Alumna and Faculty Researchers Study Film Interpretation and Response

Valeria Draine, Dr. Lingfei Luan to present findings at SCSMI 2025 in Canada 

Every year, alumna Valeria Draine (’24) watches the 1993 horror cult-classic “The Leprechaun,” with her family — a tradition from her childhood in Shelbyville, Tennessee. Those nights, consisting of dim lighting and cheap thrills, inspired an early love for film and eventually led to her research project at Belmont: how do movies directly affect viewers, emotionally and physically? 

Meanwhile, Assistant Professor of Psychology Dr. Lingfei Luan was developing a tool at Belmont that visually maps social networks formed by television and film characters through their interactions. 

Both Draine and Luan have been invited to present their findings at this summer’s prestigious Society for Cognitive Studies for the Moving Image Conference (SCSMI). 

For Luan, presenting at such an event is nothing new. For Draine, it marks her first research presentation off Belmont’s campus — an opportunity Luan has helped her prepare for.

A Physiological Response to Film 

Draine’s research project, “The Heart of Film,” began in Luan’s physiological psychology class where students learn to use specialized equipment to measure biological responses. Alongside classmates Emily Norviel, Olivia Mee and Christina Range, Draine designed an experiment examining how horror, comedy and action films affect viewers differently. 

“We gathered 35 participants and tested their heart rates before and after showing them two-minute clips from each genre,” said Draine. “Additional data on caffeine consumption and exercise levels were collected to control for potential confounds, and we analyzed the heart rate changes to compare physiological responses across genres and genders.” 

Her results aligned with cognitive film theory, suggesting that different genres engage viewers in distinct emotional and physiological ways. 

Action films caused the most significant heart rate increases across all participants, while horror films particularly affected female viewers. Comedy had minimal physiological impact, suggesting viewers remained in a more relaxed state. 

Luan was so impressed with the group’s work that she encouraged Draine to submit her findings to SCSMI. 

“The quality and depth of her research were outstanding,” said Luan. “She examined how a film’s editing style can guide an audience’s attention and understanding of the story, and she handled it with a level of rigor you’d expect from a graduate student. Her paper stood out because it was innovative, well-researched and communicated in a way that anyone in a diverse conference audience could appreciate.” 

Mapping How We Piece Together Films 

Luan joined the College of Sciences and Mathematics (CSM) faculty in 2024 with a background spanning film production, film studies, communication and neuroscience. She recently drew from this interdisciplinary expertise, creating a tool that offers insights into how audiences view characters on screen based on their interactions with one another throughout a television show or film’s run time. 

The Character Interaction Graph Analyzer creates a visual representation of each character’s social network based off the program’s screenplay. Researchers are then able to analyze the created network with the audience in mind:  

• Based on how much time character A spends with character B, how much stock does the audience put in their emotional relationship?  

• Who would audiences most likely side with in an argument?  

• How crucial is character B to the overall narrative of the program? 

“I’ve been drawing on cognitive psychology research about memory and perception and combining that with film theory and analysis,” said Luan. “If we understand how viewers process complex narratives, creators can craft films that are innovative and still clear for audiences. I also hope I can show how cognitive science principles apply to film, and vice versa, to encourage more collaboration between the arts and sciences.” 

From Classroom to Conference 

Both researchers will present their work at SCSMI in Edmonton, Canada this June — an interdisciplinary conference dedicated to examining film and moving areas through the eyes of different studies. 

2025 marks the first year in which the conference is accepting undergraduate work, a milestone for students like Draine. 

Although originally submitted as a poster presentation, SCSMI accepted Draine’s submission as an oral presentation — a decision the conference typically reserves for research studies it feels are of top-quality. 

Draine credits her professor’s mentorship in preparing her for submission. 

"Dr. Luan helped me structure the proposal, which was great because it was obviously accepted," Draine said. "She told me, 'You are going to get in — we're not going to leave any room for you not getting in.’" 

Similarly, Luan also praised her colleagues for their incessant support of her work and comradery in her first year at Belmont. 

“I could not have done it without our Department Chair Dr. Patrick Morse, Kay Vance, the support of our Dean Dr. Thom Spence and everyone else — they make science and these types of opportunities so accessible to our students,” she said.

Belmont's Research Advantage 

Draine and Luan exemplify how Belmont’s approach to undergraduate research sets students apart. 

"The way Belmont has their psych department structured — I don't know of any other university that has it structured like that," said Draine. "You usually don't have research experience until you go into a grad program. Belmont starts you off within the first couple of years — you're taking upper-level labs where you conduct a full-on study." 

Luan agreed, mentioning how dedicated CSM is to providing its students with opportunities that she has not seen other colleges demonstrate. 

“One of the reasons I wanted to join this community is because of how we are able to help our students with things like submitting proposals to conferences,” she said. “I didn’t have that in my master’s program — I had to figure it out on my own. And we also carry so many costs for these opportunities that I don’t see other universities carrying.” 

For Draine, now working as a neuro-diagnostic technician at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital, relationships she formed with professors such as Luan helped pave the way for a career in medical psychology. 

"I really appreciated my time at Belmont because you get to create such close relationships with your professors," Draine reflects. "They're very personal, very dedicated. They care about their students.”