undone by unruly emotions. The price we pay for emotional literacy is in failed marriages and troubled families, in stunted social and work lives, in deteriorating physical health and mental anguish and, as a society, in tragedies such as killings..." Daniel Goleman, 1994 

The five characteristics: 

Self-awareness--knowing your emotions, recognizing feelings as they occur, and discriminating between them 

Mood management--handling feelings so they're relevant to the current situation and you react appropriately 

Self-motivation--"gathering up" your feelings and directing yourself towards a goal, despite self-doubt, inertia, and impulsiveness 

Empathy--recognizing feelings in others and tuning into their verbal and nonverbal cues 

Managing relationships--handling interpersonal interaction, conflict resolution, and negotiations

More at Wikipedia.

Constructivism is a philosophy of learning founded on the premise that, by reflecting on our experiences, we construct our own understanding of the world we live in. Each of us generates our own "rules" and "mental models," which we use to make sense of our experiences. Learning, therefore, is simply the process of adjusting our mental models to accommodate new experiences

Roland Barthes "Introduction to the Structural Analysis of Narratives"

narration (top level)
narrative communication
narrative situation

actions (middle level)

functions (bottom level)
functions (relate to the same level)
cardinal functions (nuclei) (important for the narrative)
catalysers (complementary)
indices (relate across levels)
indices (relate to character, feeling, atmosphere, philosophy)
informants (identifies, locates in space and time)

Baudrillard Simulacrum

Whereas representation tries to absorb simulation by interpreting it as false representation, simulation envelops the edifice of representation as itself a simulacrum. 

The image phases are: 

1. It is the reflection of a basic reality. 
2. It masks and perverts a basic reality. 
3. It masks the absence of a basic reality. 
4. It bears no relation to any reality whatever: it is its own pure simulacrum.

Aristotle

Art imitates reality.

Art is a mirror reflecting reality

Immersion Communication

Immersion occurs with the collapse of the medium and the message. The user at that point is unable to make the distinction between them.

Entertainment Film have numerous types of sterotypes inside their structure and their messages.

Discourse from hollywood doesn't change so often. The no variation is a good weapon to drive audiences. Entertainment spectator always knows the discourse he'll find inside the theater.

About the stories, we have a similar situation, we pick 4 or 5 themes for a season, and lets ride that wave. Is a bit like in marketing theory of the FIVE ones. People always remembers the 5 brands of a type of product. The marketeer job, is to include his brand into this range. So the same happens in stories of hollywood, we have for example: teenage suspense, teenage comedy, teenage drama, teenage action and classic thirties drama.

The only thing spectator doesn't know, is what is going to happens next

Gérard Genette in "Discours du Récit"

Discourse - is the text that you read. (the film that you see)
Story - is the events and conflict in narrative fiction.
Narration - how a text is written and communicated. (how a movie is filmed)


"Story and Discourse" by Seymour Chatman

«Film shows us an illusory real world that resembles to the point of confusion the world we know ourselves, a world into wich we are free to peep for a couple of hours without participating.»

Chatman uses a duality of analyses, on which, story is the what and discourse is the way.

Film is a complex system of successive, encoded signs. (Metz, 1974)