Mood modulates attention in film viewing: an eye tracking study

Dynamic visual media has increasingly become an integral part of our everyday lives. Film is the best carrier to explore dynamic media. How to attract audiences’ attention and improve their experience has always been a core concern. Whether emotional state influence visual attention is still an issue to be discussed. In the present study, we combined two methods, eye tracking methodology and a standardized questionnaire, to explore how audiences’ emotional state influences visual attention during film viewing. The results showed that the audiences have fixation synchrony most of the time during film viewing and pre-negative affect and pre-positive affect significantly influenced visual attention during film viewing. Our research provides a broader perspective for understanding film cognition and film experience.