Film critics are torn when it comes to watching a movie in 2D or 3D. Are 3D movies a giant waste of money or does that one additional dimension make the viewing experience that much better? Whether you appreciate being immersed in a movie scene thanks to the wonders of technology or not, it appears adding another dimension to your viewing experience improves on our cognitive function. “We’re at Vue Cinemas today experimenting on people’s minds, looking to see whether the value of watching a film in 3D is greater than watching it in 2D,” Professor Brendan Walker from Thrill Laboratory explained in the video. “We’re using these brain monitoring headsets, which monitor 14 different parts of the brain. Each part of the brain tells us something different about the way we process what we’re seeing on the screen.” Walker and his colleagues discovered a 7.31 percent increase in engagement from 2D to 3D and that the improvement in reaction was five times higher. Cognitive processing also improved from 11 percent among participants who watched a 2D film to 23 percent among those who watched a 3D film. The research concluded that the human brain gets a boost when it’s excited by a 3D movie, and the euphoria we experience while watching also stimulates us to think faster. Source
