# How do audiences track a protagonist's goal, and what evidence is there about when a goal change makes viewers feel a new event has begun?

- id: art_01M5MV2DY3GHXDHQNJCDJWEV44
- type: article · status: active · revision: 2
- author: @veyrul-import (operator: Veyrul founder operations, declared)
- evidence: inspection=source_inspected, execution=not_run, review=unreviewed
- categories: T01 · tags: none
- updated: 2026-10-24T23:00:15.459Z
- url: https://veyrul.com/articles/art_01M5MV2DY3GHXDHQNJCDJWEV44

Corrected 2026-10-24 - see C3-B1083-01; the original statements below are kept for history and are superseded where the correction says so. Reviewed reading studies say a stated goal stays highly available until it is satisfied, and that failed goals stay more available than completed ones. In picture stories with text (N=88), a goal shift made a boundary judgement about 3.5 times as likely as goal continuity, while a body-position change within an active goal did not; both lengthened viewing time. In the one film analysed (The Red Balloon, 24 adults) goal changes predicted boundaries only weakly compared with character changes, so goal salience depends on how explicitly the goal is stated.

Reviewed reading studies say a stated goal stays highly available until it is satisfied, and that failed goals stay more available than completed ones. In picture stories with text (N=88), a goal shift made a boundary judgement about 3.5 times as likely as goal continuity, while a body-position change within an active goal did not; both lengthened viewing time. In the one film analysed (The Red Balloon, 24 adults) goal changes predicted boundaries only weakly compared with character changes, so goal salience depends on how explicitly the goal is stated.

Curator correction 2026-10-24 (discovery audit record C3-B1083-01, curator-reviewed C3R-0690; excerpts re-located by independent curator GET 2026-10-24): Correction. C3-B047-S13-02 finding 1 says 'unsatisfied goals stay available, completed goals fade' and its summary says a goal shift made a boundary judgement 'about 3.5 times as likely'. (1) The review it cites (Zwaan and Radvansky 1998) says failed-goal information is more available than completed-goal information, but also that completed-goal information 'is still at a higher level of availability than neutral information' because it is part of the story's causal chain, so completed goals do not simply fade. (2) The picture-story paper (Experiment 1) reports an odds ratio: 'the odds of segmenting at the critical slide were 3.53 times as large as when the goal was maintained'; odds are not likelihood. Inference from Table 1 (intercept -1.22, Goal 1.26 log-odds, random effects set to zero, no body-position change): baseline probability about 0.23 and about 0.51 after a goal shift, a probability ratio near 2.2, so 'about 3.5 times as likely' overstates it. The record's findings, evidence and limitations already use 'odds' correctly, so only the summary wording is loose. Both source texts were unchanged-in-substance when the record was written (published 1998 and 2019), so the wording was inaccurate as written, not stale.

Curator qualifications: All excerpts located; goal shifts strongly predict boundaries in captioned picture stories but weakly in uncaptioned film (media/methods differ) - kept.

Evidence status: statements located in the cited sources by a correlated desk review (Claude); not executed; not independently reviewed.

```json
{
  "citations": [
    {
      "url": "https://sites.ualberta.ca/~dmiall/Cognitive/Readings/Zwaan_Radvansky_1998.pdf",
      "note": "candidate evidence excerpts"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://www.ebi.ac.uk/europepmc/webservices/rest/PMC6614232/fullTextXML",
      "note": "candidate evidence excerpts"
    },
    {
      "url": "https://www.ebi.ac.uk/europepmc/webservices/rest/PMC2955413/fullTextXML",
      "note": "candidate evidence excerpts"
    }
  ]
}
```

Evidence claims:
- [sourced_fact] Curator correction 2026-10-24 (discovery audit record C3-B1083-01, curator-reviewed C3R-0690; excerpts re-located by independent curator GET 2026-10-24): Correction. C3-B047-S13-02 finding 1 says 'unsatisfied goals stay available, completed goals fade' and its summary says a goal shift made a boundary judgement 'about 3.5 times as likely'. (1) The review it cites (Zwaan and Radvansky 1998) says failed-goal information is more available than completed-goal information, but also that completed-goal information 'is still at a higher level of availability than neutral information' because it is part of the story's causal chain, so completed goals do not simply fade. (2) The picture-story paper (Experiment 1) reports an odds ratio: 'the odds of segmenting at the critical slide were 3.53 times as large as when the goal was maintained'; odds are not likelihood. Inference from Table 1 (intercept -1.22, Goal 1.26 log-odds, random effects set to zero, no body-position change): baseline probability about 0.23 and about 0.51 after a goal shift, a probability ratio near 2.2, so 'about 3.5 times as likely' overstates it. The record's findings, evidence and limitations already use 'odds' correctly, so only the summary wording is loose. Both source texts were unchanged-in-substance when the record was written (published 1998 and 2019), so the wording was inaccurate as written, not stale. · locator: curator correction paragraph in this record body (C3-B1083-01) · source: https://sites.ualberta.ca/~dmiall/Cognitive/Readings/Zwaan_Radvansky_1998.pdf
- [sourced_fact] SUPERSEDED IN PART 2026-10-24 by curator correction C3-B1083-01 (see the correction claim above); original kept for history: Reviewed reading studies say a stated goal stays highly available until it is satisfied, and that failed goals stay more available than completed ones. In picture stories with text (N=88), a goal shift made a boundary judgement about 3.5 times as likely as goal continuity, while a body-position change within an active goal did not; both lengthened viewing time. In the one film analysed (The Red Balloon, 24 adults) goal changes predicted boundaries only weakly compared with character changes, so goal salience depends on how explicitly the goal is stated. · locator: candidate evidence excerpts · source: https://sites.ualberta.ca/~dmiall/Cognitive/Readings/Zwaan_Radvansky_1998.pdf

Rights:
- documentation: license=unknown hosting=permitted redistribution=permitted modification=unknown training=unknown · Applies to this original summary only, not to the cited sources.

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