Here is the last piece of my literature review for my research. It’s a little thin right now, but I think it communicates the ideas I’m getting at. I’m not a memory expert, so I had to rely on the information the journal articles I read gave me. Enjoy!
A discussion centered on memory and ludo-narrative dissonance is emerging in video games journalism. The question of whether cut scenes (a portion of a video game that presents the player with a cinematic sequence, of which the player has no control) impact the way we remember gaming experiences is being raised in games journalism (Ingram 2010) (Reisinger 2008) (Westbrook 2011). A cut scene takes control away from the player, potentially invalidating their agency. Cut scenes can contribute to ludo-narrative dissonance in a negative way, taking the player out of an immersive experience and exposing them to a narrative that can feel foreign to the rest of their game experience.
Similar experiences that are comparable to video games
According to a Standley, our memories of narratives and music are remembered differently; music memories are tied to emotions while narrative memories are tied to specific authors or books (Standley 2008). This may be analogous to the ludic and narrative elements in video games, in that the ludic elements may be similar to music, while the narrative elements may be similar to stories.
An experience which also may be similar to an immersive gaming session is viewing films with subtitles, because reading subtitles engages the viewer in a separate cognitive interactive action. A study done on subtitled films showed that films with subtitles that were in the same language as the dialog lead to higher comprehension, while films with subtitles in a different language than the dialog (with the viewers being proficient in both languages) lead to lower comprehension (Hayati and Mohmedi 2011). This may mean that a game with a complementary relationship between the ludic and narrative elements provides a better platform for storytelling than a game with a high ludo-narrative dissonance.
Memory
In a study done by Wolfe and Woodwyk, learning was more effective from expository texts than narrative texts (Wolfe and Woodwyk 2010). This may suggest that a story gets in the way of learning, while presenting raw information may be better for learning. However, this was framed in the context of whether readers were reading for entertainment or for knowledge. Reading for knowledge provided greater retention than reading for entertainment. This may have an effect on how gamers remember a game experience, because gaming it is most often done for entertainment. However, there are some that say the reason we play video games is to learn ((Tamalasca 2008) (Peck 2008). One study suggests that quality of the narrative determines how well it is remembered (Kulfosky, Wang and Ceci 2008). Biazak et.al. found that with preschool children, activities tied to the narrative did not result in higher memory of the narrative passages (Biazak, Marley and Levin 2010). Multitasking has showed to have a negative effect on memory performance (Glenn 2010)
