More recently, I examine the way movies drive our sensory, conceptual, and emotional processes. I am interested in the uniquely human ability to project ourselves into a story narrative. Narrative transportation is the term that describes the feeling when we become lost in a story whether it is through written literature, film, or live theater. In one research paper, we examined how research subjects neglected their task instructions as they became immersed in an Alfred Hitchcock film scene by scene.
Cohen A-L, Shavalian E, & Rube M (2015) The power of the picture: How narrative film captures attention and disrupts goal pursuit. PLoS ONE 10(12): e0144493. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0144493 (link)