Memory for visual narratives was examined as a function of cinematic structure. Four visual narratives were constructed, with each narrative taking place within a single location and presenting an interaction between two main characters. Two separate experiments examined the influence of establishing shots and directional continuity on subjects' memory for the depicted events. In a 2 × 2 design, the narratives began with or without an establishing shot and preserved or violated directional continuity. Experiment 1 showed that subjects can accurately recognize the flow of action in visual narratives, even without establishing shots, as long as directional continuity is preserved, but that establishing shots allow the viewer to construct a comprehensive representation of spatial layout. Experiment 2 introduced a reconstruction task to assess memory for the narratives, showing not only that directional continuity provided a framework for establishing spatial coherence but that this spatial framework enhanced subjects' ability to remember the depicted activities in the appropriate sequence. In general, these experiments identified two important psychological principles for restructuring real-world activities into coherent filmed sequences.

In experiment 1, individually housed rats subjected to short‐term food restriction displayed more territorial aggression toward conspecific intruders than controls maintained on a free‐feeding diet. In experiment 2, small groups of three adult male rats had access to either a standard laboratory diet or the standard diet plus sucrose. Groups with the sucrose supplement were significantly less aggressive toward intruders than controls. Sucrose availability did not produce appreciable gains in body weight but it did reliably decrease within‐colony weight variation. The results suggest the existence of an effective dietary mechanism that enables a social species such as Rattus norvegicus to tolerate each other in dense feeding aggregations when food is abundant. Conversely, when food is limited, social intolerance increases and serves to limit the development of large feeding groups.