The role of visual perception in narrative scene construction

Abstract

Previous research suggests that imagery processes grounded in visual experience are crucial for narrative comprehension, particularly for creating mental models of story events. Visual impairments offer a unique lens to explore this issue, but research is limited. This pilot study investigates the role of visual perception in narrative processing by comparing 20 children with varying visual impairments to 20 sighted peers. Participants listened to stories in either an auditory format or a multisensory condition. Comprehension was assessed via story retellings, analyzing micro- (narrative length, syntactic complexity) and macro-linguistic features (core story details, situational dimensions, internal states). Results show that visually impaired children matched sighted peers in identifying core story elements and internal states but exhibited reduced structural language and difficulty constructing coherent event and scene representations. These findings suggest that visual experience supports critical aspects of narrative processing, which are not fully compensated by alternative mechanisms.