Hugo Munsterberg’s Voluntary and Involuntary attention theory

University of Edinburgh

Title of work: Hugo Munsterberg’s Voluntary and Involuntary attention theory

Examination Number: B053931

Course Name: Film Theory 1

Word count: 1,558

* Word count is not applicable for students submitting poetry or writing for performance

Hugo Munsterberg’s Voluntary and Involuntary attention theory

Introduction

This essay discusses Hugo Munsterberg’s voluntary and involuntary attention theory and uses it in order to analyse a specific scene from within the film, The Passion of Joan of Arc ( Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928). Various publications are cited and discussed throughout this essay in order to establish and support the argument that Munsterberg’s voluntary and involuntary attention theory is relevant as well as applicable when analysing scenes from The Passion of Joan of Arc. This theoretical approach has been selected because it can be constantly demonstrated and applied throughout The Passion of Joan of Arc, specifically when referencing the films constant use of technical camera techniques such as the close- up. This essay concludes that The Passion of Joan of Arc contains a specific scene which has been technically created, manipulated and designed in order to receive involuntary attention from the viewer. Therefore, this specific theoretical approach to film study, applied by Munsterberg, is supported throughout this essay.

Main Body

The Passion of Joan of Arc is a silent French movie that depicts the trial and public execution of Joan of Arc. The film’s main protagonist and central figure Joan is adamant in her belief that god has assigned her a mission to drive the British Empire’s soldiers out of France. However, she is put on trial and threatened with death by execution by the courts judges if she does not confess that she is in fact working on behalf of the devil. The majority of the film is set throughout the duration of this trial, and it is here where we see the constant use of the close-up camera shot, as Joan is continuously questioned and interrogated by the court’s judges. First of all, it’s important to establish just what exactly Munsterberg’s theory of voluntary and involuntary attention is. There are various major psychological functions to be considered such as emotions, memory and imagination, attention, and perception of depth and movement. According to Munsterberg’s theory, the spectator is mentally active in each of these areas. The spectator is enabled to give movement and depth to static and flat pictures. The spectator also “creates meaning with the help of attention and memory processes, and also responds to screen images according to his/her's affective life”.(Nyyssonen 1998, online). However, the activity thesis also declares that the spectator should not always utilise the full potential of their mental ability in order to preserve and maintain an aesthetic attitude.

For example in the case of attention our active (voluntary) search for significant information is less important than involuntary attention, when the cues for shifting our points of interest 'come from without', i.e. from decisions made by the director of the film.(Nyyssonen 1998,online).

This shows that the director of a film can deliberately dictate the viewer’s attention depending on what technical decisions they decide to make, therefore causing involuntary attention within the viewer’s mind. Deciding to use a close-up shot with the camera would be deemed as causing involuntary attention within the viewer’s mind as the director would be influencing the viewer’s attention via an external source. If the director had not chosen to focus on a close-up shot, the viewer’s attention would not have been influenced. The term voluntary attention can be used when the mind deliberately choses to pay close attention to a particular object, and thus “we approach the impressions with an idea in our mind as to what we want to focus our attention on”. (Munsterberg, 1916, p.74). Munsterberg (1916) further states that with voluntary attention “we carry our personal interest, our own idea into the observation of the objects”. We fixate on a particular object or image and our mind blocks out anything else. “Our attention has chosen its aim beforehand, and we ignore all that does not fulfil this specific interest”. (Munsterberg, 1916.p.74). Involuntary attention on the other hand, is when the mind reacts and turns its attention to something, as for some reason it instinctively grabs our attention. In this scenario, the guiding influence comes from outside of the mind.

What is loud and shining and unusual attracts our involuntary attention. We must turn our mind to a place where an explosion occurs; we must read the glaring electric signs which flash up. (Munsterberg, 1916, p.75).

Within film, whatever comes closest to the camera comes to the foreground of the picture, therefore gaining “strongly in relative importance over its surroundings” (Munsterberg, 1916.p.81). This is made possible due to the fact that the camera only encompasses a relatively short breadth. However, simultaneously the frame may have a width that is miles wide in the distant landscape. An example of where film lends itself to Hugo Munsterberg’s voluntary and involuntary attention theory during a motion picture occurs frequently throughout The Passion of Joan of Arc. Most of the movie was filmed using the close-up camera technique, but it’s used extensively throughout the duration of the trial scene where Joan is examined by the court. In this scene, the close-up camera technique is extensively used. This draws involuntary attention out of the viewer, as the viewer’s attention is drawn directly to the faces of the various characters that are in the close-up shots that take place within the scene.

Fifty men are sitting in the same place all the time in this scene. Several hundred feet of film show nothing but big close-ups of heads, of faces. We move into the spiritual dimension of facial expression alone (Balasz, p.311).

Spectatorship is an implied theory that is used throughout most film theories. One theoretical approach to film studies which differs from Munsterberg’s theory of voluntary and involuntary attention is the reader response theory, also known as the reception theory.

Reception theory’s emphasis on filling in the gaps of the text that can be seen, in retrospect, is well suited to a medium like the cinema where the spectator is necessarily active.

Stuart Hall (1980), as summarised by Stam (2000), states that mass-media texts don’t have a universal meaning and can be interpreted and read differently by various people, “depending not only on their social location but also on their ideologies and desires”. This meant that the spectator was now seen more as active and critical with regards to their interactions and relationship with the text and no longer deemed as a passive object. This theory differs from Munsterberg’s approach to voluntary and involuntary attention, as it promotes the spectator’s ability to interpret text in their own way. In comparison, involuntary attention restricts us in our ability to interpret film in our own way as cues for shifting points of interest come from external forces

The Passion of Joan of Arc’s director Carl Theodor Dreyer does apply more than just the close-up technique with the use of the camera. On occasions the film intercuts static and moving camera shots in unusual patterns, and “avoids using classical techniques such as establishing and restabilising shots, matches on action, eye-line matches, and consistent screen direction” (Grace, 2009, p.126). These techniques and the subsequent use of them contradict the standard expectations that have been established by both filmmakers and the audience. Once again, this is another example of when Munsterberg’s involuntary attention theory can be used to analyse The Passion of Joan of Arc. The director’s constant use of non-traditional techniques provides an unfamiliar setting for the audience. These techniques culminate in uncertainty for the viewer, whose attention is left involuntary focused on factors such as the distortion in the eye-line level matches between Joan of Arc and several of the judges and priests. According to Grace (2009) “The close-ups and extreme close-ups continue, and the canted angles become more conspicuous.” (Grace 2009, p.125)

Conclusion

The original aim of this essay was to study and discuss Hugo Munsterberg’s voluntary and involuntary attention theory in detail, and looked to discuss this theory through analysing a specific scene from The Passion of Joan of Arc (Carl Theodor Dreyer, 1928).

After both discussing and citing the findings of various academic scholars with regard to this specific theoretical approach to film study, this essay concludes that Hugo Munsterberg’s involuntary attention theory can be applied when analysing scenes from within The Passion of Joan of Arc. After going into detail with regard to various camera techniques used by the director, such as the close-up, distortion on eye line matches and the lack of establishing and restabilising shots, it is clear that the particular trial scene from within the film was designed by the filmmakers to deliberately draw the audience’s attention. The numerous techniques displayed in the trial scene are a demonstration of how the viewer’s involuntary attention is constantly being challenged by the filmmakers.